Authored by Kenny Walter, Digital Reporter, R&D Magazine
Thanks to 3D printing, customers across the country can now order a customized loafer, sneaker or sandal designed specifically to fit their exact foot— and receive it in less than 24 hours.
Feetz, a San Diego-based company founded by Lucy and Nigel Beard, creates a shoe that is almost entirely printed, with approximately 90 percent of each shoe created with a 3D printer. The only part of the shoe that is not made from the 3D printer is the fabric lining, which is produced using traditional methods because 3D printers are currently unable to print fabrics.
Ball-like lignin particles developed by researchers open up completely new possibilities for the utilisation of lignin.
Plastic is everywhere. Massive barges of plastic waste float in our seas. A plastic bag and other plastic waste have even been found in the nearly 11-kilometre-deep Mariana Trench, the deepest known point in the world’s oceans.
Plastic waste is one of the biggest pollutants threatening our oceans, lakes and food chain. Over one third of waste is made up of microplastics, particles that are less than five millimetres in size. According to numerous estimates, in 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the seas. Can we influence this trend in any way – could fossil materials used as the raw materials for plastic be replaced with biodegradable options?
“Lignin is an excellent alternative as a replacement for fossil materials. It is created as a by-product of pulping. Cellulose is a common material that is often discussed and researched, but lignin has not been given as much attention”, replies Professor Monika Österberg.
A University of Alberta researcher has found a new use for a canola byproduct, providing potential for diverse markets beyond China.
Canolastraw—the fibrous stalk left in the field after the plant is harvested for its oil—is proving useful in strengthening a plant-based cling wrap developed by Marleny Saldaña, a researcher in food and bioengineering processing.
In a new study, Saldaña and her research team used cellulose nanofibres from canolastraw to make the clear, plastic-like film, which is 12 times stronger than what they’ve already developed from cassava starch. The straw, which has little other use except as bedding for soil nutrients, contains cellulose and lignin, two components that support the canola plant.
Using canola straw this way demonstrates potential value-added options for the crop residue besides obtaining oil and protein from its seed, said Saldaña, who believes her and her team’s discovery to be the first application of its kind.
Introducing a simple step to the production of plant-derived, biodegradable plastic could improve its properties while overcoming obstacles to manufacturing it commercially, says new research from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Jiangnan University.
That step? Bringing the heat
Nebraska’s Yiqi Yang and colleagues found that raising the temperature of bio-plastic fibers to several hundred degrees Fahrenheit, then slowly allowing them to cool, greatly improved the bio-plastic’s normally lackluster resistance to heat and moisture.
Its thermal approach also allowed the team to bypass solvents and other expensive, time-consuming techniques typically needed to manufacture a commercially viable bio-plastic, the study reported.
Yang said the approach could allow manufacturers of corn-derived plastic – such as a Cargill plant in Blair, Nebraska – to continuously produce the biodegradable material on a scale that at least approaches petroleum-based plastic, the industry standard. Recent research estimates that about 90 percent of U.S. plastic goes unrecycled.
Try surviving with out plastic, it’s easier than you think, cheaper in the long run and a simple way to support the environment… be an activist by making small changes to you life.
Gonna wash and disinfect these compostable pots and get them ready for the 2020 season. These pots will hold tomatoes and peppers and we will start our seedlings in the next four days (January 15-18). Our planting zone here in Atlanta is a rapidly rising zone 8a. What are you planting now?
Want to learn more about the benefits of cleaning pots and planting tomatoes and peppers? Book a tour or working experience with Atlanta’s number one urban agriculture Air BnB experience. #SimpleFoodSmallFarmz
‘Biodegradable’ plastic will soon be banned in Australia. That’s a big win for the environment
To start dealing with Australia’s mounting plastic crisis, the federal government last week launched its first National Plastics Plan.
The plan will fight plastic on various fronts, such as banning plastic on beaches, ending polystyrene packaging for takeaway containers, and phasing in microplastic filters in washing machines. But we’re particularly pleased to see a main form of biodegradable plastic will also be phased out.
Biodegradable plastic promises a plastic that breaks down into natural components when it’s no longer wanted for its original purpose. The idea of a plastic that literally disappears once in the ocean, littered on land or in landfill is tantalising — but also (at this stage) a pipe dream.
A small boutique luxury hotel was recently completed in Okavango Delta, Botswana. The Okavango Delta is considered one of the seven natural wonders of the African continent. The contemporary design was inspired by the pangolin, an inhabitant of the area that is also called the African armadillo.
The curves and roofing of the structure resembles the hard carapace of the armadillo. Due to the serene setting the hotel needed to coexist in nature instead of disrupt it. The building is constructed solely of biodegradable materials and 70% of its energy sources are sustainable. Still there is no compromise in power, hot water supply, and food preparation. The exterior is comprised mostly of laminated pine and woven eucalyptus laths. The safari hotel is intertwined with the natural elements in the quiet delta so as not to disrupt the elephants, leopards, and lions that also call the delta home.
This week’s sustainable tip, courtesy of Instagrammer @zerowastechica, is a fun one. For your next celebration, try this: confetti from fallen leaves. It’s biodegradable, easy to make, free, and looks darling.
i’m not sure my hands would hold up to doing this with the health problems i have, but it’s a super interesting idea!
Creating a zero waste kit is super easy, and is a great way to start reducing your carbon footprint in your every day routine.
Think about all the things you buy regularly. A cup of coffee before work? A bottle of water with your lunch? Below is a list of items that you can use to reduce the amount of plastic you use on a daily basis.
Bamboo cutlery
Completely plastic free, biodegradable, and made from responsibly sourced renewable bamboo.
Travel mug
Single use coffee cups are disposed of at a rate of 22000 per hour in Ireland alone. A reusable travel mug not only saves you money with discounts in most coffeehouses, but saves the environment, one coffee at a time.
Travel bottle
Switching to a resuable water bottle decreases oil used, greenhouse gases emitted, and bottles thrown away, reducing pollution threefold.
Glass or stainless steel straws
One person switching to glass or steel straws could reduce up to 600 plastic staws a year being disposed of in our landfills.
Reusable cloth bag
One million plastic bags per minute are being disposed of and damaging our environment. As people are switching to paper bags, larger quantities of wood is being used. Cloth bags are durable and are made from renewable natural fibers.
“Many small acts make a phenomenal difference.”
- Abigail Forsythe, KeepCup Cofounder and Managing Director
Did you know our Wildography phone cases are biodegradable?
Purchase your case today over at our Wildography Shop and support endangered and injured wildlife around the globe. Shop link in bio/below: https://wildography.myshopify.com/
“…The interest in respect for the environment and nature, have allowed us to propose a vanguard proposal in the new forms of burial, ecological and 100% biodegradable.
The Krainer wall is proposed, an innovative system based on bioengineering applied to the landscape to create ‘the Path of the Forest’: a technology that combines dead and living materials, which evolves over time, relating the degradation of the dead elements (the trunks) with the roots and the growth of living elements (plants with bright chromatic blooms), in a natural dynamic that evokes the intrinsic life cycle in the idiosyncrasy of a cemetery, as a meeting point between people and their ancestors, over time. The organic urns for the ashes of the graves are also made of chestnut wood, and are located in the spaces of the framework, forming a construction with materials from the place that becomes part of the natural biodynamics of the forest where it is located.
This new burial space is planted with specific plant species to create an aromatic environment enhancing biodiversity that revitalizes the spaces of use of the Collserola Park, col·labors in the sensitization of citizens and brings them closer to nature.”
