This short communication describes the climate change impacts of using cellulose, and more precisely cellulosic fiber-based materials, in food packaging, representing current and emerging industrial state of the art technology, without specific reference to current scientific advances. First, the different types of cellulosic fiber-based packaging materials, which can be used to replace fossil-based packaging materials, are presented for flexible and rigid applications. The focus is on technological solutions with packaging properties that enable the protection of commonly sold food products.
Although deployments of grid-scale stationary lithium ion battery energy storage systems are accelerating, the environmental impacts of this new infrastructure class are not well studied. To date, a small literature of environmental life cycle assessments (LCAs) and related studies has examined associated environmental impacts, but they rely on a variety of methods and system boundaries rather than a consistent approach.
Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have an established role in the consumer electronics markets with minimum risk of replacement from any other contender in the near future. The recent momentum towards electric vehicles and the renewable energy storage market is creating an increased demand for LIBs. The large amount of hazardous waste generated from the disposal of LIBs is driving research into a sustainable approach for LIB treatment and recovery. The positive electrode active materials being the main targeted component as it is the greatest cost contributor to LIBs production.
The development of mass-market electric vehicles (EVs) using lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) is helping to propel growth in LIB usage, but end-of-life strategies for LIBs are not well developed. An important aspect of waste LIB processing is the stabilisation of such high energy-density devices, and energy discharge is an obvious way to achieve this. Salt-water electrochemical discharge is often mentioned as the initial step in many LIB recycling studies, but the details of the process itself have not often been mentioned.
Identification of methodologies for recycling laminated glass, especially the interlayer film, and their contextualization within the glass recycling field implicated an extensive patent search. During the last decade the technology centre L'Urederra exploited a methodology for recycling the poly-vinyl-butyral to be reused as interlayer in windscreens. Subsequent rounds of patents selection were aimed at identifying equivalent or innovative methodologies.
A new threat now confronts the Amazon in the form of a massive infrastructure program, the Initiative for the Integration of the Regional Infrastructure of South America, or IIRSA. This article presents results of a projection analysis showing that IIRSA could push the Amazonian forest past a “tipping point,” replacing it with tropical savanna. Such an event would degrade biodiversity, reduce carbon storage, and harm continental agriculture, dependent on moisture transport from forest-based rainfall recycling.
Objective: Attention is drawn to the potential of global warming to influence the health and wellbeing of the human race. There is increasing public and governmental pressure on healthcare organisations to mitigate and adapt to the climate changes that are occurring. The science of anaesthetic agents such as nitrous oxide and the halogenated anaesthetic agents such as greenhouse gases and ozone-depleting agents is discussed and quantified. Additional environmental impacts of healthcare systems are explored.
PET is a ubiquitous material because of its robust properties. Today, less than 30% of PET bottles and few carpets are recycled in the United States, leading to the majority of PET being landfilled. The low PET reclamation rate is due to the fact that PET bottle recycling today is mechanical, resulting in a devalued product. Here, reclaimed PET (rPET) bottles are converted to fiberglass-reinforced plastics (FRPs), which sell for more than twice that of rPET. When monomers derivable from biomass are incorporated, rPET-FRPs with superior properties are achieved.
Lithium ion batteries (LIB) continue to gain market share in response to the increasing demand for electric vehicles, consumer electronics, and energy storage. The increased demand for LIB has highlighted potential problems in the supply chain of raw materials needed for their manufacture. Some critical metals used in LIB, namely lithium, cobalt, and graphite are scarce, are not currently mined in large quantities, or are mined in only a few countries whose trade policies could limit availability and impact prices.
An ability to separate battery electrode materials while preserving functional integrity is essential to close the loop of material use in lithium-ion batteries. However, a low-energy and low-cost separation system that selectively recovers electrode materials has not yet been established. In this study, froth flotation experiments were carried out with a variety of new and spent lithium-ion batteries using kerosene as the collector. The products were characterized using thermogravimetric and chemical analysis.
