My perspective is a little skewed. In Northern California, we banned styrofoam years ago. Very few businesses use plastic bags. It's very common to get a biodegradable bag for your groceries. Mandatory composting in the city may have facilitated that.
The article gives me hope that other plastics, such as plastic wrap on meats and vegetables in the market can be replaced soon.
I wonder if more post-consumer products like Saran Wrap or Tupperware containers can benefit from this project and change for the better.
Biodegradable and compostable packaging is really new, so I doubt if it's in use enough yet to even add up to 1%, at least not in the US. But it's emerging. There are a couple of examples from BASF in this slideshow, one for food packaging and one for agriculture: http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1392&doc_id=242634 After all, we have to start somewhere and the sooner we start the sooner Beth (and a few million other people) can stop having nightmares.
Beth, a biodegradable packaging would be a good thing. We compost, and if the packaging could be added to the mix, that would cut down on landfill mass and help the garden. I wonder, though, what percentage of the market these packaging materials make up.
Helping reduce waste and preventing food spoilage are admirable and necessary goals for food packaging going forward. Given the amount of trash still littering our streets and sidewalks, I'm hoping this same sustainable packaging effort will address biodegradable packaging so I won't be haunted by the mountains of trash piling up all over our planet.
We looked at a number of sources to determine this year's greenest cars, from KBB to automotive trade magazines to environmental organizations. These 14 cars emerged as being great at either stretching fuel or reducing carbon footprint.
Researchers at MIT and Sandia National Labs have observed a reaction in lithium-air batteries that could help improve the design of these cells for electric vehicles and other applications.
Healthcare might seem to be an unlikely target application for the Internet of Things technology, but recent developments show small ways that big-data is going to make an impact on patient care moving into the future.
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A quick look into the merger of two powerhouse 3D printing OEMs and the new leader in rapid prototyping solutions, Stratasys. The industrial revolution is now led by 3D printing and engineers are given the opportunity to fully maximize their design capabilities, reduce their time-to-market and functionally test prototypes cheaper, faster and easier. Bruce Bradshaw, Director of Marketing in North America, will explore the large product offering and variety of materials that will help CAD designers articulate their product design with actual, physical prototypes. This broadcast will dive deep into technical information including application specific stories from real world customers and their experiences with 3D printing. 3D Printing is
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