Plastic Recycling Initiatives – Waste Plastic Used as Bus Fare in Indonesia

In Indonesia, commuters pay for the bus with plastic waste

via AsianCorrespondent.com

RESIDENTS of Indonesia’s second largest city Surabaya can now pay for the bus in a novel way – by trading in used plastic.

The city’s mayor Tri “Risma” Rismaharini last month announced the roll out of the new Suroboyo Bus, comfortable, air-conditioned buses which are, importantly, accessible for disabled, elderly and pregnant passengers.

Read the full story here: https://asiancorrespondent.com/2018/05/in-indonesia-commuters-pay-for-the-bus-with-plastic-waste/

 

Plastics Industry Association sets 100% waste diversion goal at NPE2018

via PlasticsToday.com

plastics industryThe Plastics Industry Association (PLASTICS; Washington, DC), producer of NPE2018, has announced a 100% waste diversion goal for next month’s event. The goal demonstrates the association’s commitment to sustainability and aims to exceed the 87% of waste that was diverted from the last NPE show in 2015.

Read the full story here: https://www.plasticstoday.com/recycling/plastics-industry-association-sets-100-waste-diversion-goal-npe2018/156770947358612

China’s Ban on Plastic Waste Imports

via The New York Times

Plastics Pile Up as China Refuses to Take the West’s Recycling

LONDON — Ever since China announced last year that it no longer wanted to be the “world’s garbage dump,” recycling about half of the globe’s plastics and paper products, Western nations have been puzzling over what to do when the ban went into effect, which it did on Jan. 1.

The answer, to date, in Britain at least, is nothing. At least one waste disposal site in London is already seeing a buildup of plastic recyclables and has had to pay to have some of it removed.

Read the full story here: https://nyti.ms/2Ezr1TE

 

 

 

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

 

plastic recycling company
Best Prices Paid for Plastic Scrap at Domino Plastics

 

Marine Plastic Pollution

Naturalist Attenborough makes dire warning of plastic pollution in world’s oceans

via CNBC

U.K. naturalist and broadcaster David Attenborough has warned of the dangers of plastic in the oceans after witnessing the damage it causes while filming a new wildlife series.

Attenborough said that during the recording of the BBC’s TV series “Blue Planet II” he saw countless examples of the negative effect of plastics, according to comments in the Guardian newspaper on Sunday.

Read the story here: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/16/attenborough-makes-plastic-pollution-warning-for-worlds-oceans.html

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Rubber & Plastics News

via Plastics News

Autonomous technology driving vehicle design

Troy, Mich. — Mobility always has been at the core of the automotive industry, and now it’s also about to rock that same core.

Autonomous vehicles are on the horizon. And even if that horizon is distant, the industry is preparing to design a new world where millions of people would gain access to the road if the technology can be brought to the mainstream.

Read the full story here: http://www.plasticsnews.com/article/20170724/NEWS/170729954/autonomous-technology-driving-vehicle-design#tagID_17

World’s plastic waste could bury Manhattan 2 miles deep

Waste Plastic is Soaring in Huge Numbers

via Chicago Sun Times.

WASHINGTON — Industry has made more than 9.1 billion tons of plastic since 1950 and there’s enough left over to bury Manhattan under more than two miles of trash, according to a new cradle-to-grave global study.

Read the full story here: http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/worlds-plastic-waste-could-bury-manhattan-2-miles-deep/

 

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Plastics Generation

via Newsweek

Humans have produced more than 9 billion tons of plastic throughout history, most of it ending up in landfills

The total is approximately 25,000 times the weight of the Empire State Building

Read the full story here: http://www.newsweek.com/plastic-production-pollution-9-billion-tons-recycling-639226

 

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