A team of materials scientists from Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, the University of Milano-Bicocca, and Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia via Morego, all in Italy, has found a way to use keratin to ...

Researchers at Michigan State University say they've developed a new biodegradable plastic alternative that's easier to compost. The team created a bio-based polymer blend that’s compostable in both ...

Plastics make up approximately 5–12 % of global waste generation, constituting around 20–30 % of waste by weight. Alarmingly, about 60 % of plastics end up as plastic waste (PW) in the environment. 2 ...

Strips of plain TPU (top) and "living" TPU (bottom) at different stages of decomposition over five months of being in compost. A new type of bioplastic could help reduce the plastic industry’s ...

About half of all of the plastics in the world have been created in only the past 15 years, and we are now swimming in the stuff. This tough material is made from petroleum-based chemicals, and is ...

Researchers overcame the tradeoff between plastic toughness and degradability by developing plastics with movable crosslinks. The crosslinks both increased toughness by over eight times and increased ...

Marine animals may be more likely to eat biodegradable plastics than conventional plastics, according to a study of crabs and worms on a beach in Australia. The findings suggest that increasing ...

So far, recycling efforts haven't lived up to the hype, with only about 9% of plastic items getting recycled. An estimated 12 ...

At the urging of the plastics industry, the USDA is considering allowing materials such as bioplastic cups, coffee pods and compostable plastic bags into the organic compost waste stream. Farmers and ...

(Bloomberg Businessweek) -- In recent years, at least a half-dozen countries have embraced plastics made with an additive intended to break them down into carbon dioxide, water and harmless organic ...