Just because you’ve passed away doesn’t mean you must stop helping the environment. A Swiss company Alento AG, a plastics processor that specializes in “enhanced wood plastic composites,” has come up with biodegradable urns. The article in Plastics Today quotes Herbert Perschl, managing partner and founder of Alento, who says the company has been working on [...]
Pacific Plastic Problem Looks Grim
July 26, 2011 By 1 Comment
News about the marine plastic problem isn’t very uplighfting these days. The first scientific results from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at University of California San Diego (UCSD) offer a bleak view of an area of the ocean that has been dubbed as the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch.” Peter Davison and Rebecca Asch with the Scripps [...]
1939 World Fair Plastic “Ghost Car” Up for Auction
July 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment
A Pontiac Deluxe Six, often called the “Ghost Car,” was a star attraction at the New York World Fair in 1939. It was covered in a plastic called Plexiglas, so that people could see the inner workings of a car. The Wall Street Journal reports the car will be auctioned July 30 at the RM [...]
Plastic-Producing Potato Sites Vandalized
July 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment
On the nights of July 9 and 11, masked attackers vandalized two experimental sites in Germany growing genetically modified wheat and potatoes. The potatoes were producing a raw material in plastic manufacturing. As Gretchen Vogel reports in ScienceInsider: Kerstin Schmidt, head of Biovativ, the company that owns the test plots in Gross Lüsewitz, told German [...]
Researcher Sets Record Straight on Biodegradable Plastics
July 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment
James Levis and Morton Barlaz at North Carolina State University (NCSU) had published a study a couple of months ago that analyzed the release of greenhouse gases by biodegradable plastics in landfills. Greenhouse gases contribute to climate change. Media outlets, including this blog, covered the research but with different, and often inaccurate, takes on it. [...]
“Not My Type,” Say Female Mice to Male Mice Exposed to BPA
July 14, 2011 By 1 Comment
The bisphenol A (BPA) controversy on whether or not it’s dangerous rears its head again. Science and health writer Eryn Brown at the Los Angeles Times reports on a recent study in mice and how exposure to the chemical may affect the sexual attractiveness of males to females. A team led by Cheryl Rosenfeld at [...]
Plastic Pollution and Other Factors Threaten Oceans
July 8, 2011 By 2 Comments
Plastic pollution, global warming, and overfishing are rapidly destroying marine life, reported Lisa Song of SolveClimate News from a recent meeting of the International Program on the State of the Ocean. This is the message that is getting louder as more experts voice their concerns about the conditions of the oceans. The meeting brought together [...]
DAK Americas Expands Polymer Business
June 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Senior Editor Alex Tullo of Chemical & Engineering News reports that the North Carolina-based DAK Americas, a subsidiary of the Mexican conglomerate ALFA, will buy the polyethylene terephthalate (PET) business of Wellman, Inc., for $185 million. Tullo reports: The business has a PET resin capacity of 950 million lb per year at its plant in [...]
Biodegradable Plastics Questioned
June 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Can we have it both ways: use plastic and save the environment at the same time? Biodegradable plastics, the kind that is supposed to break down in landfills and not languish forever as pollutants of land and sea, Â have been touted as the plastic you can use with a clear conscience. But can you? A [...]
All About Bioplastics: The 2011 BioPlastek Forum
June 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment
In The Chemical Notebook blog, Senior Editor Alex Tullo at Chemical & Engineering News, highlights the inaugural BioPlastek Forum, which will be held in New York City between June 27 and June 29. As Tullo points out, the event will be crammed with all things bioplastic with some pretty big-name headliners. The Coca-Cola and H.J. Heinz companies [...]
