The latest developments in materials, feedstocks and processes that are transforming the way many conventional products are made and packaged — and eliminating their negative impacts
Researchers at UC Berkeley have created a synthetic leaf that uses water, sunlight and carbon dioxide to make liquid fuels such as methane, butane and acetate — and releases oxygen into the air, The Los Angeles Times reports.Lead researcher on the project, Peidong Yang, plans to use a “genius” grant of $625,000 he recently received from the MacArthur Foundation to nurture the artificial leaf technology. Although it is still several years from being commercially viable, it could represent an important step on the road to creating a carbon-neutral and sustainable fuel system.
Target has improved its sustainable product standard by beginning to test category-specific criteria and consider more toxic chemicals. The retailer’s Sustainable Product Index evaluates products based on a points system and the highest-scoring options are promoted under its “Made to Matter” banner.
Today, Sealed Air, the packaging solutions company that brought you Bubble Wrap®, released its latest sustainability report. The report outlines new goals for 2020, including reducing operations intensity by 25 percent.
Keurig Green Mountain Inc. is making progress towards its goal of making all K-Cups recyclable by 2020. Following successful recycling research trials, the company has unveiled plans to transition the entire product line to polypropylene, according to Plastics News.
Package labels that clearly detail food product ingredients have become the norm, thanks in large part to demand from consumers who want to be able to make informed decisions about their purchases. But what about other information related to sustainability and how product packaging is sourced?Current product labels do not offer a sufficient or clear explanation of sourcing and sustainability information. We need to recognize, across all industries, that the materials used to develop the packaging of a product is equally as important as the ingredients that go inside a product. Consumers are demanding greater transparency and it is the responsibility of all of us, including manufacturers, regulators and third-party groups, to fulfill this obligation.
As the alternative protein market continues to grow and companies explore the viability of more sustainable sources such as heat-resistant beans and even crickets, microalgae has emerged as another nutritionally rich contender. Solazyme, California-based producer of renewable oil and bio-products, has gotten in on the action with a whole algae protein product now on US grocery shelves and many more partnerships in the works.
The University of Dusseldorf, the University of Reading and Mars, Incorporated have unveiled two new studies revealing that cocoa flavanols can help to keep our hearts healthy. Cocoa flavanols are nutrients found naturally in the cocoa bean.The research, published in the journals Age and the British Journal of Nutrition (BJN), shows that consuming cocoa flavanols can decrease arterial stiffness and increase blood vessel function in healthy people, helping to reduce the risk of heart disease — the number-one cause of deaths worldwide.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Unilever have announced a research collaboration to develop groundbreaking scientific approaches to better assess the safety of chemicals found in some consumer products without using animal data.The alternative approaches represent the first steps in a paradigm shift for chemical safety testing and risk assessment by making them faster, cheaper and more relevant to humans. These new tools will provide a robust scientific basis for assessing and managing chemical safety and efficiently quantifying human health risks for thousands of chemicals.
Climate impacts already cost billions in economic damage each year. Global drought losses are expected to surpass $8 billion in 2015 alone. A 2010 study by the National Centre for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) predicted that extreme drought will threaten large parts of the U.S., Central and South America, and Southern Europe by the 2030s.
The common viewIn times where concerns over depletion of non-renewable resources and climate change are drastically increasing, it seems easy to accept that bio-based products are without a doubt better than fuel-based products.
Plastic bottles are some of the worst offenders in packaging waste, but sales of bottled water continue to grow: U.S. bottled water volume apparently rose 7 percent last year.
We know from the emerging discipline of biomimicry that natural systems can stimulate sustainable designs for human use. Two recent innovations use trees for inspiration and materials in unconventional products that may revolutionize very different industries: large-scale metal production, and battery technology to suit cars and wearable devices.
Eighteen-year-old Perry Alagappan of Texas has created a renewable heavy metal filter capable of removing 99 percent of heavy metals from water that passes through it, The Guardian reports.This could be particularly useful in countries such as China and India, where recycling factories are recovering e-waste exported from around the world, but discharging heavy metals and chemicals into local water supplies in the process.
A cloud seems to be looming over the recycling industry today. No matter where you turn, the reigning attitude seems about the same — the future of recycling is in trouble.
A recent report from Transparency Market Research revealed that sustainability awareness is driving the demand for paper packaging. Paper is the largest material type in the packaging market and is growing, since it is both economically and environmentally appealing.Volatility in raw material prices, energy costs, and the global economy have significantly affected the global packaging market, motivating companies to develop recyclable and reusable packaging.
Seventh Generation, which makes eco-friendly household and personal care products, on Monday launched a new line of laundry and dishwasher detergents designed to save consumers energy and money, while also helping to protect and care for the environment.Each product in the so-called “Energy Smart” line is formulated with advanced enzyme technology to give the same performance in cold and hot or warm water. This allows consumers to clean dirty dishes and clothes effectively, the company says, all while using low energy settings on their washing machines and dishwashers.
TerraVerdae BioWorks, an industrial biotechnology company developing advanced bioplastics and environmentally sustainable biomaterials, announced Monday that it has successfully achieved key milestones for the commercial production for its line of Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA)-based biomaterials. These include 10,000-liter production runs of its line of biodegradable, natural microspheres for use in personal care and cosmetic products.
This week, researchers at George Washington University (GWU) unveiled a new method to convert carbon dioxide into nanoscale carbon fibers that may serve as valuable future building materials (think: aircrafts, fitness equipment and sports cars), as well as another potential weapon against climate change.The new technology captures airborne carbon dioxide and employs an electrochemical process to convert it to carbon nanofibers and oxygen. The method is more efficient and potentially significantly cheaper than existing methods, according to Stuart Licht, a professor of chemistry at GWU.
Conventional plastic — found just about everywhere you can think of and in many places you wouldn’t — is made from ethylene, a cheap hydrocarbon made using petroleum and natural gas – through a process that emits more carbon dioxide than any other chemical process. At the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), researchers have been experimenting with ways to make ethylene production less toxic to the environment, and are apparently finding success with the help of cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, according to ClimateWire.
The days of conventional concrete and carbon-intensive building materials are waning.