The circular concept is defined by principles that design out of waste and keep materials and products in use as well as regenerating natural systems. It replaces the end-of-life concept with restoration, shifts towards the use of renewable energy, eliminates the use of toxic chemicals and aims for the elimination of waste through the superior design…
The problems we have with our environment are obvious. You just have to open the newspaper to see everyday new shocking pictures and information about climate change and its consequences. Manufacturing and the way how we produce and use things are a huge part of the problem. Global manufacturing consumes about 54 % of the world’s…
In nature, biological materials and organisms are part of a circular process of production and degradation. This process sustains the Earth and living things on it. Humans, however, have introduced new materials and products which do not fit into the circular economy, resulting in waste, which, as we all know, is detrimental to the health of…
Unlocking the value of a circular economy using 3D printing is leading innovation everywhere. Recovery initiatives to increase sustainability, like reusing plastic waste and turning it into 3D printing filament, are becoming more common. In tune with the need to care for Earth’s limited resources, Italian studio Carlo Ratti Associati (CRA), in partnership with global energy…
In Tokyo, a householder consults her 60-page "Garbage Separation and Disposal" system to check whether it's a recycle day for plastic bottles or for all other plastic packaging. In a coastal village in Kenya, an order has been received for 2,000 bricks made from waste plastic and earth. Read more
Extracts of lemon and almond peels can be used for sustainably produced car parts and building components. This BARBARA project jointly funded by the European Union and industry ensures that food waste can be put to good use, replacing petroleum-based plastics with more environmentally friendly bioplastics. The BARBARA project is supported by the European consortium called…
Plastics and their byproducts are littering our cities, oceans, and waterways, and contributing to health problems in humans and animals. 70 % of the deep sea fish have eaten plastic and 55 % of fish species were even found with microplastics in their body. But as the number of uses rises, so does the demand for…
One of the main reasons why bioplastics have not been adopted more yet, is that often they can’t compete on price with fossilbased materials (at least this goes for the traditional manufacturing technologies). That means they need to offer other benefits, let’s have a look into these benefits. There are two major advantages of biobased plastic…
There are many misconceptions and myths when it comes to Bioplastics. One example for such a misconception is that bioplastics are considered to be always compostable and can’t be used for engineering applications. However this is not true. Let us have a closer look and see what bioplastics are. According to European Bioplastics, a plastic material…