Sustainability is a goal that needs to be a priority. Several different industries would stand to benefit from pursuing sustainability goals. We all know that the pervasiveness of plastic is everywhere and plastic will not go away on its own if left to degrade in the environment. Let's talk about how plastic is so resilient and what that means for the environment. But what if there was a way that we could take all of the polyethylene, recycle it, and get a whole range of new uses out of it? That's where some cutting edge research steps in to potentially address the problem. Let's also talk about sustainability in the food and electronics industries as well as new technologies that can be applied there. In all of these cases, inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES) plays a vital role in researching these issues. Image from The Wall Street Journal.

Links to the research discussed in this episode: Recycling single-use polyethylene to get useful products- Celik, Gokhan, et al. “Upcycling Single-Use Polyethylene into High-Quality Liquid Products.” ACS Central Science, vol. 5, no. 11, 2019, pp. 1795–1803., doi:10.1021/acscentsci.9b00722.

Increase sustainability and nutritional value of almond orchards- Jahanzad, Emad, et al. “Orchard Recycling Improves Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Potential of Almond Production Systems.” Plos One, vol. 15, no. 3, 2020, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0229588.

Recycling metals used in circuit boards- Khaliq, Abdul, et al. “Metal Extraction Processes for Electronic Waste and Existing Industrial Routes: A Review and Australian Perspective.” Resources, vol. 3, no. 1, 2014, pp. 152–179., doi:10.3390/resources3010152.


Follow the show on social media: Facebook or Instagram    

Want to get in touch with the show? Please email [email protected] for any questions, episode ideas, or suggestions!

Please consider becoming a patron of the show by signing up on Patreon! It helps the show create new and interesting episodes and you might even have the chance to be on a future episode!

Ver todos los episodios