China
Africa
Explore chapters and articles related to this topic
Sustainable Polymers for Additive Manufacturing
Published in Antonio Paesano, Handbook of Sustainable Polymers for Additive Manufacturing, 2022
Consensus has been reached among governments worldwide on protecting the environment, as demonstrated by several policies regarding the transition from traditional, non-renewable energy sources, such as crude oil, coal, and natural gas, toward renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar energy, and biomass. Since the early 2000s policies, laws, incentives, and bans promoting the use of biobased materials, and reducing waste and littering relative to fossil-based plastics have been enacted worldwide, and summarized by Hermann et al. (2011). F.e. a mandate common to USA and many European countries states to give preference to biobased/environmentally friendly products over traditional ones when purchasing for public administrations. Moreover, numerous countries across Africa, Asia, Europe, and U.S. cities enforce bans of plastic carrier bags, and some bans exclude plastic bags made from renewable resources, and/or being biodegradable, or compostable. In January 2020, the government of China announced a plan to cut plastic use by 2025 in order to contain pollution (State Council of China 2020).
Waste
Published in Sigrun M. Wagner, Business and Environmental Sustainability, 2020
Plastic bags – bans or charges: China banned the use of free ultra-thin plastic bags in 2008, and although compliance is inconsistent, plastic bag use has reduced by more than two-thirds. In 2015, the UK government made retailers charge 5p for single use plastics bags previously available for free, though the proceeds go to charity rather than to the management of waste – in the year before the charge, major retailers and supermarkets gave over 7 billion bags to customers, amounting to 140 bags per person on average. In the first six months of introducing the charge, plastic bag use dropped by 85%. In what is arguably the strictest regulatory change, Kenya banned the production, sale and use of plastic bags in 2017 with breaches risking imprisonment and hefty financial fines.4 Benefits from such legislative responses include savings in clean-up costs, carbon savings, charitable donations and incentives for alternatives, though for some businesses higher costs are involved in using more expensive alternatives, such as e.g. biodegradable bags.
Endangered Planet
Published in Maude Barlow, Tony Clarke, BLUE GOLD, 2017
Fertilizers are a well-known and notorious source of water pollution but other environmentally destructive “additives” are more surprising — plastic bags and prescription pills. Plastic bags, manufactured by the trillions every year, require 1,000 years to decompose on land and 450 years to decompose in water. They are found in lakes and rivers the world over, where they clog wetlands and drainage systems and kill aquatic life. And prescription pills leak chemicals and hormones into our public water systems, affecting people for whom they were not meant. Chris Metcalfe, a water quality expert at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, says that 50 to 70 percent of all drugs pass through us. In water samples he has studied, he has found high levels of naproxen, used for both animals and humans as an anti-inflammatory, and carbamazepine, a drug once used for epilepsy and now prescribed for depression. Scientists in Germany have discovered compounds that make up such drugs as ASA, antidepressants, blood-pressure medications, ibuprofen, and beta blockers in the water supply of Germany and other European countries. Tests in Germany and Canada also found serious levels of estrogen from birth control pills in the local water supplies of the two countries.
Circular economy of shopping bags in emerging markets: A demographic comparative analysis of propensity to reuse plastic bags versus cotton bags and paper bags
Published in Cogent Engineering, 2023
Paul Mukucha, Divaries Cosmas Jaravaza, Sarah Nyengerai
Plastic bags were invented in the 1960s and introduced for shopping in the 1970s. The most common types of plastic bags are made using high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and low-density polyethylene plastic (LDPE; Cho, 2020). The raw materials used in making plastic bags are natural gas and petroleum byproducts, which are finite resources. The raw materials are processed through polymerization to create polyethylene resin, which is then put through high heat to create thin films. The thin films are then used by manufacturers to make shopping bags. Plastic shopping bags can be reused twice or thrice before they find their way to the landfills (Bell & Cave, 2011). Compared to other types of shopping bags, the manufacturing process of plastic bags uses less fuel and water, emits less greenhouse gases and acid rains and has less quantities of solid waste (Cho, 2020). Thus, plastic materials have gained prominence in use for shopping bags due to their low cost of production and desirable properties such as convenience, light weight and waterproof (Muposhi et al., 2021).
Recovery of Hydrocarbon Fuel from Mixture of Municipal Waste Plastics Using Catalyst
Published in International Journal of Sustainable Engineering, 2020
Raihan Ahamed, Shameem Hossain, Mizanul Haque, Salma A. Iqbal
Conversion of waste plastic into liquid fuel was performed in a batch reactor without a vacuum system. Raw material composition and types are shown in Table 1. Plastic bags like polythene bags, packaging polymer, wrapping plastics were selected as a feed of first type sample tagged as Sample A. Basically, these products are processed from LLDPE, Low-density polyethylene (LDPE), polypropylene (PP) and polystyrene (PS). The second type was collected from the broken jug, rejected plastic containers, broken plastic soap cases, broken plastic toys and other various waste plastic pyrolysis from the reactor tagged as Sample B. These types of products are produced from High-density polyethylene (HDPE) and Polypropylene (PP).
Experimental investigation of a CRDI engine in terms of performance and emission under the effect of injection strategy using a moderate percentage of plastic pyrolysis oil and its blends with diesel and ethanol
Published in Biofuels, 2021
Sudershan B. G., Nagaraj R. Banapurmath, M. A. Kamoji, P. B. Rampure, Sanjeevkumar V. Khandal
Most of the research work has been done by mixing oil developed from waste plastic disposal with heavy oil for marine application. The results showed that waste plastic oil (WPO) when mixed with heavy oils reduces the viscosity significantly and improves the CI engine performance. A pilot level method of recycling waste plastic in India produces WPO of 25,000 L/day [1]. The plastic materials used are polyethylene, polypropylene, teflon, nylon and dacron and these are in the form of plastic bags, bottles, rope, etc. Therefore the problem related to waste disposal can be eliminated by extracting oil and can be used as fuel for CI engines. Emissions given out by these engines are more when fueled with such biofuels.