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Sustainable Flip-Flops | Earth Wise

September 9, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Sustainable technologies

Flip-flops are the world’s most popular shoe.  They are lightweight, comfortable, affordable, and durable.  In fact, the global market for flip-flops is expected to reach a whopping $23.8 billion by the year 2025. 

But the popularity comes with a price.  Flip-flops account for a troubling percentage of plastic waste that ends up in our landfills and oceans.  As a result, demand for alternatives is compelling researchers to develop more sustainable versions of the popular footwear.

Scientists at the University of California San Diego have spent years working on this issue, and recently announced a breakthrough.  According to a study recently published in Bioresource Technology Reports, the research team has formulated polyurethane foams – made from algae oil – to meet commercial specifications for mid-sole shoes and the foot-bed of flip-flops.   In other words, the scientists have created sustainable, biodegradable, and consumer-ready materials that could replace plastics in some footwear. 

The UC San Diego scientists collaborated with Algenesis Materials – a technology startup – on the research.  Together, they worked to not only create the shoes, but to degrade them as well.  The team tested their customized foams by immersing them in traditional compost and soil.  The algae-based materials degraded after just 16 weeks.  

The life of any material should be proportionate to the life of the product.  The researchers point out that it doesn’t make sense to create a product that will last 500 years if it’ll only be used for a year or two. 

The research team is currently working on production details with its manufacturing partners.  The creation of biodegradable flip-flops that meet commercial footwear standards could eliminate tons of plastic waste from the environment.   

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Web Links

New science behind algae-based flip-flops

Flip Flops Market Size Worth $23.8 Billion by 2025

Photo, posted December 12, 2019, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

A Squid Skin Blanket

June 25, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Ultra-lightweight space blankets have been around for a long time.  Marathon runners wrap themselves in them to avoid losing body heat after a race.  They are very effective, but the amount of heat that they trap is fixed.  There is no way to regulate how much heat is trapped or released using a space blanket.

Researchers at the University of California, Irvine have developed a next-generation, adaptive space blanket that allows users to control their temperature.  The inspiration for the design was the skins of various species of squids, octopi and cuttlefish.  The ability of these aquatic creatures to camouflage themselves by rapidly changing color is due, in part, to skin cells called chromatophores that can instantly change from tiny points to flattened disks.

The Irvine researchers have developed a material that contains a layer of tiny metal islands that border each other.  In the relaxed state, the islands are bunched together, and the material reflects and traps heat, much like a conventional Mylar space blanket.  But when the material is stretched, the islands spread apart, which allows infrared radiation to go through and heat to escape.

The researchers envision many other applications for the novel material, including adaptable insulation for buildings and tents that can be adapted to different weather conditions.  There is even the possibility of clothing that can be adjusted to suit the comfort of each person.

The new material is lightweight, easy and inexpensive to manufacture, and is durable.  It can be stretched and returned to its original state thousands of times.  Some day we might all be wrapping ourselves in imitation squid skins.

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Web Links

Squid skin inspires creation of next-generation space blanket

Photo, posted May 29, 2005, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Llamas And The Flu

December 21, 2018 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

https://secureservercdn.net/198.71.233.129/22d.937.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/EW-12-21-18-Llamas-and-the-Flu.mp3

Last year’s flu season was the worst in 40 years.  More than 80,000 people died in the U.S. last year from the flu and its complications.  Flu vaccines are the best preventative we have, but there are still high mortality rates around the world.  Some individuals respond poorly to vaccination, and variations in viruses makes targeting with the optimal antigen very difficult.  The World Health Organization estimates that between 290,000 and 650,000 people die from seasonal flu worldwide each year.

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A Supermaterial From Plastic Waste

December 13, 2018 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

https://secureservercdn.net/198.71.233.129/22d.937.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/EW-12-13-18-A-Supermaterial-From-Plastic-Waste.mp3

Researchers at the National University of Singapore have created a way to convert plastic bottle waste into an ultralight aerogel material that has multiple potential applications.

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Designing Plastic To Fall Apart

September 17, 2018 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

https://secureservercdn.net/198.71.233.129/22d.937.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/EW-09-17-18-Designing-Plastic-to-Fall-Apart.mp3

In the 1940s and 1950s, synthetic polymers became very popular.  These man-made materials were designed to be cheap and durable and soon began replacing metals and glass in everything from automobiles and airplanes to bottles and dishes.

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Saildrones For Science

July 11, 2018 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

https://secureservercdn.net/198.71.233.129/22d.937.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/EW-07-11-18-Saildrones-for-Science.mp3

Nine years ago, engineer Richard Jenkins broke the world land speed record for a wind-powered vehicle with a sailboat on wheels driving across a dry lakebed at 126 miles per hour.  After years of engineering development, his technology has now taken on the form of a saildrone that can autonomously sail the sea gathering ecologic, oceanic and atmospheric data.

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Water From Desert Air

May 7, 2018 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

https://secureservercdn.net/198.71.233.129/22d.937.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/EW-05-07-18-Water-from-Desert-Air.mp3

Last spring, we talked about a solar-powered water harvester designed to pull water out of even dry desert air.   The prototype device was described in a paper by scientists at UC Berkeley and MIT in the journal Science.

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