Trying not to fluff it: Dealing with plastic microfibres

I bought some new socks this week. So what, you might ask. My new socks are lovely and warm and very fluffy – just right for autumn. But, when I wore them, they moulted their fluff all over my feet, and if I'm not careful ...

New upcycling system for commercial polyesters

While plastics or synthetic polymers have many useful properties, their mismanagement has resulted in widespread pollution that chokes up our ecosystems. As a solution to this, many synthetic polymers are sent for reprocessing ...

EU unveils 'sustainable' fashion push

The EU on Wednesday announced proposals to crack down on "fast fashion" by making clothing easier to repair and more durable as part of a push to bolster environmental standards.

An important step toward strong, durable bio-based plastics

In a recent paper in Nature Communications, researchers at the Industrial Sustainable Chemistry group led by Prof. Gert-Jan Gruter take an important step towards the production of fully bio-based, rigid polyesters.

One-step production of aromatic polyesters by E. coli strains

KAIST systems metabolic engineers have defined a novel strategy for microbial aromatic polyesters production fused with synthetic biology from renewable biomass. The team of Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee of the Department ...

Mystery of biological plastic synthesis machinery unveiled

Plastics and other polymers are used every day. These polymers are mostly made from fossil resources through petrochemical refinery process. On the other hand, many microorganisms naturally synthesize polyesters known as ...

Obtaining polyester from plant oil

The development of future technologies that are not based on mineral oil and can be used for producing chemicals and plastics is one of the major tasks in modern materials science and a key challenge that needs to be addressed ...

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