New research reveals what’s really hiding in bottled water https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/10/251006051131.htm

#environment #water #BottledWater #plastic #microplastics #PlasticPollution

🎋♻️ Researchers at Northeast Forestry University developed a #bamboo-derived #plastic using molecular #engineering that equals traditional plastic strength and durability while completely biodegrading in soil within two months. The material can be recycled with 90% strength retention, offering a sustainable alternative for automotive and infrastructure applications.

👉 https://newatlas.com/materials/bamboo-derived-biodegradable-plastic-durable/

#sustainability #science #environment #innovation #research #technology #tech

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/oct/08/uk-plastic-waste-exports-to-developing-countries-rose-84-in-a-year-data-shows. Absolutely appalling. Not content with generating #plastic #pollution, we export the stuff to developing countries - & in ever-increasing quantities.

#WordWeavers 2025.10.07 — How does the world your characters inhabit deal with garbage?

Glad you asked! This is a deep background feature that's an Easter egg in all the Reluctance Series stories.

Plastic does not exist, nor do fossil fuels. Instead they use organic compostable material and things like wax. As a result, other than glass, there is no transparent packaging, only translucent. Everything is made from wood, wood by-products, natural fiber, metal, vegetable oils, glass, rock, minerals, cement, and ceramic. What they rely on for energy instead of electricity does allow the creation of some exotic materials, but nothing that can't be rendered down and reused. Electronics don't exist, despite it being an Interstellar civilization. When you visit a grocer, you either buy containers or bring your own. A grocery is a combination of bulk bins you'd find in a bulk store, a produce market, and shelves stocked with bottles, tins, cans, and boxes. Cooked or prepared food will be wrapped in wax paper or Chinese-style folding boxes (typically for takeaway meals), or foil wrapped. Takeaway drinks come in paper, sometimes waxed. Pure water is free, spigots are ubiquitous, and everyone carries a metal or water-proof fabric flask. (It is horribly hot by our standards so everyone sweats; water is a health issue.) Even clothing is reducible; rayon, silk, and rarely leather versus our nylon. People routinely clean discards; everything is rendered and reused. People do that work to earn coin.

Reusable containers and objects, and recycling, are never detailed in the stories other than in passing. You might see someone washing something before tossing it, or opening a Chinese-style folding box (instead of a styrofoam clamshell) and pulling chopsticks from their hair to use them. It might seem like a colorful detail, but it is part of a world free of human created forever-trash.

Editorial Note: It amazes me how even the most recyclable packaging will contain some tiny bit that isn't recyclable: cellophane or a plastic transparent covering, or plastic bits inside caps, for instance a plastic spout in a glass vinegar bottle. Spray cans used to be metal, even the top and sprayer. Even consumer friendly stores that routinely work with suppliers to produce unique products, for example Trader Joe's, repeatedly market new items in completely non-recyclable packaging that could obviously be made recyclable if they insisted. Cheap, easy, and irresponsible end-of-life handling will eventually render the Earth into a rubbish heap. We should be holding packaging companies responsible for end-of-life disposal cost (arguably the material's greatest expense). Such pressures would force them to invent reusable recyclable packaging. /End of editorial.

[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing

#gender #fiction #writer #author
#sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory
#recycle #recycling #garbage #recyclable #reuse #reusable #packaging #plastic

@ai6yr

A whole ecosystem of plastic life for your neighbors' yards!

#plastic

Amor por el planeta 🌏
#capullalabs #freedom #plastic #reelsvideoシ #pet

#Tesco’s former reusable packaging partner calls for regulation on #Plastic https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/news/tescos-former-reusable-packaging-partner-calls-for-regulation-on-plastic/710293.article

Culligan International, United Center, Chicago Bulls and Chicago Blackhawks Demonstrate Sustainable Impact | https://www.rawchili.com/nba/326354/ #Basketball #Bulls #Chicago #ChicagoBulls #ChicagoBulls #DisposableProduct #economy #EconomyAndTheEnvironment #HumanImpactOnTheEnvironment #Illinois #materials #midwest #NaturalEnvironment #NBA #NorthAmerica #plastic #PlasticPollution #pollution #Recycling #UnitedCenter #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #Waste #WaterBottle

'Plastic flessen laten meer plastic achter in je lichaam dan je beseft'

"Wetenschappers van de Canadese Concordia University hebben 141 bestaande studies geanalyseerd om te kijken welke impact het gebruik van plastic flessen heeft op de gezondheid."

"Mensen die enkel water uit plastic flessen drinken, spelen jaarlijks tot 90.000 deeltjes micro- en nanoplastic mee naar binnen. Dat is dubbel zoveel als wat je binnenkrijgt van alle andere bronnen samen."

"Vooral polyethyleentereftalaat, beter bekend als PET, en de dopjes van hoge-dichtheid polyethyleen geven plastic af. Dit gebeurt vooral bij mechanische stress, bijvoorbeeld wanneer je de dop opent of sluit of in een fles knijpt. Ook wanneer je de fles in het zonlicht laat staan, komen plastics vrij."

https://www.welingelichtekringen.nl/gezondheid/plastic-flessen-laten-meer-plastic-achter-in-je-lichaam-dan-je-beseft

#gezondheid #water #PET #plastic

Exxon Steps Back From Texas Gulf Coast Plastics Plant

Island in a sea of waste. Cartoon for Trouw: https://www.trouw.nl/cartoons/tjeerd-royaards~bcb45712/

#waste #garbage #plastic #nature #environment

#Tjeerd #plastic

Swedish Startup Saveggy Launches Edible, Plastic-Free Packaging for Cucumbers https://vegconomist.com/packaging/swedish-startup-saveggy-launches-edible-plastic-free-packaging-cucumbers/

#environment #food #product #packaging #plastic #PlasticPollution

‼️New study shows that the amount of carbon released in volatile form after exposure of polypropylene #plastic to UV light is far from negligible: 17%!The molecular-sized gaseous products likely comprise alkane & alkene, peroxides, ketones, alcohols,acids, CO & #CO2.
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0333021

Microplastics reduce soil fertility and boost production of a potent greenhouse gas, study shows https://phys.org/news/2025-10-microplastics-soil-fertility-boost-production.html

#environment #soil #plastic #microplastis #PlasticPollution

Why #recycling isn’t enough to address the #plastic problem
Plastic production is a massive source of #greenhousegas #emissions.
The pace at which we’re producing and using plastic is absolutely bonkers. Plastic production has increased at an average rate of 9% every year since 1950. Production hit 460 million metric tons in 2019. And an estimated 52 million metric tons are dumped into the environment or burned each year.
https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/08/21/1122247/recycling-climate-emissions/

"Green Roofs Filter Microplastic From Urban Rainfall, Study Finds"

#Plastic #Plastics #Microplastics

https://happyeconews.com/green-roofs-filter-microplastic/

The modern era has been defined, in part, by the versatility and ubiquity of #plastic. Yet, this celebrated 20th-century material has given rise to a paradoxical form of #pollution—one so pervasive and minute that its scale was largely unrecognized until recently.
#WhatIs #Microplastic #Ecology #Environmental #sflorg
https://www.sflorg.com/2025/10/wi10052501.html

Alas, I got busy with commercial an artist neon fabrication jobs again, so I had to pause a little on the personal projects.
We again lost our CNC person at work and now, the new CNC person will be.... ME! I am quite excited to be learning and told my boss I would like to teach others and be just one CNC person rather than the "CNC guy"- I like to go on vacations an road trips.
I have lots of CNC projects AND the CNC takes practice so to build my skills I have top make some personal projects :) With my newfound CNC abilities, I have become interested in watching videos of people making acrylic channel letters. I even gave it a go with some of my torches. Gosh its gonna be fun to put neon in these! I think I am gonna make the word "antifa" in a script krypton (white lightning) crackle tube- an put it in this (or my second or third) acrylic channel letter.

Hooray for scraps!

#CNC #work #art #sculpture #acrylic #plastic #brooklyn #nyc #scraps #shelves #shop #job #vectors #furniture