The American public generates tons of plastic waste each year but the researchers, students and professors at the ASU Biodesign Institute continue to find new methods of reusing or destroying these materials in order to combat their growing pollution of the planet.
Tim Long, who has a doctorate in chemistry and is the director for the Biodesign Center for Sustainable Macromolecular Materials and Manufacturing, gave a lecture on April 6 and responded to audience questions regarding the impact of the various types of plastic utilized in daily life.
“A Sip of Science” is an award-winning series put on by the Biodesign Institute that gives lectures and holds discussions from faculty members or experts on subjects that the institute is studying or showcasing.
Since its 2018 start date, the series has had over 10 of these events, and the series was named “Best Way to Drink and Learn” in the Best of Phoenix 2020 listing by the Phoenix New Times.
The event staff encourages participants of any kind to enroll through the Biodesign Institute website and attend the meetings when they continue in the next academic year.
This lecture and ensuing discussion was the finale of this ASU academic year’s set of “A Sip of Science” meetings in which a lecturer presents and then answers questions about a specific subject relevant to the Biodesign Institute.
Long began by addressing the concerns that students, faculty, and the general public have with the various different recycling codes and whether or not they can safely dispose of their plastics without extensive dismantling or sorting.
“When we have all of these different polymers, we have to separate them, we have to collect them and you’re going to take them out of your house and put them in the bin and take it to the road in hopes that you’re doing the right thing for the environment,” Long said.
Long continued his presentation with information regarding the usage of plastic bottles in the United States, the amount of plastic being deposited into the ocean on a yearly basis, and the large influx of plastic being improperly disposed of during the COVID-19 pandemic with regards to disposable masks and other highly demanded items.
“Every hour in the United States we use so many PET bottles, we use 2.5 million per hour,” Long said.
According to information referenced by Long, the majority of recyclable materials in the U.S. do not end up being properly processed, and the influx of pandemic response tools such as masks and other disposable byproducts of the pandemic has increased the issues with recycling programs and plastic pollution.
“Eight million metric tons of plastic enter our oceans every year, that’s not acceptable. 9% is the recycling rate in the United States,” Long said.
One of the major questions from the audience involved whether or not small activities of composting, recycling or reusing items make a significant contribution. Long assured the audience that, through each type of individual contribution, those people’s small activities do make minimal impacts that compile over time to create larger effects.
“At the end of the day we have to worry about 1.6 million plastic protective goggles, 76 million examination masks, and 89 million medical masks,” Long said.
Long discussed that the small activities to reduce a large number of plastic flooding landfills and the environment contribute to what he called a “circular plastic economy,” in which all plastic materials would go through a complete recycling process over time that would be self-sustainable.
“We need to rethink a new, circular plastic economy, and I think that’s the challenge, that’s what we’re trying to do at the Biodesign Institute, and the way for us to tackle that is very interdisciplinarily,” Long said.
Long said that the center has received a research award in order to pursue the 3D printing of a natural rubber latex material, which could potentially make the tire industry significantly more sustainable. Through the utilization of 3D printers, Long’s team seeks to create a natural rubber material that can replace current petroleum car tires.
Long mentioned that the Biodesign Institute and its affiliated programs are consistently trying to find new innovative ways to make certain products more sustainable as well as ways to remove or recycle excess plastic. He said that even simple acts such as utilizing old tires on playground surfaces or composting can contribute to a circular economy that will increase sustainability over time.
Some audience members expressed concerns about our reliance on fossil fuels in order to power a significant portion of homes as well as the transportation industry. Even though more things may be powered by renewable energy in the near future, if we completely eliminate the need for fossil fuels in the transportation industry, then companies will still utilize the petroleum for plastic.
With Earth Day on April 22, Long said that eco-conscientious people, especially young people, who are interested in ecologically friendly activities and innovations can look to art, medical and architectural innovations to find inspiration for future ecological pursuits. Whether a person begins a composting bin for their apartment complex or a person invents an environmentally friendly building material, innovation that replaces plastic materials continues to shape the future.
ASU continues its sustainability efforts through programs such as their partnership with the Salt River Project to combat climate change and their Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems. Each of the sustainability school’s programs is innovating ways to make ASU and the world more sustainable as the field continues to grow.
ASU continues its sustainability efforts through programs such as their partnership with the Salt River Project to combat climate change and their Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems. Each of the sustainability school’s programs is innovating ways to make ASU and the world more sustainable as the field continues to grow.
Even clubs on the downtown Phoenix campus such as Changemaker Central participate in sustainability activities through ASU, and the club often offers grants and organizes volunteer events to support innovative projects as well as the community.
In February 2021, student Jasmine Chase received a grant from Changemaker Central in order to further develop her 3D printing of recycled plastics, which would create a method for the reuse of plastics that pollute the environment.
“I hope to develop a device that enables people to make their own laser printer toner out of their recyclables,” Chase said in an interview for ASU’s Barrett the Honors College. “Imagine if you could put a plastic water bottle into a machine, have the bottle chopped up into fine little pieces, pigmented, and then be fed into a laser printer cartridge. That’s what I’m hoping to develop.”
The Biodesign Institute said it hopes the events can return to their restaurant setting in the near future. Since the pandemic expanded the reach of these events, specifically the opportunity to stream through Zoom in order to maintain social distancing, Julie Kurth, the assistant director of Marketing in Strategic Marketing and Communications at ASU Knowledge Enterprise said the Biodesign Institute may continue to hold the seminars virtually in order to allow more people to engage with the material.
Kurth shared information regarding the upcoming events in the fall, the possibility of a return to in-person events as well as the potential for a continuation holding the seminars virtually.
“We’re going to host a few in the fall. September 7 and October 5 are our next ones, and that will be the first time we’ve done it in the fall,” Kurth said. “Typically when they’re in-person, we try to make it an intimate event so the scientist can kind of get to know people in the community.”
Contact the reporter at emrosale@asu.edu.
