Tag: Plastic

Lights on fishing nets reduce unwanted bycatch. But, once discarded, fishing nets endanger sea life. Enter a British startup, which aims to reuse old nets and reduce marine pollution. With the help of small investors, the English founder has developed a patented machine in a shipping container, which can shred and clean up to 20kg of old nylon nets...

A foam-based pressure bandage helps treat serious wounds. When bones break badly, medical practitioners often use metal plates or 3D-printed implants. Now, a research team in South Korea has developed an easy-to-use glue stick instead. The stick is made from biodegradable plastic, which melts at low temperatures, a phosphate mineral occurring naturally in bones and antibiotics. Using a modified...

Fish waste can be used to manufacture sustainable packaging. Though water hyacinth protects fish, the proliferous plant harms biodiversity and destroys fishing nets. Enter a Kenyan founder' startup with a sustainable solution. Fishermen collect the weed, earning money for each dried kilo. Fibres are then extracted and, in a patented process, turned into a plastic alternative using an organic...

Smart waste sorting leads to more efficient recycling. But currently it’s more expensive to make polyester or nylon reusable than to manufacture them from scratch. Enter a London-based startup which has been developing bioactive agents for cost-neutral recycling. An AI searches for new combinations of amino acids and proteins which could split plastics into their chemical components under low...

Cuts help tape stick better and sustainable glue is even stronger underwater. Now, an Austrian-based research team is looking to skip the adhesive stage with two patent-pending techniques for joining wood and other materials. For more complex objects, a polymer composite is applied directly onto wood using 3D-printing. The material flows into the wood pores, the wood fibres become...

Coffee grounds make for stronger cement. Other types of waste are increasingly popular too. (Using wine residue?) a Toronto-based startup is extracting nanocrystals from chitin, which is found in crab, shrimp and lobster shells. With a formula containing just 1% of chitin nanocrystal, the team has created a sustainable packaging film. A single-layer solution without chemical glue, it can...

Used, starch-based juice bottles dissolve in water. If only recycling printed circuit boards (PCBs) from plastic and glass fibre were as easy. Enter a US-based research team which has manufactured a PCB prototype using cutting-edge sustainable polymers known as vitrimers. When exposed to mild heat, their molecular compounds loosen so that tears or holes can be repaired. The team...

Sustainable food can be conjured out of thin air. Now a Hamburg-based startup has used CO2 to manufacture oil alternatives. CO2 is placed in a bioreactor with different bacteria and converted into oil. Using yeast makes the oil suitable for cosmetic or cleaning products; oxyhydrogen bacteria, meanwhile, means it can be used for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), lubricant or...