ABSTRACT
The rapid expansion of plastic manufacturing industries in last several decades has brought serious concerns over the environmental impacts of plastic wastes. Recent outbreak of Covid-19 drastically increased production, use, and disposal of plastic products. Current management strategies for wasted plastics still rely on landfill and incineration that continue to exacerbate plastic pollution and carbon emissions. Many countries have put forward multifaceted administrative efforts to reduce plastic wastes, but the annual global generation of plastic wastes is still increasing. In techno-society, researchers have been exploring more effective plastic wastes treatment technologies to alleviate environmental impacts of plastic wastes. Such efforts entailed several technical options that can potentially contribute to establishing a circular economy for plastics. Thermochemical process is a prominent example of such techniques. This review presents an overview of the issue of plastic pollution, covering topics including global plastic production, environmental impacts, and toxicity. In addition, the global administrative efforts aimed at reducing plastic pollution are discussed, as well as detection and treatment strategies to establish a circular economy in plastic management. © 2023 Elsevier B.V.
ABSTRACT
Plastic pollution is one of the most severe environmental and human health threats. Based on a linear model, our current economic system uses plastics as a primary resource to make products such as plastic bags and bottles. However, these products are not recycled into secondary resources. Instead, they are thrown away when they become unusable. In contrast, the circular economy considers plastic waste as an opportunity to create social, economic and environmental value. This model uses plastic waste as a raw material to produce new items. This research demonstrates that the circular economy contributes to Sustainable Development Goals 3 and 17 using the results of action and observatory research within the PlastiCity project. As part of PlastiCity, partners developed new products made from recycled plastic such as recycled face shields. This chapter describes our efforts in developing a business case for recycled face shields and deploying the PlastiCity ecosystem to improve collaboration and partnerships. This study suggests that the development of an ecosystem can facilitate collaboration between stakeholders in the plastic value chain and hence contribute to implementing circular business models. This research also demonstrates how the circular economy can respond rapidly to health-related societal challenges, such as the unavailability of personal protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
ABSTRACT
The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic and airborne particulate matter pollution have caused a surge in the consumption of face masks in recent years. Typically, face masks are made from nondegradable petroleum-derived nonwoven materials adding to global plastic pollution and aggravating environmental concerns. Therefore, it is important to fabricate sustainable biodegradable replacements. This review intends to highlight and discuss state-of-the-art research activities that centre on the development of biodegradable nonwoven materials for face mask applications. We also identify potential candidates and strategies for future research and product development efforts. Finally, we present our perspectives on a wide avenue in need of further exploration concerning materials, methods, advanced functionalities, cost, scalability, and shelf life of sustainable advanced face masks. © 2023 The Royal Society of Chemistry.
ABSTRACT
China’s plastic pollution has gotten worse, especially during the COVID pandemic when the city’s lockdowns boosted the food takeout business. Although the government has made efforts in curbing the use of conventional single-use plastic packaging, the problem is still looming up in the critical time of building ecological civilization. The key to resolve the overwhelming usage of disposable plastic packaging lies in reduction, along with using green alternatives: biodegradable packaging and returnable containers. The study investigated consumers’ willingness to adopt new alternatives by applying the extended classical behavioral theory: the theory of planned behavior (TPB). The measurement scale, developed upon previous literature, gains validated reliability and validity after running confirmatory factory analysis (CFA) in SmartPLS. The study distributed 536 questionnaires online, targeting consumers from Beijing and Shanghai. 430 valid samples were collected and analyzed, with results showing that consumers’ perceived behavior control has strong and positive effect on their willingness to pay more to using biodegradable packaging and willingness to participate in the returnable container programs. The environmental attitude, social norms and past green behavior show less direct relationships with people’s adopting intentions. Their effects on the intentions are mediated by perceived behavior control disproportionately. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.