Plastics in the environment: Overview of BKV studies and research requirements
For some years now, the plastics industry has been in a deep-seated process of change and is gearing itself intensively to a future in which plastics are lead by circularity and, thus, utilised as sustainably and efficiently as possible. Intensive discussions on plastics in the environment, both in the land and in the seas, are being carried out at EU level and globally such as in the consultations at the United Nations on a global agreement at the meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee INC-4 in April 2024 in Ottawa, Canadaa.
Read more … Plastics in the environment: Overview of BKV studies and research requirements
Research project aims to reduce plastic in the Baltic Sea
Together with Danish, Swedish and Polish partners, the University of Rostock and the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research in Warnemünde (IOW) has launched a research project that aims to reduce the quantity of plastic waste that gets into the Baltic Sea via the rivers. For plastic waste from land-based sources, for example from industry or tourism, solutions are to be developed to minimise these discharges in cooperation with companies, research institutes and communities in the coastal region of the southern Baltic Sea.
Read more … Research project aims to reduce plastic in the Baltic Sea
Mona Maria Narra talks about the project "Circular Ocean-bound Plastic" (COP)
Mona Maria Narra is a research assistant in the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at the University of Rostock in the field of waste and resource management, and is involved as a project partner in the Interreg project "Circular Ocean-bound Plastic". She studied environment and resource management at the University of Brandenburg and international management of forest eco-systems at the College of Applied Sciences in Eberswalde.
Read more … Mona Maria Narra talks about the project "Circular Ocean-bound Plastic" (COP)
How microplastic gets to the Arctic
An interdisciplinary research team from the University of Vienna and the Max-Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organisation in Göttingen, Germany, has established in an ongoing study that the shape of microplastic particles contributes decisively to their transport properties. They combined laboratory experiments with model simulations of the global distribution of microplastic particles and concluded that fibres with a length of up to 1.5 millimetres can, because of their shape, reach very distant places of the Earth such as the Arctic.
Compulsory re-use of to-go products without effect
In order to restrict the littering caused by packaging waste such as single-use cups and trays in town centres and parks, railway stations and pedestrian zones, Germany has introduced its compulsory re-use for such products at restaurants, supermarkets and fuel stations beginning of 2023. For example, single-use cups for beverages fall under the new legislation, irrespective of the material from which they are made. With single-use containers for food, however, it is dependent on the material. If a restaurant owner or supplier offers the meal in a single-use dish made of plastic or with a plastic content, he must have a re-usable alternative at the ready. For this reason, many companies offering take-away meals have, according to press reports, switched to less environment-friendly disposable alternatives made of cardboard or aluminium. The German Government intends to change this part of the packaging legislation.
Read more … Compulsory re-use of to-go products without effect
Source One Plastics: Filter system for capturing microplastic
In a new recycling unit built by Source One Plastics in Eicklingen (Lower Saxony), a special high-performance filtration system has been installed that aims to prevent fine dust or microplastic particles getting into the environment. The facility began regular operation at the end of February 2024.
Read more … Source One Plastics: Filter system for capturing microplastic
OTTO opts for dispatch bags made of "wild" plastic
Since 2020, the mail-order company OTTO has been making partial use of packaging made of "wild" plastic from the Hamburg-based start-up Wildplastic that was collected from the environment. From 2021 to the end of 2023, OTTO collected around 308 tonnes of plastic waste from the environment for these dispatch bags, and thus saved 740,053 kg of carbon dioxide.
Read more … OTTO opts for dispatch bags made of "wild" plastic
DFG finances joint laboratory of the University of Dresden for microplastic research
The German Research Foundation (DFG) is to fund the equipping of a joint laboratory at the University of Applied Sciences in Dresden (HTWD) in the coming five years with sums amounting to 1 million euros. With the new equipment, research is to be intensified in the fields of microplastic, soil science, water management and vegetation technology, and the effects of plastics on the environment investigated.
Read more … DFG finances joint laboratory of the University of Dresden for microplastic research
Work starts on the material flow of plastics in Germany 2023
Over the coming months various statistics will be evaluated and, at the heart of the study, a questionaire will be sent to more than 2,000 companies involved in the fields of plastics production, processing and use. The new study plastics flow in Germany 2023 with data on production, processing, consumption, waste collection and recovery of plastics is expected to be published in September 2024.
Read more … Work starts on the material flow of plastics in Germany 2023
Deep-sea enzyme breaks down PET
Researchers from the universities of Kiel, Hamburg and Düsseldorf have, with the help of complex analysis methods, identified in a database with water specimens from all over the world an enzyme that stems from bacteria from prehistoric times – so-called archaea – in the deep waters off Venezuela. The newly discovered enzyme PET46 is said to be able, unlike the previously known biocatalysts with the ability to break down plastics, to withstand warm temperatures and consequently to break down the polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic more quickly. According to the research team, this special characteristic and other biochemical properties make PET46 a highly interesting candidate to combat plastic pollution, both in the sea and on the land.