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Breaking Down Polystyrene | Earth Wise

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The proliferation of global plastic waste continues to be a growing problem for the world.  Hundreds of millions of tons of plastics are produced each year and most of it is used once and then discarded.  The properties that make plastics so attractive – durability and chemical stability – make it difficult to do anything with discarded plastics other than deposit them in landfills – where they don’t easily degrade over time – or burn them, which dumps carbon dioxide and various hazardous gases into the atmosphere.

Polystyrene is one of the most widely used plastics.  It is found in foam packaging materials, disposable food containers, plastic cutlery, storage containers, and many other places. 

Recycling plastics like polystyrene is generally not economically feasible.  Sorting plastics by type is time and labor intensive and the chemical processes required to break down plastics into usable precursor materials require significant energy input and the use of toxic solvents.

Recently, a team of scientists at Ames Laboratory in Iowa has developed a process based on ball-milling that deconstructs commercial polystyrene in a single step, at room temperature, in ambient atmosphere, and in the absence of harmful solvents.

Ball-milling is a technique that places materials in a milling vial with metal ball bearings which is then agitated to initiate a chemical reaction.  This approach is known as mechanochemistry.

The method represents an important breakthrough that enables dismantling of a polymer that includes its chemical breakdown without requiring solvents or the high temperatures generally needed to thermally decompose it.  This discovery opens up new avenues for low-temperature recovery of monomers from polymer-based systems that include composites and laminates.  It could be a very useful weapon in the battle against plastic waste.

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Polystyrene waste is everywhere, and it’s not biodegradable. Scientists just found a way to break it down.

Photo, posted December 11, 2010, courtesy of Warrenski via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Wildfires And Superfund Sites | Earth Wise

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Thousands of contaminated sites exist nationally due to hazardous waste being dumped, left out in the open, or otherwise improperly managed. These sites include manufacturing facilities, processing plants, landfills, and mining sites.  A Congressional act in 1980 established authority by the EPA to ultimately clean up these “Superfund” sites.

According to a government survey last year, 945 Superfund sites are vulnerable to hurricanes, flooding, sea level rise, increased precipitation, or wildfires, all of which are intensifying as the climate warms.   In particular, there are 245 sites vulnerable to wildfires and 68 of them have recently seen wildfires approach.

A comprehensive investigation by Inside Climate News, NBC News, and the Texas Observer has found that the threat presented by wildfires is exceeding authorities’ ability to adequately prepare and respond.  Fires at Superfund sites could release toxins ranging from acid mine drainage to radioactive smoke.

There have already been a number of close calls.  The 2013 Patch Springs Fire near Salt Lake City came within 10 miles of the Tooele Army Depot, a Superfund site with 902 ammunition bunkers along with soil and groundwater contaminated with hazardous chemicals.

The 2018 Carr Fire in Northern California over swept the Iron Mountain Mine Superfund site and threatened to release corrosive chemicals into the watershed.

For sites where no polluter can be made to pay and the EPA lacks cleanup funds, the agency will need to design protections that shield the sites from wildfires as long as the contamination remains. 

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Fueled by Climate Change, Wildfires Threaten Toxic Superfund Sites

Photo, posted July 26, 2018, courtesy of the Bureau of Land Management California via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Green Bills Pass In New York | Earth Wise

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In late July, the two houses of the New York legislature passed a number of environmental bills covering a wide range of topics.

These included a bill to add protected status for streams that support fisheries and non-contact recreation.  A second bill bans the use of PFAS in food packaging.  A third bill classifies all wastes resulting from oil and gas exploration, development, extraction or production as hazardous waste, closing a previous loophole in the law.

A fourth bill requires water works corporations with more than 1,000 service connections to post their annual water supply statements online, thereby providing transparency and openness to water quality data.  A fifth bill expands protections for endangered species to protect them from environmental rollbacks by the federal government.

A sixth bill prohibits non-electric vehicles from parking in spaces designated for electric vehicle charging, thereby establishing penalties for this practice that is often done for spite.  A seventh bill bans the use of glyphosate – the herbicide found in Roundup and other products – on state property.

An eighth bill reduces the use of road salt in the Adirondacks.  A ninth bill requires supermarkets to make good faith efforts to donate edible excess food to qualifying entities such as food pantries, food banks, or similar entities.   A tenth bill bans certain uses of trichloroethylene or TCE, including as a vapor degreaser, an intermediate chemical to produce other chemicals, a refrigerant, or an extraction solvent.

When signed by the governor, these ten pieces of legislation will help protect New York’s environment, water, and health.  It was a busy session for green legislation.

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Several Green Bills Pass in State Legislature

Photo, posted September 12, 2018, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Safe And Simple Hydrogen Peroxide

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We don’t think about hydrogen peroxide very often.  Perhaps we have a bottle of it under our bathroom sink that we haven’t touched in a few years.   But it is an important product manufactured in the millions of tons each year and the basis of a $6 billion global business.

Hydrogen peroxide is widely used as an antiseptic, a detergent, in cosmetics, as a bleaching agent, in water purification, and in many other applications.  It is produced in industrial concentrations of up to 60% in solution with water in order to maximize the economics of transportation.  This makes transportation hazardous and costly because the concentrated form is unstable.  Most applications use a far more diluted form.

Researchers at Rice University have developed a new method for producing hydrogen peroxide that is much simpler and safer than the current technology, which actually dates back to the 1930s.  The Rice technique requires only air, water and electricity to produce the chemical.  The electrosynthesis process, which is detailed in the journal Science, uses an oxidized carbon nanoparticle-based catalyst.

The process could enable point-of-use production of pure hydrogen peroxide solutions, which would eliminate the need to transport the hazardous concentrated chemical.  The use of a solid electrolyte instead of the traditional liquid electrolyte eliminates the need for product separation or purification that is part of the current technology.

In the future, instead of storing containers of hydrogen peroxide, hospitals that use it as a disinfectant could turn on a spigot and get, for example a 3% solution on demand.  Instead of storing chemicals to disinfect swimming pool water, future homeowners could flick a switch and turn on their peroxide reactor to clean their pools.

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Water + air + electricity = hydrogen peroxide

Photo, posted April 19, 2009, courtesy of Robert Taylor via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Coal Isn’t Even Cheap Anymore

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Coal has historically been very cheap compared with many other energy sources and the reason is that it is so plentiful.  The United States has especially abundant quantities of the stuff – perhaps a quarter of the world’s estimated recoverable reserves.  Estimates are that at the rate at which we are currently using coal here, the remaining reserves would last about 325 years. 

That would be great, of course, if the use of coal was not relentlessly destructive to the environment, hazardous to human health, and a major driver for global warming.  Despite all of that, the Trump administration is a big booster of coal.

But coal has little chance of holding on to its current status, much less having some kind of renaissance.  According to a new report from renewables analysis firm Energy Innovation, nearly 75% of coal-fired power plants in the United States generate electricity that is more expensive than local wind and solar resources.   Wind power, in particular, can at times provide electricity at half the cost of coal.

Wind and solar power are growing by leaps and bounds.  The Guardian reported that by 2025, enough wind and solar power will be generated at low enough prices in the U.S. that it could replace 86% of the entire U.S. coal fleet with lower-cost electricity.

It has been known for some time that there are places where the so-called coal crossover has already taken place.   But this is actually far more widespread than previously thought.  Substantial coal capacity is currently at risk in North Carolina, Florida, Georgia and Texas.  By 2025, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin will join their ranks.

The biggest threat to coal is not regulators or environmentalists; it is economics.

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Renewables Cheaper Than 75 Percent of U.S. Coal Fleet, Report Finds

Photo, posted May 1, 2011, courtesy of Alan Stark via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Pesticides And Food Insecurity

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A newly released report by the United Nations takes a strong stance against the use of industrial agrochemicals, saying that they are not necessary for feeding the world.  The continued use of pesticides at the rate the world currently does in fact can have very detrimental consequences.

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