ABSTRACT
Although food loss and waste (FL&W) is high on China's national policy agenda, there is still little scientific information published about how much FL&W exists in China, what its impacts are, and what needs to be done to reduce it. Furthermore, what is known about FL&W across the various hotspots of China's food supply chain is not accessible in one place due to the tendency of scholars to focus on one part of the food chain depending on their disciplinary backgrounds, thereby making it difficult to obtain a 'comprehensive whole supply chain perspective'. Thus, this review provides an interdisciplinary collation of what is already known about FL&W in China. A systematic review of both English and Chinese databases followed PRISMA guidelines further complemented with a qualitative content analysis process uncovered 57 articles. The view revealed confounding factors such as an inconsistency of the definitions and calculation methods used to measure FL&W, and research gaps such as a lack of focus on the behavioral factors pertaining to waste, and the limited range of social innovations studied to reduce it. Thus, this review will help in the development of research agendas designed to advance efforts in this field.
Subject(s)
Food Supply , Food , China , Databases, Factual , PolicyABSTRACT
Plastic pollution is prevalent worldwide and has been highlighted as an issue of global concern due to its harmful impacts on wildlife. The extent and mechanism by which plastic pollution effects organisms is poorly understood, especially for microplastics. One proposed mechanism by which plastics may exert a harmful effect is through the leaching of additives. To determine the risk to wildlife, the chemical identity and exposure to additives must be established. However, there are few reports with disparate experimental approaches. In contrast, a breadth of knowledge on additive release from plastics is held within the food, pharmaceutical and medical, construction, and waste management industries. This includes standardised methods to perform migration, extraction, and leaching studies. This review provides an overview of the approaches and methods used to characterise additives and their leaching behaviour from plastic pollution. The limitations of these methods are highlighted and compared with industry standardised approaches. Furthermore, an overview of the analytical strategies for the identification and quantification of additives is presented. This work provides a basis for refining current leaching approaches and analytical methods with a view towards understanding the risk of plastic pollution.
ABSTRACT
Additive manufacturing or 3D printing has the potential to displace some of the current manufacturing techniques and is particularly attractive if local renewable waste resources can be used. In this study, rice husk, and wood powders were compounded in polylactic acid (PLA) by twin screw extrusion to produce filaments for fused-deposition modeling 3D printing. The biomasses were characterized in terms of physical features (e.g., particle size, density) and chemical compositions (e.g., solid state nuclear magnetic resonance, ash content). The two biomasses were found to have a different impact on the rheological behavior of the compounds and the extrusion process overall stability. When comparing the complex viscosity of neat PLA to the biomass/PLA compounds, the integration of wood powder increased the complex viscosity of the compound, whereas the integration of rice husk powder decreased it. This significant difference in rheological behavior was attributed to the higher specific surface area (and chemical reactivity) of the rice husk particles and the presence of silica in rice husks compared to the wood powder. Color variations were also observed. Despite the biomass filler and rheological behavior differences, the mechanical properties of the 3D printed samples were similar and predominantly affected by the printing direction.
