Environmental Health and Protection Commons^™

Plastic Recycling Is Inefficient And Expensive, Clark S. Adomaitis

Capstones

Plastics production and incineration contributes more than 850 million metric tons to the emissions that are causing climate change. Emissions are growing at a moment when scientists and world leaders are in agreement that they need to dramatically decrease. Environmentalists say that plastic production makes up 4.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. New plastic plants opening in the U.S. do not line up with emission reduction goals.

At the end of plastics’ lives, a lot of what we’re putting into our recycling bins isn’t getting recycled. In fact, only 18% of trash from New York City homes is actually recycled. …

Consumer Perceptions Of Plastic-Free Food Packaging, Cara Conner

Human Nutrition and Hospitality Management Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study surveyed consumers in Fayetteville, Arkansas to assess their perceptions of plastic-free food packaging. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, surveys were administered via email to Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences undergraduate students and faculty at the University of Arkansas. Eleven questions were asked in the survey. Numerical values were assigned to each answer option in order to interpret the results. The factors impacting consumer decisions to purchase foods packaged with or without plastic were ranked from greatest to least: sanitation/safety, availability where shopping, cost, shelf-life, and convenience. Food packaging materials were ranked from most to …

Effectiveness Of Plastic Ordinances In Santa Monica, Ca: Do Regulations At The Municipal Level Reduce Plastic Waste?, John W. Hayes

School of Public Policy Capstones

Plastic is a cheap, robust and versatile material with numerous practical uses that contribute to the convenience of modern day life. However the very same properties that make it uniquely diverse and hardy also contribute to the hazards it poses to the ecosystems and human health. If current consumption and manufacturing practices remain unchanged, there will be hundreds of millions of additional tons of plastic introduced into the environment over the coming decades. To mitigate this issue, some cities, such as Santa Monica, have implemented ordinances and policies directly aimed at this growing problem, albeit with ambiguous results. To better …

On The Plastic-Free Path: Plastic-Free Living, Hannah Natzke

Honors Projects

What is living plastic-free like? This project explores the trials and triumphs of living a plastic-free life. Although this project is only mandates that the participant lives plastic-free for a month, it still investigates the challenges faced by longer plastic-free living.

Sealed For Your Protection, Olive Dunham Werby

Senior Projects Spring 2020

In this project, I ruminate on the shiny, shape shifting polymer saturated world we are continuously creating. Oil, plastic, and fossil fuels are all very convenient for turning a profit, for consuming more and more, for the structures in place today. Concurrently, it is becoming increasingly inconvenient for our future generations to avoid extinction.

Plastics Derived From Derelict Fishing Gear In The Arctic: Looking At Sustainable Fisheries For A Strategy Of Mitigation, Remediation And Prevention In Iceland And Alaska, Natalie S. Armstrong

Pitzer Senior Theses

Marine plastics are not just a problem, they are a silent, sinister epidemic. Marine plastics are the largest economic and ecological threat to our marine ecosystems, particularly marine plastics derived from lost and or discarded fishing gear, which affects sensitive marine communities, the chemical composition of the ocean water, and the physical makeup of the seafloor. With 6.4 million tons of marine debris entering our oceans annually, a third of which is lost fishing gear, it is estimated that, by weight, in 2050 there will be an accumulation of more plastic than fish in the ocean (Heath, 2018; Wilcox, 2015). …

Evolving Pollution Prevention, Fall/Winter 2008, Issue 17

Sustain Magazine

No abstract provided.

Plastic Pollution, Fall/Winter 2019, Issue 39.3

Sustain Magazine

No abstract provided.

Plastic Pollution, Fall/Winter 2019, Issue 39.2

Sustain Magazine

No abstract provided.

Plastic Pollution, Fall/Winter 2019, Issue 39

Sustain Magazine

No abstract provided.

Trending @ Rwu Law: Julia Wyman's Post: The Threat Of Marine Debris 12-13-2016, Julia Wyman

Law School Blogs

No abstract provided.

How The Presence Of Plastic In The North Pacific Gyre Affects The Growth Of Thalassiosira Through Remote Sensing And Laboratory Replication, Jordynn Brennan, Hesham El-Askary

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Through the use of remote sensing, we are able to determine the approximate location of the garbage patch in the North Pacific Gyre. Though remote sensing does not penetrate the surface of the ocean, monthly satellite images can be analyzed to determine the rate of growth or rate of decrease of certain parameters, such as atmospheric gases, phytoplankton, and dissolved organic matter. Over the past decade, data from the Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (Giovanni program) has shown a significant increase in dissolved organic matter and chlorophyll a content in the area of the North Pacific Garbage …