A forthcoming report from the Ohio River Valley Institute shows that chemical recycling projects are unlikely to generate local economic benefits or curtail global plastic pollution. The report, “Chemical Recycling: A False Promise for the Ohio River Valley” explores the unproven mechanics of energy-demanding, waste-intensive chemical recycling processes and the market hurdles likely to inhibit development in central Appalachia.
As part of a government effort to encourage the use of more environmentally friendly building materials, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded a nearly $6.2 million grant to a nonprofit that works with hempcrete, a concrete-like material that’s made with hemp. The Nashville-based Hemp Building Institute, which works with entities that manufacture and…
The world’s tallest building made with industrial hemp has officially opened, marking this as a defining step toward an environmentally sustainable future in the City of Cape Town. The wall of the 12-floor, 54-room Hemp Hotel comprises hempcrete blocks sourced from the cannabis plant and reinforced by concrete. According to Bizcommunity, hemp bricks are known…
Bio-based materials may pose a greater health risk to some of the planet’s most important species than the conventional plastics they are designed to replace, a new study has shown. Such materials are increasingly being advocated as environmentally friendly alternatives to plastics, and used in textiles and products including clothing, wet wipes and period products….
f you were to create a recipe for plastics, you’d need a very big cookbook. In addition to fossil fuel-based building blocks like ethylene and propylene, this ubiquitous material is made from a dizzying amalgam of more than 16,000 chemicals — colorants, flame retardants, stabilizers, lubricants, plasticizers, and other substances, many of whose exact functions,…
https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/new-report-makes-the-case-for-legal-action-over-the-fraud-of-plastic-recycling