Day: August 8, 2019

Packaging, Pharmaceuticals and personal care products

Is sustainability scalable for beauty brands?

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Read the full story in Glossy.

According to market research firm Euromonitor International, global consumer demand for plastics exceeded 2.2 trillion units in 2018, and the beauty industry specifically accounted for nearly 153 billion units of that larger pie. What’s even more telling is that 40% of those products were packaged with single-use plastic, meaning that it was unable to be recycled and ultimately ended up in a landfill. While beauty giants like L’Occitane, L’Oréal Group and Unilever are responding to the environmental problem with vigor, the questions around sustainable alternatives remains.

Agriculture, Research

USDA science agencies’ relocation may have violated law, inspector general report says

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Read the full story in the Washington Post.

A federal watchdog challenged the Trump administration’s authority to move two USDA science agencies out of Washington, in a report issued a few days after Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, praised the move for encouraging federal scientists to quit their jobs.

The plan to relocate the two agencies from the District to Kansas City may have run afoul of the 2018 appropriations act, according to a report released Monday from the USDA’s Office of Inspector General.

Colleges and universities, Sustainability

ANGLES: A Network for Graduate Leadership in Sustainability

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The mission of ANGLES is to “grow the capacity for collective leadership and impact on sustainability by accelerating and improving leadership development in graduate education.”

The network began when the Leopold Leadership Program in partnership with the Boreas Leadership Program at the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota, convened a meeting from February 9-11, 2017. It was attended by approximately 20 program staff, graduate students, and faculty champions from 13 institutions who are engaged in developing and delivering graduate leadership training in the U.S. and Canada. The purpose was to explore the need for such training, obstacles to providing it, and interest within the group in forming and providing concrete support for a resource exchange network on graduate leadership training.

Use the web site to explore graduate leadership programs, find additional resources, and learn about their upcoming book.

Climate change, Public policy

Climate Could Be an Electoral Time Bomb, Republican Strategists Fear

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Read the full story in the New York Times.

When election time comes next year, Will Galloway, a student and Republican youth leader at Clemson University, will look for candidates who are strong on the mainstream conservative causes he cares about most, including gun rights and opposing abortion.

But there is another issue high on his list of urgent concerns that is not on his party’s agenda: climate change.

Chemical manufacturing, Circular economy

Eastman advances two chemical recycling options

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Read the full story at GreenBiz.

Going circular seems to be all the rage, and that is certainly a good thing for both mankind’s and the planet’s future. But for a manufacturer, making the shift to circular processes or materials is not without its risks.

Perhaps few companies know that better than Eastman, the specialty chemical company, ranked No. 32 globally for sales in that sector. Back in the 1990s, Eastman made a major investment to develop a commercial line of PET materials that used 50 percent chemically recycled content. That effort was ahead of its time, and the line was discontinued because the demand never materialized.

Now, sensing the shifting winds, Eastman is back with not one, but two new circular production processes.

Recycling

Seabirds eating plastic. Recyclers struggling. This is what California’s waste crisis looks like

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Read the full story at Cal Matters.

With China no longer a market for our disposables, the stuff we recycle increasingly winds up in landfills anyway. Localities across California are struggling to cope—and hoping not to undo the decades of work that made household recycling a habit.

Packaging, Product stewardship

Other Voices: Three insights reusable packaging management can help uncover

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Read the full story in Modern Materials Handling.

All types of reusable packaging — including bulk containers, dunnage, pallets, metal racks and totes — can benefit from proper management to uncover insights and continuously improve.

Circular economy, Sustainable design

Google is making a new commitment to sustainable design

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Read the full story in Fast Company.

The company announced today that by 2022, all “Made by Google” products will include recycled materials. And that’s just part of a larger rethinking about how to change its design process to incorporate sustainable thinking.

Awards & contests, Green chemistry, Health care facilities, Pollution prevention

FDA launches innovation challenge to boost ethylene oxide sterilization alternatives

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Read the full story from MedTech Dive.

FDA Monday launched two innovation challenges to incentivize the creation of alternative medical device sterilization methods and methods to reduce ethylene oxide (EtO) emissions.

The move comes months after the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency closed the Sterigenics’ Willowbrook plant earlier this year. The Willowbrook plant, which processed sterilization for 594 types of medical devices, closed due to high levels of EtO emissions. In 2016, EPA found EtO to be linked linked to breast cancer, lymphoma, and leukemia.

The agency will accept submissions until Oct. 15 for both challenges and plans to announce the winners in December. FDA said it will accept as many ideas as resources allow, but spokesperson Stephanie Caccomo told MedTech Dive the agency can’t share “further details on resources that will be allocated.”

Energy, Green chemistry, Publications

Promising new solar-powered path to hydrogen fuel production

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Read the full story from Lehigh University.

Engineers have utilized a single enzyme biomineralization process to create a catalyst that uses the energy of captured sunlight to split water molecules to produce hydrogen. The synthesis process is performed at room temperature and under ambient pressure, overcoming the sustainability and scalability challenges of previously reported methods.

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