ocean plastic: green chemistry and circular economy solutions
TRANSCRIPT
www.neuworldplas-cs.comOctober19,2016 1
Julie Noblitt, NeuWorld Plastics SJSU GreenTalk - October 19, 2016
Ocean Plastic: Green Chemistry and Circular Economy Solutions
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HIDDEN AGENDA How can engineers use the concepts of the circular economy and green chemistry to make a difference and make a living in the era of the Anthropocene?
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BorninParisGrewupinNortheast
U.S.
MajoredinAsianStudies
WorkedinPublishing
CareerPivot-MBA Entrepreneur
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Introduction Julie Noblitt
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• Plastic: A Toxic Love Story
• Fast-paced • Packed with info
Five Dominant Types
1. Polyethylene – milk jugs, frisbees, grocery bags, artificial hips
2. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) – shower curtains, house siding, water pipes
3. Polypropylene – molded chairs, food containers
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4. Polystyrene – combs, hangers, disposable cups, styrofoam
5. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) – soda bottles, clothing, carpet
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Those five make up about 75 percent of the roughly one hundred billion pounds of plastic produced and sold annually in the United States.
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Plastics constitute the nation’s 3rd largest manufacturing industry, behind only cars and steel.
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“Nurdles” • ~28K pounds of them
per hour per plant • 4% of the global supplies
of oil and gas is used as plastic feedstock
• Another 4% is used to manufacture them
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“It's day 26 and I'm now wearing 73 pounds of trash.”
Rob Greenfield October 2016
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“Humans are just a
little plastic now.”
Washington Post (1972)
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Pthalates make plastics soft & flexible Endocrine disruptor Found in food packaging, shower curtains, teething rings
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Midway albatross with 588 individual pieces of plastic in its stomach.
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Fish larvae mistake microplastic for something nutritious and gorge themselves on it.
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I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.
-Angela Davis
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Momentum! This problem requires us to think both big and small
What I Do - Small Things – Decline single-use plastics - “No straw, please.” – Reuse anything I can, as many times as I can. – Make, don’t buy, when possible. – Consider packaging when I buy. – Bring my own water bottle and coffee mug. – Microwave in glass, not plastic.
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1. Waste prevention 2. Atom economy 3. Less hazardous chemical synthesis 4. Designing safer chemicals 5. Safer solvents and auxiliaries 6. Design for energy efficiency 7. Use of renewable feedstocks 8. Reduce derivatives 9. Catalysis 10. Design for degradation 11. Real-time pollution prevention 12. Safer chemistry for accident prevention
Emerging Solutions: Bioplastics
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Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA)
Future?
• Mining plastic from sea and land. • All plastic ever produced is still with us. • It’s too valuable to throw away. • Triple bottom line value if it can be done
at scale.
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“We need big thinkers thinking big. If you had to choose any time in the course of human history to be alive, you’d choose this one.”
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