A bacteria that eats plastic may sound too good to be true since we have so much plastic waste littering the planet. The rouble with plastic eating bacterias is that they aren’t efficient nor can they survive long outside the lab. So a research team turned to machine learning, or
Continue readingTag: plastic
Things Are Good: Canada Starts Single Use Plastic Ban
Canada joins other nations in the banning of wasteful single use plastics starting at the end of this month. Canada’s plastic ban is being rolled out in an incremental fashion with the manufacture and importation of certain plastic items banned first, so what’s in stock now can still be used.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Hussein Kadhem Al-Hakeim et al. examine the relationship between oxygen deprivation and severe long COVID symptoms. Crawford Kilian makes the case for an inquiry to show where our pandemic response has gone wrong, while recognizing that the people responsible for those very decisions
Continue readingThings Are Good: Plastic-Free Cucumbers Hit the Shelves in Canada
Canadians love putting food in petroleum products so much that we ship cucumbers and milk in plastic (yes, you can buy milk in plastic sacks). Thankfully, Canadians are starting to understand that plastic wrapping is wasteful and really bad for the environment. An agricultural company in Ontario has created a
Continue readingThings Are Good: Existing Water Filters Can Catch Microplastics
Plastic waste is everywhere and the tinier the plastic is the harder it is to deal with. These microplastics are proving to be very difficult to address which has sent researchers looking into all sort of solutions. One solution is already up and running in some places: sand filters in
Continue readingThings Are Good: EU Says No to Forever Chemicals
The dangers of microplastics and “forever chemicals” are well known and now legislators in the European Union are acting to protect their people from these primarily petroleum-based creations. New restrictions on what chemicals can be used and sold a in the EU will add to their already strong protections. The
Continue readingThings Are Good: A Kenyan Factory Turns Plastic Waste into Bricks
Nzambi Matee got tired of waiting for a solution to all the plastic waste she saw, so she created a company to deal with it. The material engineer opened a factory in Kenya where they turn plastics which can’t be recycled (with traditional methods) into bricks. She designed a concoction
Continue readingThings Are Good: This Company Makes Products Out of Thin Air by Capturing co2
A materials company in Berlin wants to build the world using carbon taken our of the air – making it the first carbon-negative materials manufacture. Made of Air has sunglasses on the market and provides cladding material for buildings all made from a tried and tested method of capturing air
Continue readingCarbon49 – Sustainability for Canadian businesses: A Fresh Take On Sustainability In The Meal Kit Industry
Meal kits have found a place in the marketplace because they make home cooking easy and convenient. But they have a higher environmental footprint than traditional grocery shopping. A new zero waste approach by Fresh Prep allows customers to enjoy the convenience of meal kits while being sustainable, all without
Continue readingThings Are Good: Plastics are Toxic in Canada
The advertising around plastics highlights how recyclable it is, but in reality plastics are a pollutant that barely get recycled in a meaningful way (this is why the 3Rs are in a particular order: reduce, reuse, recycle). Plastics come in all sorts of densities, colours, and strength, but are traditionally
Continue readingCarbon49 – Sustainability for Canadian businesses: Sustainable Bioplastics: Are They Really Greener?
Canada announced its commitment to ban a list of non-reusable plastic products by 2022. Restaurants, grocers, and other businesses will need to quickly find a viable solution to replace single-use plastics. We take a look at bioplastics and see if it’s a good alternative. In August 2020, Dalhousie University reported that 70%
Continue readingCarbon49 – Sustainability for Canadian businesses: Sustainable Bioplastics: Are They Really Greener?
Canada announced its commitment to ban a list of non-reusable plastic products by 2022. Restaurants, grocers, and other businesses will need to quickly find a viable solution to replace single-use plastics. We take a look at bioplastics and see if it’s a good alternative. In August 2020, Dalhousie University reported that 70%
Continue readingCarbon49 – Sustainability for Canadian businesses: Sustainable Bioplastics: Are They Really Greener?
Canada announced its commitment to ban a list of non-reusable plastic products by 2022. Restaurants, grocers, and other businesses will need to quickly find a viable solution to replace single-use plastics. We take a look at bioplastics and see if it’s a good alternative. In August 2020, Dalhousie University reported that 70%
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Alberta and the plastics promise
In the 1967 film “The Graduate,” young Benjamin Braddock (played by Dustin Hoffman), fresh out of college, is taken aside by a middle-aged neighbour at a cocktail party and offered some advice about his future. The neighbour has one word of advice for him, just one word—“plastics.” It was good
Continue readingThings Are Good: Canada set to ban Single-Use Plastics by 2021
The Canadian government announced plans this week to ban all single-use plastics by 2021. This is a great step in protecting the environment from the wastefulness of stars and plastic bags. The Canadian federal plan is to try to get manufactures of the plastic items to foot the bill and
Continue readingThings Are Good: New York Banning Plastic Bags
Everyone knows the harm plastics are bringing to the world, especially to marine animals and waterways. In an effort to reduce the harm done by plastics New York state is banning single use plastic bags. This is a great step due to the sheer size of their population and will
Continue readingThings Are Good: How to Remove Plastic From Your Life
We all know that plastics are bad for the earth and the oceans. Indeed, a study published last month found that plastic was found in the deepest ocean dwelling animals. Obviously that’s not good, but what we as individuals can do some good for the planet by removing plastics from
Continue readingThings Are Good: Europe Bans Single Use Plastics
Plastics last a long time before breaking down, which makes them a major problem for the natural environment. This year we’ve seen a big push to ban “single use” plastics due to the environmental damage they bring. Plastic bag bans have been implemented in reasonable places and now the European
Continue readingThings Are Good: Stick it to Straws
People are more aware than ever before about the damage to our planet caused by plastics. The whole life-cycle of plastics causes harm from collecting non-renewable oils to the long lifetime of most plastic products. Plastic has even been found at the bottom of the Mariana Trench (video below)! Of
Continue readingThings Are Good: Breakdown Plastic Using Digestive Enzymes
Recycling polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastics is difficult as the hard material is tough to breakdown. For years there’s been research into using bacteria to eat the plastic to help with getting the plastic to reusable state. This year a bacterial enzyme called “PETase” has been found to be highly effective
Continue reading