Our team consists of over 150 years of experience in so many industries, we’ve lost count. Read their takes on important conversations and topics below.
“Chicago-based straw maker turns to biodegradable, compostable solutions.”
Catherine Kavanaugh writing for Plastics News:
Smart Plastic Technologies LLC (SPT) says it has developed two products — an additive and a material — that cause plastic to rapidly degrade in response to businesses seeking alternatives to plastic straws, which may be used for only a matter of minutes yet litter land and waterways for eons.
“A growing movement against plastic straws is playing out in Chicago, and a South Side straw factory urgently seeking an environmentally friendly alternative.”
Robert Channick reporting for Chicago Tribune:
Best Diamond is working with Smart Plastic Technologies, an 8-year-old Knoxville, Tenn., company with a north suburban Wheeling facility that produces an additive to make plastic biodegradable. Approved by the Food and Drug Administration, the bioassimilation additive will make a plastic straw biodegrade within 18 months, said Tim Murtaugh, CEO of Smart Plastic. “It causes plastic to biodegrade like paper,” Murtaugh said. “The stuff works.”
A new international study by Unilever reveals that a third of consumers (33%) are now choosing to buy from brands they believe are doing social or environmental good.
Unilever:
The study identifies two probable reasons for consumers’ greater focus on sustainable purchasing in emerging economies compared to developed markets. First is direct exposure to the negative impact of unsustainable business practices, such as water and energy shortages, food poverty and poor air quality. And second is the power of social norms. So, while Brazilian, Indian and Turkish people feel pressure from their family, friends and even their children to buy greener, more socially responsible products, this sense of social scrutiny is currently less prevalent in the UK and US.
Read the full report over on Unilever’s blog post, Report shows a third of consumers prefer sustainable brands.
A diver who filmed a huge “slick” of plastic floating in clear waters in Indonesia said he has “never seen anything like this scale” of ocean pollution before.
Anna-Lena Janzen and Nick Kilvert writing for abc.net.au:
Murdoch University lead researcher Elitza Germanov said microplastics — particles smaller than five millimetres long — contain toxic chemicals that, if ingested, could alter biological processes in the animals, such as growth, development and reproduction. "We are still trying to understand the magnitude of the issue," Ms Germanov said. "Microplastic contamination has the potential to further reduce the population numbers of these species, many of which are long-lived and have few offspring throughout their lives."
Tests found water bottles were harbouring dangerous germs like E.coli.
While quenching your thirst after pounding the treadmill is a vital part of any workout, it turns out you could actually unwittingly make yourself sick.
Kate Pickles writing for Daily Mail:
Tests revealed thousands of moisture-loving bacteria crawling all over the spouts and caps. Research by TreadmillReviews.net lab-tested 12 refillable water bottles that had been used by athletes over the course of a week. In fact, the average person's water bottle was found to have over 300,000 colony forming units of bacteria. Perhaps most surprising, most of these germs were the most harmful types - known as gram negative rods - such as E.coli and salmonella. There were a host of bacteria linked to skin infections, pneumonia as well as blood poisoning.
Here we characterise and quantify a major ocean plastic accumulation zone formed in subtropical waters between California and Hawaii: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
From a scientific report on nature.com:
Here we characterise and quantify a major ocean plastic accumulation zone formed in subtropical waters between California and Hawaii: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP). Our model, calibrated with data from multi-vessel and aircraft surveys, predicted at least 79 (45–129) thousand tonnes of ocean plastic are floating inside an area of 1.6 million km2; a figure four to sixteen times higher than previously reported.
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From the moment we wake up in the morning and brush our teeth, to when we watch TV at the end of the day, plastic is all around us.
From the moment we wake up in the morning and brush our teeth, to when we watch TV at the end of the day, plastic is all around us.
Diego Gonzaga writing for Greenpeace:
Everyday, more and more plastic keeps being produced, used and thrown away. In countries where disposable cups are made of plastic, for example, it may take only seconds for one to leave the package, be used, and end up in a trash can. So much plastic is being consumed that there is an area bigger than France of throw-away plastic swirling at all depths in the North Pacific Ocean. It has become so ubiquitous that birds are using it to build their nests.
