A class of plastics used in the aerospace and electronics industries can be chemically broken down into their most basic elements and reformed into the same material countless times.

Researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder, who publish the advance in the journal Nature Chemistry, highlight that this is an important step in the development of fully recyclable and repairable network polymers, a material that is especially difficult to recycle, since it is designed to maintain its shape and integrity in extreme heat and other adverse conditions. The study documents how this type of plastic can be broken down and remade in perpetuity, without sacrificing its desired physical properties.

“We are thinking about different ways to break chemical bonds,” said Wei Zhang, lead author of the study and director of the department of chemistry. “Our chemical methods can help create new technologies and new materials, as well as be used to help solve the current crisis of plastic materials”.

Their results also suggest that reviewing the chemical structures of other plastic materials could lead to similar discoveries about how to completely break and rebuild their chemical bonds, enabling the circular production of more plastic materials in our everyday lives.

Conventional recycling methods mechanically break down polymer powders, burn them, or use bacterial enzymes to dissolve them. The goal is to end up with smaller pieces that can be used for something else, like shoes made from recycled tires or clothes made from recycled plastic water bottles. It is no longer the same material, but it does not end up in a landfill or in the ocean.

What Zhang and his colleagues have achieved is to reverse a chemical approach and discover that they can both break and form new chemical bonds in a polymer of special performance.

This breakthrough in closed-loop plastics recycling draws inspiration from the natural world, as plants, animals and humans are now part of a global circular recycling system, he adds.

Click the link to subscribe for free to our news and media group on Telegram: https://t.me/G_ELSUMARIO_News

Source: dpa

La entrada A class of plastics can be recycled countless times apareció primero en Bitfinance.

The Apple company recently exhibited its “Environmental Progress Report 2022“, where it emphasized the operation of the Daisy robot in the recycling of 14 different minerals, including lithium, which has allowed it to expand the essential use in the creation of its products.

Daisy began its operations in the company in 2018. This robot is a set of machinery responsible for “automatically separating the parts of the iPhone to recycle them more easily.”

The robot measures approximately 20 meters where old iPhones pass, even unarmed. Apple’s specialized publication, Applesfera, explained that during this process the “batteries, screws and haptic motor among other objects” are disassembled.

After separating the pieces, those components that are recyclable are moved to another place where “minerals are extracted, refined and reused.”

According to the information provided, Daisy can break 200 iPhones in an hour, that is, 20 seconds per device. It currently has the ability to isolate 23 smartphone models of the brand.

The report presented by the company indicates that 59 % of the aluminum used by Apple in 2021 in its products came from recycled sources, and 100 % of the aluminum contained in the casing of most phones was recycled.

Apple drives clean energy

Apple has been using recycled lithium, tin, cobalt and rare earths in its devices for years with the aim of “saving costs and preventing further damage to the environment.”

Apple’s vice president of the environment, Lisa Jackson, indicated that for the company the most important thing is to comply with the environment. “We are making real progress in our work to address the climate crisis and one day make our products without taking anything from the land.”

According to Jackson, the company’s advanced pace of work and innovation helps work teams “use today’s products to build tomorrow’s, and as our global supply chain transitions to clean energy, we are charting a path for other companies to follow.”

The company also pointed out in its report that it made significant progress towards its goal of eliminating plastic in its packaging by 2025.

Since 2015, the company has reduced the use of plastic in its packaging by 75 %. In 2021, plastic only represented 4 % in packaging.

M. Rodríguez

Source: fayerwayer.com

La entrada Apple’s robot recycles 14 minerals apareció primero en Bitfinance.

An average of eight million tons of plastics end up each year in seas and oceans. Production has increased in recent decades, its environmental impact causes damage to ecosystems around the world and its slow degradation process accentuates the crisis. Reducing the amount of plastic in circulation and betting on its reuse are fundamental actions.

Bancamiga Banco Universal, aware of the need to work for a more sustainable world, promotes together with Plastitec Group initiatives in order for employees to learn about the importance of recycling, a process that seeks to obtain raw materials from waste, introducing them from new in the life cycle.

One of the first initiatives was to promote among its staff talks about the culture of recycling, which has served to share valuable ideas, among which we can mention the placement of containers for plastic recycling, the design of cards made with recycled material. , the promotion of commercial relations with suppliers of green conscience and the recycling of the cards of expenses or that present some type of error.

It was from Monday, May 17, International Recycling Day, that Bancamiga started the Recicla2 campaign, where it placed containers at the La Castellana Management Headquarters and in the TFC tower, in order to deposit the bottles of water or soft drinks identified with the number 1 (PET1) on the bottom of the container.

Plastitec Group is a company that promotes an integrated r-Pet production scheme, which collects, classifies, cleans and recycles single-use containers made of polyethylene terephthalate, known as PET for its acronym in English, to transform it into products that they return to the chain of consumption without affecting the planet’s environmental balance.

Patricia Pérez, Plastitec Communication and Sustainability Manager, said that everything is framed in what is known as a circular economy, a model that proposes to change the linear flow of producing, consuming and discarding to reduce-recycle-reuse. Therefore, it proposes a change in current manufacturing and consumption patterns, with the aim of achieving a sustainable lifestyle in which the amount of waste in the environment is reduced and the useful life of natural resources is extended.

She maintained that she felt “inspired” by institutions such as Bancamiga that want to participate in the construction of a sustainable business ecosystem in Venezuela, by showing not only what Plastitec does but also other organizations in the world in order to inspire its collaborators and see what ways are possible to be executed as part of the actions and sustainable objectives in the short, medium and long term.

“We are very excited about this alliance and feel that we can generate a change in the habits of employees so that the plastic bottles they dispose of are brought to the containers that the bank has installed. It is because of these small actions that the great changes in the world begin”, said Pérez.

M.Pino

With information from Bancamiga and Plastitec

La entrada Bancamiga promotes the Recicla2 campaign in alliance with Plastitec Group apareció primero en Bitfinance.