Discarded Face Masks Used to Improve Road Materials

via ThomasNet.com

According to a report in New Atlas, the masks are being utilized in a material called recycled concrete aggregate – or RCA – that’s mostly made up of processed building rubble. In this case, the “recipe” is being tweaked and 1% of the traditional RCA is being replaced with the non-woven layers of plastic found in shredded masks.

The scientists are not only able to find a use for the discarded masks that doesn’t involve a landfill or an incinerator, but they also provide a benefit: the end product, which still meets civil engineering standards for road base layers, has improved flexibility over previous formulas. And while a road that’s one percent mask doesn’t sound like it’s making a dent, think of it this way: the scientists say that if their material were used to build a two-way roadway that’s just one kilometer in length, it would divert about 3 million masks from the landfills.

Read the full story here: https://bit.ly/3qdLzIT

Landfills emerge as promising battery storage sites to back up renewable energy

via WasteDive.com

Solar panel installations have been one of the fastest-growing types of energy infrastructure in recent years and landfills have become fitting sites due to the sheer amount of land required. Now, for many of the same reasons, energy project developers are looking to landfills for a technology growing even faster than solar: battery storage.

Storage on landfills is still a novel idea, with closed sites seen as largely the most suitable, and only a few examples of these projects exist. But solar on landfills was in a similar position just a few years ago, Tim Ryan, director at New York-based developer BQ Energy, told Waste Dive. BQ Energy focuses specifically on brownfield sites and has built over a dozen solar or wind projects since 2012, but only recently began construction on its first storage venture. Solar on landfills “may seem routine now, but it wasn’t when we started,” Ryan said.

Read the full story here: https://www.wastedive.com/news/landfills-promising-sites-battery-storage-solar-renewable-energy/577898/

Can the Super Bowl go zero waste?

via National Geographic

TEN THOUSAND HOT dogs, 20,000 pounds of shrimp, 8,000 pounds of short ribs—and that’s only a portion of the food that will be made by the 2,500-strong culinary staff flying into Miami this weekend to prepare snacks for one of the nation’s biggest game days.

Super Bowl 54, this year played in Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium, will see the Kansas City Chiefs face off against the San Francisco 49ers. Nearly 100 million people watch the Super Bowl every year, in bars, at house parties, and for a lucky few, in the stadium, where tickets start at $4,000.

Read the full story here: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/01/super-bowl-54-zero-waste-miami/ https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/01/super-bowl-54-zero-waste-miami/

Sustainability: Biodegradable Mardi Gras Beads

via LSU.edu

LSU Biology Sciences Professor Develops Biodegradable Mardi Gras Beads from Microalgae

BATON ROUGE – Tens of thousands of pounds of plastic Mardi Gras beads enter the environment every year. After the parades, most of the discarded beads end up in the landfill. Biologist Naohiro Kato at LSU is developing an innovative way to solve this problem by creating biodegradable Mardi Gras beads.

Read the full story here: http://www.lsu.edu/mediacenter/news/2018/02/06bio_kato_beads.php

recycle plastic
Mardi Gras 2007 Trash Cleanup By William Gunn (originally posted to Flickr as Mardi Gras 2007) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
 

 

Growing Automotive Plastics Demand in Electric Vehicle Production

via Plastics News

Push for Electric Vehicles Means Plastics May Take Charge

Detroit — It should not be a shock to automotive suppliers that the plastics industry has an electric future.

By 2025, electric and hybrid electric vehicles could account for 33 percent of total vehicle production worldwide, according to data from IHS Markit Ltd., and suppliers are being tapped by OEMs to put different composites and materials into real-world vehicle applications.

Read the full story here: http://www.plasticsnews.com/article/20180206/NEWS/180209933/push-for-electric-vehicles-means-plastics-may-take-charge

automotive plastic manufacturing
By Mariordo (Mario Roberto Duran Ortiz) (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

MIT students fortify concrete by adding recycled plastic

via MIT NEWS

Adding bits of irradiated plastic water bottles could cut cement industry’s carbon emissions.

MIT undergraduate students have found that, by exposing plastic flakes to small, harmless doses of gamma radiation, then pulverizing the flakes into a fine powder, they can mix the plastic with cement paste to produce concrete that is up to 20 percent stronger than conventional concrete.

Read the full story here: http://news.mit.edu/2017/fortify-concrete-adding-recycled-plastic-1025

 

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