Good News Notes: “The use of plastic packaging for food products contributes significantly to plastic waste, of which 14 million tons end up in our oceans each year. By 2050, it is predicted that there will be more plastic in the oceans than fish, which will be a serious threat to our ecosystems and well…
Tag: microplastics
Xampla launch trial for plastic-free seed coating
Good News Notes: “Today (1 February), Xampla has announced a partnership with chemical company Croda International to begin trials into plastic-free seed coating. The project, supported by the UK Government and the National Institute of Agricultural Botany, will see a £640,000 investment into the company’s biodegradable coating. Used throughout agriculture, coatings protect seeds from pests,…
Coventry student designs a filter to reuse washing machine water
Good News Notes: “Coventry University student Joe Baker designed a system which removes contaminants like dirt and microplastics, allowing the water to be used for things like cooking. He has won an award in DesignSpark’s People Planet Product competition, and a £1,000 grant for its development. Mr Baker now hopes to develop a prototype of…
Veteran-founded organization cleans up abandoned boats in James Island waterway
Good News Notes: “A non-profit called Wounded Nature – Working Veterans got to work to clean up and clear out two abandoned boats polluting a creek on James Island Saturday morning. The non-profit removes debris and remnants from boat wrecks and abandoned boats in order to help the environment and minimize negative impacts on wildlife….
Sustainable Home Care Company Full Circle® Brands (“Full Circle”) Launches For Good™, A Family of Sustainable and Compostable Household Disposables
Good News Notes: “Full Circle, a leader in responsible home care products, is proud to introduce its newest brand: For Good, a family of sustainable and compostable household staples including cling wrap, parchment paper and trash and zipper bags that turn into earth instead of microplastics and perform just like the conventional alternatives. “The surge…
Glitter is an environmental disaster. So scientists invented an eco-friendly version
Good News Notes: “We have a love-hate relationship with glitter. It’s undeniably sparkly, cute and festive. But dip your hand into a jar of the iridescent plastic particles, and you’ll spend the next year finding specks of it in surprising places. Those places could range from your hair and clothes all the way to oceans…
A half-mile installation just took 20,000 pounds of plastic out of the Pacific – proof that ocean garbage can be cleaned
Good News Notes: “It’s been nearly a decade since Boyan Slat announced at age 18 that he had a plan to rid the world’s oceans of plastic. Slat, now 27, is a Dutch inventor and the founder of the Ocean Cleanup, a nonprofit that aims to remove 90% of floating ocean plastic by 2040. That…
Ocean Cleanup pilots ‘the first scalable technology’ to remove plastic waste from Earth’s waters
Good News Notes: “Each year, 8 million tons of plastic— the equivalent of a garbage truck load every minute — is dumped into the ocean, according to the World Economic Forum. The Ocean Cleanup, a nonprofit engineering environmental organization based in the Netherlands, is attempting to remove as much of that plastic as is feasible. “Our strategy…
Tiny Robots Could Clean Up Microplastic Pollution
Good News Notes: “Microplastics—minuscule, hard-to-degrade fragments of clothing fibers, water bottles and other synthetic items—have made their way into air, water and soil around the world. Now new research published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces shows a way to promote their deterioration, at least in water, with technology on an even smaller scale: microrobots. When added to water along with a bit…
How to fight microplastic pollution with magnets
Good News Notes: “As a child, Fionn Ferreira spent hours exploring the coastline near his hometown of Ballydehob in south-west Ireland. But the more time he spent on the sheltered, shingle-strewn coves nearby, he grew increasingly shocked by the large amounts of plastic litter he found strewn across the beach and in the sea. “It…