Plastics / en Researchers find high levels of banned toxic chemicals in toys and headphones /news/researchers-find-high-levels-banned-toxic-chemicals-toys-and-headphones <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Researchers find high levels of banned toxic chemicals in toys and headphones</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2023-05/GettyImages-641088726-crop.jpeg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=FCmd8_aD 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2023-05/GettyImages-641088726-crop.jpeg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=wvgc9__e 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2023-05/GettyImages-641088726-crop.jpeg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=qDTeRKdR 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2023-05/GettyImages-641088726-crop.jpeg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=FCmd8_aD" alt="a variety of plastic children's toys"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Christopher.Sorensen</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2023-05-02T10:42:45-04:00" title="Tuesday, May 2, 2023 - 10:42" class="datetime">Tue, 05/02/2023 - 10:42</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item"><p>(photo by Carol Yepes/Getty Images)</p> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/josslyn-johnstone" hreflang="en">Josslyn Johnstone</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/breaking-research" hreflang="en">Breaking Research</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/chemistry" hreflang="en">Chemistry</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/plastics" hreflang="en">Plastics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research-innovation" hreflang="en">Research &amp; Innovation</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/sustainability" hreflang="en">Sustainability</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Chlorinated paraffins, a class of toxic chemicals commonly used to soften plastic toys or make computer wires pliable,&nbsp;have been prohibited in Canada since 2013 due to their known health harm&nbsp;– but a new University of Toronto study found they remain prevalent in many everyday household objects.</p> <p>Since the chemicals,&nbsp;banned under the&nbsp;<em>Canadian Environmental Protection Act,</em> are still being detected at high concentrations in the dust and air of indoor environments, researchers in the&nbsp;department of chemistry&nbsp;in the Faculty of Arts &amp; Science set out to investigate the source of these continued emissions.&nbsp;</p> <p>They found high concentrations of short-chain chlorinated paraffins (SCCPs) in 84 of 96 indoor consumer products they tested, including electronics, children’s toys, clothing, personal care products and indoor paints. The results were <a href="https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2023/EM/D2EM00494A">published recently in the journal&nbsp;<em>Environmental Science: Processes &amp; Impacts</em></a>.</p> <figure role="group" class="caption caption-drupal-media align-left"> <div> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/2023-05/steven-kutarna-portrait_0.jpeg" width="250" height="293" alt="Steven Kutarna"> </div> </div> <figcaption><em>Steven Kutarna</em></figcaption> </figure> <p>“We analyzed a wide array of household items – some newly purchased from Toronto retailers, others donated by lab volunteers – hoping to confirm that these chemicals were no longer present,”&nbsp;says lead author&nbsp;<strong>Steven Kutarna</strong>, a recent PhD graduate of the department of chemistry. “Instead, we were surprised to find chlorinated paraffins in over 87 per cent of these products that are currently marketed in Canada.”</p> <p>The researchers said they were also surprised to learn&nbsp;that certain products contained extremely high concentrations of the chemicals.&nbsp;Headphones and computer wires had the highest levels, followed by plastic children’s toys and toy packaging.</p> <p>“We’re particularly concerned about children’s products like teething toys&nbsp;because kids are putting these toys in their mouths – a direct route for exposure,” says co-author&nbsp;<strong>Hui Peng</strong>, an assistant professor in the department of chemistry.</p> <p>The researchers note that other studies show short-chain chlorinated paraffins can cause cancer in laboratory rats and mice. They also build up in our bodies, food webs and environment. Though there are no human studies, the&nbsp;<a href="https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.2903/j.efsa.2020.5991">International Agency for Research on Cancer&nbsp;classifies SCCPs as possible human carcinogens</a>. And in 2017, the&nbsp;Stockholm Convention&nbsp;<a href="http://chm.pops.int/TheConvention/ThePOPs/ListingofPOPs/tabid/2509/Default.aspx">listed them for elimination due to their persistence and toxicity</a>.</p> <p>Nonetheless, their total global production is huge – more than one million tonnes per year. Since the tested products were largely manufactured for an international market, chlorinated paraffins are likely also found in similar products in the U.S., Europe and beyond.</p> <figure role="group" class="caption caption-drupal-media align-right"> <div> <div class="field field--name-field-media-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/2023-05/hui-peng-portrait_0.jpeg" width="250" height="293" alt="Hui Peng"> </div> </div> <figcaption><em>Hui Peng</em></figcaption> </figure> <p>While the U of T&nbsp;study may be the first systematic investigation of the occurrence of chlorinated paraffins in indoor products, Kutarna notes that there have also been a few studies looking at levels in specific subsets of products – for example,&nbsp;<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28941391/">a recent study&nbsp;found that hand blenders were the source of chlorinated paraffins detected in cat food</a>.</p> <p>“By the same token, we found trace amounts of SCCPs in personal care products we tested,&nbsp;like skin creams and shampoos,” said Kutarna. “These levels are low enough that we suspect they originated from the containers in which these products are stored.”</p> <p>Peng and Kutarna say the ongoing presence of chlorinated paraffins in consumer products is likely due to a lack of rigorous supply chain testing and monitoring.</p> <p>“In Canada, SCCPs are prohibited for import, but there are still a lot of products coming in with high concentrations of these chemicals,” says Kutarna. “They pose a technical challenge to quantify, product testing is expensive and manufacturers don’t disclose them as ingredients. It’s pretty much impossible for consumers to tell if these chemicals are in products.”</p> <p>Peng adds: “Think, for example, of a laptop manufacturer that purchases plastics from many different producers around the world&nbsp;that are not required to list these compounds in their formulations. It’s a major hurdle for regulation&nbsp;and it's possible that many manufacturers are unaware that their products contain SCCPs in the first place.”</p> <p>Peng and Kutarna say the best thing the average consumer can do to limit exposure is minimize their use of plastics, but stress that the onus is on governments and corporations to regulate SCCPs in products.</p> <p>“There needs to be better transparency in the supply chain,” says Peng. “It should be required to report the presence of chlorinated paraffins across all stages of production, and retailers should take action to remove products containing these chemicals from their shelves.</p> <p>“In Canada, we have the regulatory policy in place – so it’s about stronger enforcement.”</p> <p>As for next steps, Peng and Kutarna plan to continue to investigate the presence of chlorinated paraffins in indoor environments, as well as&nbsp;how the chemicals accumulate in fish and other marine life.</p> <p><em>With files from the Green Science Policy Institute</em></p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Tue, 02 May 2023 14:42:45 +0000 Christopher.Sorensen 301481 at Researchers develop coating that prevents synthetic fabrics from shedding harmful microplastics in the wash /news/researchers-develop-coating-prevents-synthetic-fabrics-shedding-harmful-microplastics-wash <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Researchers develop coating that prevents synthetic fabrics from shedding harmful microplastics in the wash</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/view-looking-inside-washing-machine-786810576.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=UfqGz0Yf 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/view-looking-inside-washing-machine-786810576.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=3WTPMfrz 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/view-looking-inside-washing-machine-786810576.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=_CHynxCK 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/view-looking-inside-washing-machine-786810576.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=UfqGz0Yf" alt="view from the inside of a front load washing machine full of clothes"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Christopher.Sorensen</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2023-01-30T12:44:36-05:00" title="Monday, January 30, 2023 - 12:44" class="datetime">Mon, 01/30/2023 - 12:44</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">(photo by iStock)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/taxonomy/term/6738" hreflang="en">Safa Jinje</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/breaking-research" hreflang="en">Breaking Research</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-applied-science-engineering" hreflang="en">Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/mechanical-industrial-engineering" hreflang="en">Mechanical &amp; Industrial Engineering</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/plastics" hreflang="en">Plastics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research-innovation" hreflang="en">Research &amp; Innovation</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/sustainability" hreflang="en">Sustainability</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>A team of researchers at the University of Toronto&nbsp;have designed a solution to reduce the amount of microplastic fibres&nbsp;shed when washing synthetic fabrics.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>In a world swamped by fast fashion – an industry that produces a high-volume of cheaply made clothing at an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/environmental-costs-fast-fashion" target="_blank">immense cost to the environment</a>&nbsp;–&nbsp;more than two thirds of clothes are now made of synthetic fabrics, such as nylon, polyester, acrylic and rayon.&nbsp;</p> <p>When clothes made from synthetic fabrics go in the washing machine, the friction caused by cleaning cycles produces tiny tears that cause microplastic fibres – measuring less than 500 micrometres in length – to break off and make their way down laundry drains to enter waterways, where the particles can be difficult to remove and take decades or more to fully break down.</p> <p>But οresearchers say the slippery solution to this problem could already be in your cabinet:&nbsp;a silicon-based organic polymer coating found in many household products.</p> <p><strong>Kevin Golovin</strong>,&nbsp;an assistant professor of mechanical and industrial engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering, and his team have created a two-layer coating made of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) brushes, which are linear, single polymer chains grown from a substrate to form a nanoscale surface layer.</p> <p>Experiments conducted by the team showed that this coating can significantly reduce microfibre shedding of nylon clothing after repeated laundering, according to <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-022-01059-4">findings published in Nature Sustainability</a>.</p> <p>“My lab has been working with this coating on other surfaces, including glass and metals, for a few years now,” says Golovin. “One of the properties we have observed is that it is quite slippery, meaning it has very low friction.”&nbsp;</p> <p>PDMS is used in shampoos to make hair shiny and slippery, and is also used as a food additive in oils to prevent liquids from foaming when bottled.&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Sudip Kumar Lahiri</strong>, a post-doctoral researcher in Golovin’s lab and lead author of the study, reasoned that reducing&nbsp;the friction that occurs during wash cycles with a PDMS-based fabric finish could prevent fibres from rubbing together and breaking off during laundering.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>One of the biggest challenges the researchers faced during their study was ensuring the PDMS brushes stayed on the fabric. Lahiri, who is a textile engineer by trade, developed a molecular primer based on his understanding of fabric dyes.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>Lahiri figured the type of bonding responsible for keeping dyed apparel colourful after repeated washes would work for the PDMS coating as well.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>Neither the primer nor the PDMS brushes work separately to decrease the microplastic-fibre shedding. But together, they created a strong finish that reduced the release of microfibres by more than 90 per cent&nbsp;after nine washes.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>“PDMS brushes are environmentally friendly because they are not derived from petroleum like many polymers used today,” says Golovin,&nbsp;who was awarded a&nbsp;Connaught New Researcher award&nbsp;for this work.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>“With the addition of Sudip’s primer, our coating is robust enough to remain on the garment and continue to reduce micro-fibre shedding over time.”&nbsp;</p> <p><img alt src="/sites/default/files/SEM%20image%20of%20untreated%20and%20treated%20nylon%20fabrics%20%281%29.jpg" style="width: 750px; height: 502px;"></p> <p><em>Images, taken by a scanning electron microscope, of uncoated (top left, right) and coated (bottom left, right) nylon fabrics after nine washing cycles (Image courtesy of&nbsp;Sudip Lahiri)</em></p> <p>Since PDMS is naturally a water-repellent&nbsp;material, the researchers are currently working on making the coating hydrophilic&nbsp;so that coated fabrics will be better able to wick away sweat.&nbsp;The team has also expanded the research to look beyond nylon fabrics, including polyester and synthetic-fabric blends.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>“Many textiles&nbsp;are made of multiple types of fibres,” says Golovin. “We are working to formulate the correct polymer architecture so that our coating can durably adhere to all of those fibres simultaneously.”&nbsp;</p> <p>Governments around the world have been looking for ways to minimize the debris that comes from washing synthetic fabrics since it can&nbsp;accumulate&nbsp;in oceans, lakes and rivers, threatening marine life and entering the human food chain through its presence in&nbsp;food and tap water. One example is washing machine filters, which have emerged as a leading fix to stop microplastic fibres from entering waterways. In Ontario, legislative members have&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ola.org/en/legislative-business/bills/parliament-42/session-2/bill-102">introduced a bill</a> that would&nbsp;require filters&nbsp;in new washing machines&nbsp;in the province.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>“And yet, when we look at what governments around the world are doing, there is no&nbsp;trend towards preventing the creation of microplastic fibres in the first place,” says&nbsp;Golovin.</p> <p>“Our research is pushing in a different direction, where we actually solve the problem rather than putting a Band-Aid on the issue.”&nbsp; &nbsp;</p> <h3><a href="/news/u-t-researchers-explore-how-prevent-flow-harmful-microplastics-washing-machines-waterways">Read more about the role of washing machines in microplastics pollution</a></h3> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Mon, 30 Jan 2023 17:44:36 +0000 Christopher.Sorensen 179389 at οresearchers use machine learning to speed up counting of microplastics /news/u-t-researchers-use-machine-learning-speed-counting-microplastics <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">οresearchers use machine learning to speed up counting of microplastics</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/zoom-bg_UTSG_04_0.jpg?h=d1cb525d&amp;itok=-Dz1to5P 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/zoom-bg_UTSG_04_0.jpg?h=d1cb525d&amp;itok=ctFzdclT 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/zoom-bg_UTSG_04_0.jpg?h=d1cb525d&amp;itok=VWuntTfg 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/zoom-bg_UTSG_04_0.jpg?h=d1cb525d&amp;itok=-Dz1to5P" alt="&quot;&quot;"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Christopher.Sorensen</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2022-04-25T11:38:10-04:00" title="Monday, April 25, 2022 - 11:38" class="datetime">Mon, 04/25/2022 - 11:38</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Weiwu Chen, a graduate research assistant in civil and mineral engineering, counts microplastics using a microscope in Associate Professor Elodie Passeport's lab (photo by Shuyao Tan)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/taxonomy/term/6738" hreflang="en">Safa Jinje</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/artificial-intelligence" hreflang="en">Artificial Intelligence</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-applied-science-engineering" hreflang="en">Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/plastics" hreflang="en">Plastics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research-innovation" hreflang="en">Research &amp; Innovation</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/sustainability" hreflang="en">Sustainability</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Microplastics are all around us –&nbsp;in the water we drink, the food we eat and the air we breathe. But before researchers can understand the real impact of these particles on health, they need faster and more effective ways to quantify what is there.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>Two recent studies by researchers at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering have proposed new methods that use machine learning to make the process of counting and classifying microplastics easier, faster and more affordable.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>“It’s really time consuming to analyze a water sample for microplastics,” says<strong> Elodie Passeport</strong>, an associate professor in the departments of civil and mineral engineering and chemical engineering.</p> <p>“It can take up to 40 hours to fully analyze a sample the size of a mason jar –&nbsp;and that specimen is from one point in time. It becomes especially difficult when you want to make comparisons over time or observe samples from different bodies of water.”&nbsp;</p> <p>Last month, the United Nations Environment Programme&nbsp;endorsed a historic resolution&nbsp;to end plastic pollution, which it called “a catastrophe in the making” endangering human health, marine and costal species&nbsp;and global ecosystems.&nbsp;</p> <p><img class="migrated-asset" src="/sites/default/files/Microplastics%20sample%20combined_Kelsey%20Smyth%20900x600%20%282%29.jpg" alt></p> <p><em>A stormwater sample, left, is juxtaposed with the plastic particles manually picked out of the sample, right&nbsp;(photo by Kelsey Smyth)</em></p> <p>Microplastics&nbsp;can take hundreds to thousands of years to biodegrade. But it is not just visible plastic refuse that's an issue: over time plastic breaks down into smaller and smaller particles. Those pieces that are less than five millimetres in size but greater than 0.1 micrometres are defined as microplastics.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>Researchers who study the effects of microplastics are still trying to understand how these tiny pieces&nbsp;could affect human&nbsp;and&nbsp;environmental&nbsp;health in ways that are different from the bulk material.&nbsp;</p> <p>Though past studies have demonstrated the presence of microplastics in various environments, the standards for how to quantify their levels –&nbsp;and critically, how to compare different samples over time and space — are still emerging. Passeport worked with&nbsp;<strong>Shuyao Tan</strong>, a PhD student in chemical engineering, and <strong>Joshua Taylor</strong>, an associate professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering, to address the challenge of analysis.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>“We asked ourselves whether there could be a crude measurement that could predict the concentration of microplastics,” Passeport says.&nbsp;</p> <p>“In collaboration with Professor Taylor, who has expertise in machine learning and optimization, we established a prediction model that employs a trained algorithm that can estimate microplastic counts from aggregate mass measurements.”&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;“Our method has&nbsp;guaranteed error-tracking properties with similar results to&nbsp;manual counting, but it’s less costly and faster, allowing for the analysis of multiple samples from multiple points to estimate microplastic pollution,” she adds. &nbsp;</p> <p>The team’s investigation, published in January in&nbsp;<em><a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acsestwater.1c00316">ACS ES&amp;T Water</a></em>, has the advantage of allowing researchers to manually process only a fraction of their collected samples and predict the quantity of the rest using an algorithm, without introducing additional error or variance.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>“Researchers working on microplastic analysis need to know how many plastic particles there are, the kinds of particles, the polymers and shapes,” says Tan.&nbsp;</p> <p>“With this information, they can then study the effects of microplastic pollution on living organisms –&nbsp;as well as where this pollution is coming from, so they can deal with it at the source.”&nbsp;</p> <p>Classical quantification methods using visible light microscopy require&nbsp;the use of tweezers to count samples one-by-one under an optical microscope –&nbsp;a labour-intensive endeavour that is prone to human error.&nbsp;</p> <p><img class="migrated-asset" src="/sites/default/files/SEM%20images%20combined%20_%20Bin%20Shi%20.jpg" alt></p> <p><em>A scanning electron microscope (SEM) plate holding microplastic samples, left, and the SEM used for the project, right. (Photo by&nbsp;Bin Shi)</em></p> <p>In an investigation published in<em>&nbsp;</em><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969722009950?dgcid=author"><em>Science of The Total Environment</em></a>, PhD candidate&nbsp;<strong>Bin Shi</strong>&nbsp;in the department materials science and engineering, who is supervised by Associate Professor<strong> Jane Howe</strong>, employed deep learning models for the automatic quantification and classification of microplastics.&nbsp;</p> <p>Shi used scanning electron microscopes to segment images of microplastics and classify their shapes. When compared to visual screening methods, this approach provided a greater depth of field and finer surface detail that can prevent false identification of small and transparent plastic particles.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>“Deep learning allows our approach to speed up the quantification of microplastics, especially since&nbsp;we&nbsp;had to remove other materials that could create false identifications, such as minerals, substrate, organic matter and organisms,” says Shi.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>“We were able to&nbsp;develop accurate algorithms that can effectively quantify and classify the objects in such complex environments.”&nbsp;</p> <p>The diversity in the chemical composition and shapes of microplastics can create difficulties for many researchers, especially since there is no standardized method to quantify microplastics.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>Shi collected microplastic samples in various shapes and chemical compositions –&nbsp;such as beads, films, fibres, foams and fragments –&nbsp;from sources such as&nbsp;face wash, plastic bottles, foam cups, washing and drying machines&nbsp;and medical masks. He then processed images of the individual samples using the scanning electron microscope to create a library of hundreds of images.&nbsp;</p> <p>The project is the first labelled&nbsp;open-source dataset&nbsp;for microplastics image segmentation, which allows researchers from all over the world to benefit from this new method and develop their own algorithms specific to their research interests.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>“This method also has the potential to go down to the scale of nanoplastics, which are particles smaller than 0.1 micrometres,” Shi says.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>“If we can continue to expand our library of images to include more microplastic samples from different environments with varied shapes and morphologies, we can monitor and analyze microplastic pollution much more effectively.”&nbsp;</p> <p>For now, the goal of Passeport and Tan’s predictive model is to be a diagnostic tool that can help researchers identify areas where they should concentrate their analytical efforts with more in-depth technologies.&nbsp;</p> <p>The team also hopes this method can empower citizen scientists to monitor microplastic pollution in their own environments.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>“Individuals can&nbsp;collect samples, filter and dry them to get the weight and then use a trained algorithm to predict the amount of microplastics,” Passeport says.&nbsp;</p> <p>“As we continue our work,&nbsp;we want to introduce some automatic training sample selection methods that will allow individuals to just click a button and automatically select the training sample,” adds Tan.&nbsp;</p> <p>“We want to make our method easy so that they can be used by anyone,&nbsp;without them needing any knowledge of machine learning and mathematics.” &nbsp;</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Mon, 25 Apr 2022 15:38:10 +0000 Christopher.Sorensen 174195 at οTrash Team and PortsToronto battle plastic pollution in Lake Ontario /news/u-t-trash-team-and-portstoronto-battle-plastic-pollution-lake-ontario <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">οTrash Team and PortsToronto battle plastic pollution in Lake Ontario</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/Rochman%204-lead.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=jmJogz80 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/Rochman%204-lead.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=PABUmP1H 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/Rochman%204-lead.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=emx2M6Rm 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/Rochman%204-lead.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=jmJogz80" alt="&quot;&quot;"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Christopher.Sorensen</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2021-02-18T08:57:53-05:00" title="Thursday, February 18, 2021 - 08:57" class="datetime">Thu, 02/18/2021 - 08:57</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">οAssistant Professor Chelsea Rochman and Chris Sawicki, PortsToronto's vice-president of infrastructure, planning and environment, at the launch of the Seabins pilot in the Toronto Harbour in 2019 (all photos courtesy of Chelsea Rochman)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/sarah-macfarlane" hreflang="en">Sarah MacFarlane</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/cities" hreflang="en">Cities</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/great-lakes" hreflang="en">Great Lakes</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/plastics" hreflang="en">Plastics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/sustainability" hreflang="en">Sustainability</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/water" hreflang="en">Water</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>It’s a collaboration founded on a shared vision: a cleaner future for Toronto’s waterways.</p> <p><strong>Chelsea Rochman’s&nbsp;</strong>lab at the University of Toronto&nbsp;is committed to reducing aquatic waste in Toronto by&nbsp;exploring innovative litter-capturing technologies and engaging the public on the issue of plastic pollution.</p> <p>In her search for partners who shared her vision of a cleaner future for Toronto’s waterways, it wasn’t long before Rochman&nbsp;encountered&nbsp;PortsToronto&nbsp;– a government-business enterprise that owns and operates Billy Bishop Airport, the Port of Toronto and the Outer Harbour Marina.</p> <div class="image-with-caption left"> <p><img class="migrated-asset" src="/sites/default/files/Rochman%205-crop.jpg" alt></p> <p>Key collaborators from PortsToronto with the οTrash Team at the Urban Litter Challenge community cleanup in 2019.</p> </div> <p>With its goal of protecting and preserving Toronto’s waterfront by supporting sustainable transportation infrastructure, marine safety, environmental protection and community programming,&nbsp;PortsToronto&nbsp;has been an active supporter of the&nbsp;οTrash Team, a group of&nbsp;students and volunteers who focus on engaging the public and decreasing plastic pollution through a variety of programs, including litter cleanups and sustainability workshops.</p> <p>PortsToronto even made a&nbsp;$150,000 donation to the Rochman lab last year.</p> <p>“We've gotten closer every year and started working together in more capacities,” says Rochman, who joined the&nbsp;department of ecology and evolutionary biology&nbsp;in the Faculty of Arts &amp; Science as assistant professor in 2017.</p> <p>“PortsToronto staff come to our cleanups every year. Now, we're talking about further things we can do together down the road to continue to get litter out of the water and also communicate with the public.”</p> <p>The οTrash Team was founded by Rochman, who serves as head of operations and program lead of scientific programming and application; <strong>Susan Debreceni</strong>, program lead of volunteer engagement and community programs; and <strong>Rafaela Gutierrez</strong>, program lead of social science and educational programs.</p> <div class="image-with-caption right"> <p><img class="migrated-asset" src="/sites/default/files/Rochman%203-crop.jpg" alt></p> <p>Cassy Sherlock quantifying and characterizing microplastics trapped in macrophytes captured in the Seabins at the Outer Harbour Marina in summer 2020.</p> </div> <p>“The year 2021 marks the 110th anniversary of our organization and more than a century of PortsToronto’s stewardship of our city’s great waterfront,” says Geoffrey Wilson, CEO of PortsToronto. “In tandem with our own sustainability efforts, collaborating with the οTrash Team was a natural step for us in our ongoing mission to preserve and protect the waters of the Toronto Harbour for future generations.</p> <p>“Lending our partnership, support and infrastructure to this dedicated team of researchers has, and will continue to, lead to innovative, evidence-based solutions to tackle the serious issue of plastic pollution in waterways here at home and throughout the Great Lakes.”</p> <p>One strategy for reducing aquatic pollution is the use of&nbsp;floating trash bins called Seabins, which can collect more than four kilograms of waste per day – as much as 1.4 metric tonnes per year – including debris and microplastics as tiny as two millimetres in size. Seabins are a crucial aspect of the partnership between the οTrash Team and PortsToronto.</p> <p>“PortsToronto owns and operates the Seabins,” says Rochman. “The οTrash Team does research in Lake Ontario to inform where in the Toronto Harbour would be useful to have Seabins, and then we quantify and characterize the impact – how much debris we're capturing and what type of debris it is, which can be used to inform policy.”</p> <div class="image-with-caption left"> <p><img class="migrated-asset" src="/sites/default/files/Rochman%201-crop.jpg" alt></p> <p>Small microplastic pieces entrained in macrophytes captured by the Seabins in the Outer Harbour Marina in summer 2020.</p> </div> <p>In the summer of 2019, PortsToronto launched two of their Seabins in Toronto’s Outer Harbour Marina&nbsp;and the οTrash Team studied the results. In just 19 hours, the bins collected nearly 2,000 pieces of plastic, many of which were less than five millimetres in size.</p> <p>While the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the full-scale launch of the Seabins last year, the οTrash Team and PortsToronto persevered and ultimately piloted three Seabins at the Outer Harbour Marina.</p> <p>“Within the three bins we captured hundreds to thousands of pieces of small debris every week,” Rochman says. “We also did visual audits where we had people from our team walking along the harbour and looking at where there were hotspots of litter accumulation within the slips. And that informs where the Seabins can go next year.</p> <p>“We also standardized our protocols for how we quantify the debris. We spent a lot of time trying to figure out the best method that can be shared with other people who are also tracking litter so that we can all have standardized data. Those methods are being used by people as far away as California and Vancouver.”</p> <div class="image-with-caption right"> <p><img class="migrated-asset" src="/sites/default/files/Rochman%202-crop.jpg" alt></p> <p>Small microplastic pieces entrained in macrophytes captured by the Seabins in the Outer Harbour Marina in summer 2020.</p> </div> <p>The team even created an app called Data Trapper, which allows users to test methods and share their data.</p> <p>Rochman says PortsToronto’s recent gift has helped the οTrash Team build a foundation by allowing them to transition volunteers to full-time paid positions – and that&nbsp;the support of PortsToronto has had a profound impact on the οTrash Team since they first began working together in 2017.</p> <p>“They believed in us,” Rochman says. “They gave us that confidence to build who we are.”</p> <p>It’s just the beginning. Rochman says she’s looking forward to what PortsToronto and the οTrash Team will be able to accomplish together in the future.</p> <p>“We hope to increase our impact in the harbour, increase awareness and try to spread the litter diversion beyond the Toronto Harbour,” she says. “We plan to have four Seabins along the waterfront that are actively trapping and diverting litter out of Lake Ontario. We also plan to do a design competition with PortsToronto to think about the type of technology that could be placed near the mouth of the Don River to divert the litter that's coming in from upstream. And then raising awareness and increasing waste literacy among the public is one of our main goals to share lessons learned more broadly.”</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Thu, 18 Feb 2021 13:57:53 +0000 Christopher.Sorensen 168419 at 'An unacceptable plastic future': οecologists sound alarm in new study of global waterways /news/unacceptable-plastic-future-u-t-ecologists-sound-alarm-new-study-global-waterways <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">'An unacceptable plastic future': οecologists sound alarm in new study of global waterways</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/Ascension%20Island%2C%20S.%20Atlantic.%20photo%20M.%20Eriksen.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=WvHsDN4x 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/Ascension%20Island%2C%20S.%20Atlantic.%20photo%20M.%20Eriksen.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=Gj-xMpTN 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/Ascension%20Island%2C%20S.%20Atlantic.%20photo%20M.%20Eriksen.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=EW4pcq38 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/Ascension%20Island%2C%20S.%20Atlantic.%20photo%20M.%20Eriksen.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=WvHsDN4x" alt="&quot;&quot;"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Christopher.Sorensen</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2020-09-17T17:53:52-04:00" title="Thursday, September 17, 2020 - 17:53" class="datetime">Thu, 09/17/2020 - 17:53</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Ascension Island in the South Atlantic Ocean is yet another remote island littered in plastic waste (photo by Marcus Eriksen)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/sean-bettam" hreflang="en">Sean Bettam</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/breaking-research" hreflang="en">Breaking Research</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/ecology-evolutionary-biology" hreflang="en">Ecology &amp; Evolutionary Biology</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/global" hreflang="en">Global</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/plastics" hreflang="en">Plastics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research-innovation" hreflang="en">Research &amp; Innovation</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/sustainability" hreflang="en">Sustainability</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Ecologists at the University of Toronto are sounding the alarm after measuring the scale of human response needed to reduce future levels of plastic in the world’s aquatic ecosystems and manage what’s already floating around out there.</p> <p>The&nbsp;researchers&nbsp;<a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/369/6510/1515">published a study this week in the journal&nbsp;<em>Science</em></a> that outlines the accelerating pace of plastic emissions that enter the Earth’s waterways each year.</p> <p>They found&nbsp;that the world is on track to emit about 53 million megatonnes of plastic into lakes, rivers and oceans by 2030&nbsp;– even if extraordinary measures are taken across the planet to reduce and mitigate plastic waste.</p> <p><img class="migrated-asset" src="/sites/default/files/UofT84880_IMG_5505.jpg" alt>“Unless growth in plastic production and use is halted, a fundamental transformation of the plastic economy to a framework based on recycling is essential, where end-of-life plastic products are valued rather than becoming waste,” says<strong>&nbsp;Chelsea&nbsp;Rochman</strong>, an assistant professor in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology in the Faculty of Arts &amp; Science and a senior author of the study.&nbsp;</p> <p><img class="migrated-asset" src="/sites/default/files/steph-borrelle-crop.jpg" alt>“Even if governments around the world meet their ambitious global commitments, and other countries join those efforts to curb plastic pollution, worldwide annual emissions to rivers, lakes and oceans could be as much as 53 million metric tonnes by the year 2030,” adds&nbsp;<strong>Stephanie&nbsp;Borrelle</strong>, a David H. Smith Postdoctoral Fellow at οand lead author on the study.</p> <p>“That’s far beyond the eight million metric tonnes amount that was declared unacceptable in 2015.”</p> <p>The group estimates that 24 to 34 million metric tonnes of plastic emissions currently enter aquatic ecosystems every year. They then modelled future scenarios using existing mitigation strategies: reducing production of plastic waste,&nbsp;which includes bans, improving the management of plastic waste that is produced and continuous recovery –&nbsp;meaning&nbsp;cleanup – from the environment.</p> <p>The researchers found that even with parallel efforts in all three solutions, the level of effort required within each is enormous: first,&nbsp;a 25 per cent to&nbsp;40 per cent reduction in the production of plastic across all economies; second,&nbsp;increasing the level of waste collection and management to at least 60 per cent across all economies — with a change from six per cent to 60 per cent in low-income economies; and, third, recovery of 40 per cent of annual plastic emissions through cleanup efforts.</p> <p>“To put that last number into people power, the cleanup alone would require at least one billion people participating in Ocean Conservancy’s annual International Coastal Cleanup,” says Borrelle. “This would be a Herculean task given this is 660 times the effort of the 2019 cleanup.”</p> <p>The researchers note, however, that even if the prescribed effort is realized, the world remains locked into an unacceptable plastic future.</p> <p>“The global community must co-ordinate a fundamental transformation of the plastics economy, one that reduces the amount of virgin plastic production and reimagines how we make use and dispose of plastic materials,” says Rochman.</p> <p>The research was supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation through the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center.</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Thu, 17 Sep 2020 21:53:52 +0000 Christopher.Sorensen 165733 at Plastic that saves the planet? οstartup's novel resin helps industry go green /news/plastic-saves-planet-u-t-startup-s-novel-resin-helps-industry-go-green <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Plastic that saves the planet? οstartup's novel resin helps industry go green</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/Ecopackers-weblead.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=ehu0vVAB 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/Ecopackers-weblead.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=7s97mEVm 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/Ecopackers-weblead.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=i_M39u4C 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/Ecopackers-weblead.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=ehu0vVAB" alt="Photo of Kritika Tyagi, Chang Dong and Nuha Siddiqui "> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>rahul.kalvapalle</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2020-03-11T16:44:27-04:00" title="Wednesday, March 11, 2020 - 16:44" class="datetime">Wed, 03/11/2020 - 16:44</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">EcoPackers co-founders and οalumnae Kritika Tyagi, Chang Dong and Nuha Siddiqui (photo courtesy of EcoPackers)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/rahul-kalvapalle" hreflang="en">Rahul Kalvapalle</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/alumni" hreflang="en">Alumni</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/creative-destruction-lab" hreflang="en">Creative Destruction Lab</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/global" hreflang="en">Global</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/innovation-entrepreneurship" hreflang="en">Innovation &amp; Entrepreneurship</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/plastics" hreflang="en">Plastics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/rotman-commerce" hreflang="en">Rotman Commerce</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/rotman-school-management" hreflang="en">Rotman School of Management</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/startups" hreflang="en">Startups</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/sustainability" hreflang="en">Sustainability</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/thisistheplace" hreflang="en">ThisIsThePlace</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p><strong>Nuha Siddiqui </strong>was browsing a <a href="http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_New_Plastics_Economy.pdf">World Economic Forum report</a>&nbsp;on the future of the plastics industry&nbsp;when she came across an ominous prediction. “It stated that by 2050, there would be more plastic than fish in the ocean,” Siddiqui recalls.</p> <p>That was back in 2016, when&nbsp;Siddiqui was a second-year Rotman Commerce student at the University of Toronto.&nbsp;The grim forecast spurred Siddiqui, who, at the time, was also president of the οchapter of global social entrepreneurship network Enactus,&nbsp;to research the plastic industry and figure out where she could have an impact. Four years later,&nbsp;Siddiqui is now CEO of a fast-growing startup that has raised millions of dollars in venture funding and is working with global plastic manufacturing giants to replace their plastic components with a non-toxic eco-resin.</p> <p>While Ecopackers got its start making&nbsp;non-toxic, biodegradable packing peanuts&nbsp;– hence the name&nbsp;– from agricultural by-products, the company has since expanded its focus to the wider plastics industry.&nbsp;</p> <p>“We came to realize that the real value of our products wasn’t necessarily the packaging or the end products, but the input and the science around what we were doing,” Siddiqui says.</p> <p>The road from packing peanut-producer to plastics input-supplier was navigated with the help of U of T's expansive entrepreneurship network, <a href="/entrepreneurs?utm_source=UofTHome&amp;utm_medium=WebsiteBanner&amp;utm_content=EntrepreneurshipWeek2020">which is on full display this week as part of the university’s annual Entrepreneurship Week event</a>.</p> <p>Unlike other products made from bioplastics, the&nbsp;biodegradable&nbsp;packing peanuts initially produced by Ecopackers didn’t require industrial composting, and were safe enough to compost in the backyard. Siddiqui would even eat them in front of venture capital investors to show how safe and natural they were compared to traditional packing peanuts made from non-biodegradable polymers like Styrofoam.</p> <p>In 2018, the company graduated from the Canadian government’s Next 36 entrepreneurship initiative before joining the Creative Destruction Lab, an international seed-stage accelerator based at U of T’s Rotman School of Management. It was then that Siddiqui and fellow Ecopackers co-founders&nbsp;<strong>Kritika Tyagi </strong>and&nbsp;<strong>Chang Dong</strong>, decided that focusing on packing peanuts would limit their business and social impact prospects.</p> <p>Determined to spare no detail in their quest to create a profitable and scalable social enterprise, the Ecopackers team traveled to China to better understand&nbsp;plastics manufacturing and identify opportunities for the industry’s eco-friendly transformation. Their idea:&nbsp;create a resin that’s functionally similar to materials already used in the plastic industry, but make it fully compostable – so it could replace non-biodegradable polymers like polystyrene and polypropylene in the manufacture of single-use plastic products ranging from cutlery and straws to casings for beer kegs.</p> <p>“We were one of the only eco-focused companies out there that wasn’t going against the plastic manufacturers,” says&nbsp;Siddiqui.&nbsp;“We were actually trying to work with them to develop products that worked with their technology.”&nbsp;</p> <p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="422" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/i46xIG1tu6Q" width="750"></iframe></p> <p>The approach paid off. This past December, Ecopackers raised $4.3 million in pre-seed and seed financing, including an investment from Creative Destruction Lab founder <strong>Ajay Agrawal</strong>.</p> <p>The startup is now working on a pilot project with brewing giant AB InBev to explore using the eco-resin as a plastic alternative in beer keg casing, as part of the company's&nbsp;<a href="https://highlinebeta.com/ab-inbevs-100-accelerator-welcomes-second-cohort-to-its-global-sustainability-accelerator-program/">100+ Sustainability Accelerator</a>&nbsp;program. Ecopackers is also engaged in pilot projects with&nbsp;companies in Canada, China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, and is hiring engineers, scientists and analysts to join its growing team.</p> <p>Siddiqui says Ecopackers' vision is to lead the eco-friendly transformation of single-use plastic manufacturing without necessarily forcing drastic changes in consumer behaviour.</p> <p>“We can try as much as possible to get consumers to use reusable bottles, cups and straws, but at the end of the day&nbsp;it’s what our society has been dependent on for years,” Siddiqui says. “I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing, but how we’re using the materials and producing the products is wrong and that’s what we really need to change.</p> <p>“Our alternatives allow you to still use the same products you’re used to, but in a compostable way.”</p> <p>She says the feedback from manufacturers has been encouraging since&nbsp;they appreciate the eco-resin’s compatibility with existing technology as well as its affordable cost compared to current plastic alternatives.</p> <p><img class="migrated-asset" src="/sites/default/files/_I2A9021-embed.jpg" alt></p> <p><em>Ecopackers has created a resin that’s functionally similar to materials already used in the plastics industry, but is fully compostable (photo courtesy of Ecopackers)</em></p> <p>Going forward, Siddiqui aims to grow Ecopackers into a global operation with a headquarters in Toronto and multiple manufacturing sites located near areas of high demand. The company already has an R&amp;D office in Shenzhen, China in addition to its Toronto office.</p> <p>“We want to make sure we’re locally manufacturing wherever our customers are, so we can be conscious of our own environmental footprint as well,” she says.</p> <p>Siddiqui is quick to credit U of T’s entrepreneurship community with helping her take a project that she conceived as an&nbsp;undergraduate student and turn it into a thriving business.</p> <p>“We entered the Creative Destruction Lab with a very different business and different mindset,” she says. “Throughout our time there, we were able to put together an incredible group of advisers, investors from the most amazing funds, and we got first-hand advice on scaling and thinking about things differently.”</p> <p>Asked about her long-term goals for the company, Siddiqui casts her mind back to the WEF report’s projection about plastic out-weighing fish in the ocean by 2050.</p> <p>“We have a contrasting goal,” she says.&nbsp;“By 2050, we’d like all single-use plastic to be made from Ecopackers.”</p> <h3><a href="/entrepreneurs?utm_source=UofTHome&amp;utm_medium=WebsiteBanner&amp;utm_content=EntrepreneurshipWeek2020">Read more about entrepreneurship at U of T</a></h3> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Wed, 11 Mar 2020 20:44:27 +0000 rahul.kalvapalle 163451 at Microplastic pollution is everywhere, but scientists are still learning how it harms wildlife: οexperts /news/microplastic-pollution-everywhere-scientists-are-still-learning-how-it-harms-wildlife-u-t <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Microplastic pollution is everywhere, but scientists are still learning how it harms wildlife: οexperts</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/file-20200124-81341-1gxmzr0weblead.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=xDFt0QuF 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/file-20200124-81341-1gxmzr0weblead.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=HggcX_Xv 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/file-20200124-81341-1gxmzr0weblead.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=MMmpG-ZD 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/file-20200124-81341-1gxmzr0weblead.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=xDFt0QuF" alt="Photo of plastic pieces floating in the ocean"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Christopher.Sorensen</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2020-01-28T14:57:51-05:00" title="Tuesday, January 28, 2020 - 14:57" class="datetime">Tue, 01/28/2020 - 14:57</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item"><p>Large plastics break up into tiny particles called microplastics that can persist in the environment for hundreds of years (photo via Shutterstock)</p> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/chelsea-rochman" hreflang="en">Chelsea Rochman</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/kennedy-bucci" hreflang="en">Kennedy Bucci</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/ecology-environmental-biology" hreflang="en">Ecology &amp; Environmental Biology</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/graduate-students" hreflang="en">Graduate Students</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/oceans" hreflang="en">Oceans</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/plastics" hreflang="en">Plastics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/sustainability" hreflang="en">Sustainability</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/conversation" hreflang="en">The Conversation</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p class="legacy">Plastic pollution is a growing global concern. Large pieces of plastic have been found almost everywhere on Earth, from the <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2018/10/greenpeace-beach-cleanup-report-highlights-ocean-plastic-problem/">most visited beaches</a> to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/may/16/414-million-pieces-of-plastic-found-on-remote-island-group-in-indian-ocean">remote, uninhabited islands</a>. Because wildlife are regularly exposed to plastic pollution, we often ask what effects plastics have on the animals.</p> <p>Over time, macroplastics (plastic debris larger than five millimetres in size) break up into tiny particles called microplastics (smaller than five millimetres), which can persist in the environment for <a href="https://www.wwf.org.au/news/blogs/the-lifecycle-of-plastics#gs.qa4oh2">hundreds of years</a>.</p> <p>Macroplastics are known to cause detrimental effects for wildlife. Individual animals can <a href="https://www.nwf.org/Home/Magazines/National-Wildlife/2019/June-July/Conservation/Ocean-Plastic">ingest large pieces</a> or <a href="https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/insight/entanglement-marine-life-risks-and-response">become entangled in plastic items</a>, such as fishing gear, and suffocate or starve to death. Although there is no question that macroplastics are harmful to wildlife, the effects of microplastics are not as straightforward.</p> <p>While many studies find microplastics can affect the gene expression, growth, reproduction or survival of an animal, others conclude that microplastics have no negative effects. The lack of clear consensus makes it more difficult for decision-makers to enact effective policies to mitigate plastic pollution.</p> <h3>Not all plastics are the same</h3> <p>We recently took a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.2044">deep dive into the research that has looked at how plastic pollution affects aquatic and terrestrial wildlife</a>.</p> <p>We found that while macroplastics continue to cause detrimental effects to individual animals, they are also causing larger-scale changes to populations of animals, communities and ecosystems. For example, plastic pollution can <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2018/08/news-invasive-species-ride-plastic-across-ocean">introduce invasive species to new habitats by transporting organisms hundreds of kilometres from their native range</a>, changing the composition of species in a community.</p> <p>The effects of microplastics, however, are much more complicated. Of the studies we included in our review, nearly half (45 per cent) found that microplastics caused an effect. Some studies saw that microplastics caused animals to have shorter lives, eat less or swim slower, and others saw changes in the number of offspring produced, and changes in the genes being expressed. Yet, 55 per cent of the studies didn’t detect any effects.</p> <p>Why do some studies detect effects while others do not? There are several possibilities. For one, the researchers used different experimental designs in their lab experiments.</p> <p>There’s also the issue of using the term microplastics, which refers to a complex mixture of plastics that vary in material (such as polyethylene, polystyrene or polyvinyl chloride), the chemicals associated with them (including additives, fillers and dyes), as well as their size and shape. Each of these characteristics, along with how much plastic the animal is exposed to in the experiment, could affect their potential to detect an effect.</p> <h3>Microfibres and microbeads</h3> <p>For example, we saw that when studies exposed crustaceans to polystyrene, a type of plastic used to make disposable containers, lids and cutlery, the crustaceans generally produced more offspring. But when they were exposed to polyethylene or polyethylene terephthalate, which is used to make plastic bags and beverage bottles, the crustaceans produced fewer offspring.</p> <p>We also found that studies using smaller particles are more likely to detect an effect. This may be because smaller particles are more easily consumed by small organisms, or because they can move across the cell membrane and cause harmful effects such as inflammation.</p> <figure class="align-left "><img alt sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311884/original/file-20200124-81395-1r2bior.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=237&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311884/original/file-20200124-81395-1r2bior.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=1012&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311884/original/file-20200124-81395-1r2bior.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=1012&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311884/original/file-20200124-81395-1r2bior.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=1012&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311884/original/file-20200124-81395-1r2bior.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=1272&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311884/original/file-20200124-81395-1r2bior.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=1272&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311884/original/file-20200124-81395-1r2bior.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=1272&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w"> <figcaption><span class="caption">Microbeads are found in exfoliating products such as face cleansers and toothpaste. Several countries have banned their production and sale (photo by Shutterstock)&nbsp;</span></figcaption> </figure> <p>When it came to the shape of the plastic, microfibres (from clothing or rope) and fragments were more likely to have a negative effect on the organism compared to spheres (from facial cleansing products). For example, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28594093">one study</a> found that microfibres were more toxic to a species of marine shrimp than microplastic fragments or spheres.</p> <p>Finally, one might expect animals to be more harmed when they are exposed to higher concentrations of microplastics. While it’s true that crustaceans were more likely to die when exposed to increasing doses of microplastics, the effect on reproduction was more complex. The number of offspring increased with extremely high doses, but decreased at lower doses, similar to what is seen in the environment.</p> <h3>Many types, many outcomes</h3> <p>Based on our review, we believe future research needs to recognize the complexity of microplastics and scientists need to design their tests strategically so that we can really understand how the different types, sizes, shapes, doses and the duration of exposure to microplastics affect wildlife.</p> <p>Several countries, including <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/chemical-substances/other-chemical-substances-interest/microbeads.html">Canada</a>, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2018/01/09/health/microbead-ban-uk-intl/index.html">the United Kingdom</a> and <a href="https://www.fda.gov/cosmetics/cosmetics-laws-regulations/microbead-free-waters-act-faqs">United States</a> have recently banned plastic microbeads – the spherical beads and fragments in face wash, body scrubs and toothpaste – because they were contaminating the environment and could cause negative effects in aquatic animals. Although this legislation reduces one type of microplastic in the environment, it is irrelevant to countless others.</p> <p>Only if we have a better understanding of how the different types, shapes and concentrations of microplastics affect wildlife can we make better policy decisions. If, for example, microfibres are indeed found to be more harmful than spheres, we could focus our attention on keeping these fibres from entering our waterways from known sources, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/sep/26/vicious-cycle-delicate-wash-releases-more-plastic-microfibres">such as from washing machines</a>.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img alt="The Conversation" height="1" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/129882/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important" width="1" loading="lazy"><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: http://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p> <p><span><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/chelsea-rochman-172733">Chelsea Rochman</a>&nbsp;is an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the&nbsp;<em><a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-toronto-1281">University of Toronto</a>.&nbsp;</em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/kennedy-bucci-459121">Kennedy Bucci</a>&nbsp;is a PhD student in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology at the&nbsp;<em><a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-toronto-1281">University of Toronto</a></em>.&nbsp;</span></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/microplastic-pollution-is-everywhere-but-scientists-are-still-learning-how-it-harms-wildlife-129882">original article</a>.</em></p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Tue, 28 Jan 2020 19:57:51 +0000 Christopher.Sorensen 162140 at Is there plastic in our drinking water? Probably – and οresearchers are studying how concerned we should be /news/there-plastic-our-drinking-water-probably-and-u-t-researchers-are-studying-how-concerned-we <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Is there plastic in our drinking water? Probably – and οresearchers are studying how concerned we should be</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/20190515-plastics--weblead.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=PxpRkU7y 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/20190515-plastics--weblead.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=HGYUE3On 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/20190515-plastics--weblead.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=2_DNTXVL 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/20190515-plastics--weblead.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=PxpRkU7y" alt="photo of researchers holding micoplastics samples collected from Lake Ontario"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Christopher.Sorensen</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2019-07-19T12:03:21-04:00" title="Friday, July 19, 2019 - 12:03" class="datetime">Fri, 07/19/2019 - 12:03</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">These tiny plastic particles were extracted from Toronto’s harbour by οresearchers Chelsea Rochman and Bob Andrews (photo by Tyler Irving) </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/tyler-irving" hreflang="en">Tyler Irving</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/global-lens" hreflang="en">Global Lens</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/ecology-evolutionary-biology" hreflang="en">Ecology &amp; Evolutionary Biology</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-applied-science-engineering" hreflang="en">Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/global" hreflang="en">Global</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/plastics" hreflang="en">Plastics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research-innovation" hreflang="en">Research &amp; Innovation</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/sustainability" hreflang="en">Sustainability</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Is there plastic in your drinking water? The University of Toronto’s <strong>Bob Andrews</strong> and <strong>Chelsea Rochman</strong> say there is – but, unfortunately, they don’t have much more information to share.</p> <p>“If someone asks me how microplastics in drinking water influence human health, I have to say that we have no idea,” says Rochman, an assistant professor in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology in U of T’s Faculty of Arts &amp; Science.</p> <p>“But we should be concerned that the mismanagement of our waste has come back to haunt us.”</p> <p>Plastic never really goes away. While some waste plastic is recycled or incinerated, most ends up in landfills or worse. A world-leading expert on the fate of plastic waste, <a href="https://magazine.utoronto.ca/research-ideas/science/sea-of-troubles/">Rochman has documented how it ends up in oceans, lakes, rivers</a>, as well as along their shores and even in the bodies of aquatic animals.</p> <p>“All of the big stuff that you see eventually gets broken down by sunlight into smaller and smaller pieces,” she says.</p> <p>When plastic pieces become small enough that a microscope is required to see them – anywhere from a few millimetres down to a few micrometres – they are referred to as microplastics. As with larger plastic pieces, microplastics are found widely in the environment. Rochman and her team have even extracted them from the bodies of fish for sale in a commercial market.</p> <p>Concern over microplastics has been floating just below the surface for some time, but it wasn’t until the fall of 2017 that the issue of microplastics in drinking water hit headlines in a big way.</p> <p>A non-profit group called Orb Media took samples of tap water from around the world, found microplastics in most of their samples, and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/mar/15/microplastics-found-in-more-than-90-of-bottled-water-study-says">released their results to the media</a>. As a member of both the <a href="http://civmin.utoronto.ca/home/our-research/drinking-water-research-group/">Drinking Water Research Group</a> and the <a href="http://water.utoronto.ca/">Institute for Water Innovation</a>, Andrews, a professor in U of T’s department of civil and mineral engineering in U of T’s Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering, knew that his collaborators would be curious about the story.</p> <p>“Within hours, I got calls from a couple of the major water providers in southern Ontario that I work with, asking me what we were doing on this topic,” Andrews says.</p> <p><img class="migrated-asset" src="/sites/default/files/20190515-Rochman-Andrews-%28embed%29.jpg" alt></p> <p><em>Chelsea Rochman and Bob Andrews have joined forces to develop new techniques for analyzing microplastics and nanoplastics in drinking water (photo by Tyler Irving)</em></p> <p>Yet, despite his experience collaborating with drinking water providers on treatment and technology, Andrews had not researched the issue of microplastics before. So he sought advice from Rochman.</p> <p>She was skeptical at first.</p> <p>“I said, ‘I don’t think they’re going to be there, but sure, let’s filter some water and have a look,’” says Rochman. “We did, and they were there.”</p> <p>The traditional approach to dealing with drinking water contaminants, such as heavy metals or organic compounds, is for scientists to determine a target threshold below which the risk to human health is considered minimal. Drinking water authorities then invest in treatment technologies designed to keep the levels of these contaminants below the threshold.</p> <p>But there is no existing threshold for microplastics, and developing one will be complex for several reasons.</p> <p>First, plastic interacts differently with the body depending on how big the pieces are. “What we’ve seen in animals is that larger pieces usually just get excreted,” says Rochman. “But the smaller particles can actually leave the gut and go into tissues, which is when you can get inflammation and other problems.”</p> <p>Another challenge: There are no standardized methods for testing levels of microplastics in drinking water. Different teams employing different techniques could obtain different results, making it hard to compare scientific studies with one another.</p> <p>Contamination is also an issue since tiny plastic particles shed from clothes, carpets and upholstery can get into the samples and skew the results.</p> <p>These challenges are further compounded by the fact that microplastics can break down into even smaller particles known as nanoplastics. Nanoplastics may behave differently from microplastics, but information is scarce because methods for detecting them haven’t been invented yet. &nbsp;</p> <p>“Right now, we don’t have good techniques for handling nanoplastic particles,” says Andrews. “One strategy we’re considering is to concentrate them, burn them, and analyze the gas to determine what types of plastic are there. We’d then have to back-calculate to determine their initial concentrations.”</p> <p>Andrews and his team also have experience testing the toxicity of various compounds on cells grown in the lab. While they may one day go down this route for nanoplastics, for now Andrews and Rochman emphasize the importance of improved analysis as a key step towards developing policies to address the challenge of microplastics.</p> <p>“California has already passed laws mandating the monitoring of microplastics in drinking water and in the ambient environment,” Rochman says.</p> <p>“I think it’s good that those bills happened because they are now forcing this global methods development program, which we’re helping lead. We don’t want to throw out numbers until we feel that we have a sound method.”</p> <p>The collaboration between Rochman and Andrews is funded in part by U of T’s XSeed program, an interdivisional research-funding program designed to promote multidisciplinary research. XSeed projects include one principal investigator from οEngineering and one from another university division&nbsp;–&nbsp;in this case, the Faculty of Arts &amp; Science.</p> <p>“Dealing with microplastics is the kind of challenge that truly does require people from different disciplines to work together,” says Andrews. “Neither of us could do this alone.”</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Fri, 19 Jul 2019 16:03:21 +0000 Christopher.Sorensen 157321 at Sea of troubles: Chelsea Rochman explores how plastic is breaking down – and where it’s ending up /news/sea-troubles-chelsea-rochman-explores-how-plastic-breaking-down-and-where-it-s-ending <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Sea of troubles: Chelsea Rochman explores how plastic is breaking down – and where it’s ending up</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2019-04-30-Plastics%2001-resized.jpg?h=fab47044&amp;itok=q_I7ajxt 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2019-04-30-Plastics%2001-resized.jpg?h=fab47044&amp;itok=5Tli_XN9 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2019-04-30-Plastics%2001-resized.jpg?h=fab47044&amp;itok=msdB8g_U 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2019-04-30-Plastics%2001-resized.jpg?h=fab47044&amp;itok=q_I7ajxt" alt="Photo of microplastics"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>noreen.rasbach</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2019-04-30T18:07:35-04:00" title="Tuesday, April 30, 2019 - 18:07" class="datetime">Tue, 04/30/2019 - 18:07</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item"> Microplastics, which are less than five millimetres in size, include pellets from industry, microbeads from personal care products and tire particles from urban runoff (photo by Paul Weeks)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/katrina-onstad" hreflang="en">Katrina Onstad</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/ontario-impact" hreflang="en">Ontario Impact</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/ecology-evolutionary-biology" hreflang="en">Ecology &amp; Evolutionary Biology</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/graduate-students" hreflang="en">Graduate Students</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/plastics" hreflang="en">Plastics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research-innovation" hreflang="en">Research &amp; Innovation</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>When <strong>Chelsea Rochman</strong> was six years old and a little anxious in the aftermath of her parents’ divorce, she was taken to a child psychologist. The doctor asked: If you could have three wishes, what would they be? One is forgotten, but, 30 years later, Rochman can clearly recall the other two wishes: the ability to see better (she’s had glasses since she was nine months old), and an end to all the trash in the world.</p> <section id="content" role="main"> <section> <div style="margin-left:auto;"> <article> <section> <div> <div> <div> <p>Today Rochman is an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Toronto researching microplastics, particles of plastic often barely visible to the naked eye (wish one). More specifically, she’s interested in how they pollute lakes, rivers and oceans (wish two), affecting ecosystems and – ponder this the next time you eat fish – the food chain. The research on microplastics taking place in the Rochman Lab at οis rippling out of academia, informing policy change including a recent multi-country ban on microbeads – those non-biodegradable exfoliators that made many of us suspicious of our face wash.</p> <p>An unusual, zigzagging personal path has taken Rochman from aspiring Hollywood actress to speaking at a United Nations meeting about the need to reduce plastic use. At 37, she’s become a frontline ambassador for a critical environmental issue that almost no one wanted to talk about a decade ago.&nbsp;</p> </div> </div> </div> </section> <section style="clear:both;"> <p>Standing in a sun-drenched lab off Spadina Crescent this past January, Rochman holds up a bagel-sized Petri dish dotted with tiny specimens of coloured plastic, some smaller than the pin on a thumbtack. “They’re pretty, huh? I kind of want to take a picture and blow it up,” she says in her super-fast voice, vowels loping in a singsong way.</p> <p>Several students in lab coats murmur agreement. One sits in front of a microscope using tiny pincers to examine a microfibre found in the stomach of a Lake Ontario fish. Another tells Rochman she’s identified a pre-production pellet from a chemical company that was likely destined to become a bottle until it rolled down the drain and into a harbour.</p> </section> <section> <div> <p>Since the 1950s, when plastic was heralded as the miracle material of the postwar era, humans have created more than seven billion tonnes of it and only nine per cent has ever been recycled. The rest has been incinerated, landfilled or has broken into fragments that end up in our soil, air and water.&nbsp;</p> <p>The smallest pieces, at less than five millimetres, are called “microplastics,” and Rochman started thinking about them as a marine ecology undergrad at UC San Diego. During a visit to a largely uninhabited research facility on an island off Australia’s coast in 2006, she noticed metres of trash strewn across the beach. The turtles in the rehabilitation centre were, she says, “pooping plastic.” She had some questions, and Google led her to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an 80,000-tonne mass of debris floating between Hawaii and California, largely made up of microplastics created by sun and waves eroding bigger plastics. More questions: What about the chemicals in the plastics? How exactly do they make their way to fish and wildlife like those pooping turtles? Rochman decided to do her graduate work at UC Davis studying how plastic pollution affects ecosystems and food webs.</p> <p>For one UC Davis study, Rochman went to the supermarket and bought some fish. It turned out that one in four contained microplastics, a number that now seems low: Every fish in the Great Lakes has plastic in it, she says. A newly published Rochman Lab study found more than 100 synthetic microfibres in the stomach of a single fish. Many of the 23 to 36 trillion microfibres that annually end up in Lake Ontario watersheds come from our own clothes, released during laundering. But the study shows that a large percentage of those fibres could be prevented from entering the environment by adding a simple commercial filter, available at hardware stores, to a washing machine.</p> <p>This is good news because microplastics can harm the growth, feeding and reproductive cycles of fish. Less known is exactly what concentration of plastic in the environment is dangerous for humans – a largely unstudied area. “I’m not working on it yet, but we do work on human exposure to microplastics via seafood and drinking water,” says Rochman.</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__10778 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" height="453" src="/sites/default/files/2019-04-30-chelsea%20rochman-resized750.jpg" typeof="foaf:Image" width="679" loading="lazy"></p> <p><em>Chelsea Rochman, an assistant professor&nbsp;of ecology and evolutionary biology at U of T, is researching microplastics (photo by Paul Weeks)</em></p> <p>“Contaminants are everywhere but we don’t really know yet the answer to the questions, ‘How&nbsp;bad is bad? What’s a tolerable amount?’ We have to figure out how to stop it from reaching a tipping point for human health.”</p> <p>Microplastics are a terrestrial concern, too. A fridge-like HEPA filter whirrs in a corner of Rochman’s lab in an attempt to keep the room free of dust and particles from clothes and carpets. “I don’t think seafood is our biggest source of plastic. I think it’s drinking water and dust falling on our food,” Rochman says, gesturing at a sunbeam in a window, catching specks. “See that? Microplastics.”</p> <p>For a native of Tucson, Ariz., dust makes a more sensible preoccupation than marine life. But Rochman’s parents were hippie-ish, and she spent much of her childhood outdoors, hiking and swimming. On Earth Day in high school, she ditched class to gather bags of trash in the desert. Rachel Carson’s seminal environmentalist book&nbsp;<em>Silent Spring</em>&nbsp;inspired Rochman. “I was fascinated with natural disasters. Now I study anthropogenic disasters,” she says.</p> <p>Rochman initially majored in atmospheric sciences at the University of Arizona, but the program was cancelled during her second year. She’d always acted, so she made a dizzying pivot to performing arts major. After two years, she packed up her car and drove to Hollywood where she did the la-la land thing: waitressing, taking classes and auditioning. Extra work on&nbsp;<em>The West Wing</em>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<em>Curb Your Enthusiasm</em>&nbsp;brought a non-speaking role as a bridesmaid in&nbsp;<em>American Pie 3</em>, the teen sex comedy franchise that was by then a case study in diminishing returns. “A terrible movie. Ten days on set and it turned me off the whole industry. It was icky and my brain was bored.”</p> <p>Rochman reinvented again, ending up at UC San Diego as a biology major and working at the aquarium down the hill. There, she discovered a love of teaching, revelling in field excursions like driving a tank of sharks to a school and taking children snorkelling and kayaking.</p> <p>That affection for students has been on display since arriving at οthree years ago. When we met, 25 lab students had been at her house the night before for a taco party in honour of a seminar speaker. Rochman started the οTrash Team in 2017, taking students on garbage-picking excursions off campus for research and to spread waste literacy. Last summer, the team unearthed 31 kilograms of trash at the mouth of the Don River in less than two hours. Now Rochman is working with Ports Toronto to find technology to prevent litter from entering Lake Ontario and to educate the public about waste.</p> </div> <div> <div><strong>Kennedy Bucci</strong>, a second-year PhD student who came to οspecifically to work with Rochman, helped catalogue the heaps of straws and bottles that hot day. “I’ve learned from Chelsea that if we do science in our bubble, there’s not much point,” she says. “She really believes that what matters is when you bring research to the public and policy-makers.”</div> <div><br> To that end, Rochman consulted on the G7 Ocean Plastics Charter, an international agreement to halt marine dumping, spearheaded by Canada. She’s also a science adviser to the non-profit Ocean Conservancy, and frequently finds herself at the table with representatives from Dow and Coca-Cola, trying to explain why reducing production is as important as recycling plastic waste. “It’s still frustrating, but at least they’re listening. They know microplastics are real.” This is a change from the denial phase of a few years ago, when Rochman was regularly mocked on industry blogs.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>For a long time, the community of microplastic scientists was, well, micro, but lately, Rochman has noticed a boom in research and academic postings. The interest is nascent, not unlike climate change study a generation ago, and it’s an uphill battle: plastic production is expected to increase by about 40 per cent over the next decade. But Rochman’s voice is now part of a louder chorus advocating for practical responses: proper recycling; less usage; and policy change around production, including taxation.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>“I have all these optimistic students around me so I don’t get too jaded,” she says. “They’re hopeful, so I have hope, too.” And surely hope is at least as powerful as a wish.<br> &nbsp;</div> </div> </section> <section> <div> <p><em>Chelsea Rochman’s outreach program, the οTrash Team, is supported by more than $25,000 in donations from the American Chemistry Council, the Canadian Plastics Industry Association, the Ocean Conservancy and the Alliance for the Great Lakes.</em></p> <p><em>This article first appeared in the University of Toronto Magazine. <a href="https://magazine.utoronto.ca/">Read more of the Spring 2019 issue</a>.&nbsp;</em></p> <div> <div> <p>&nbsp;</p> </div> </div> </div> </section> </article> </div> </section> </section> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Tue, 30 Apr 2019 22:07:35 +0000 noreen.rasbach 156480 at Cities and countries aim to slash plastic waste within a decade /news/cities-and-countries-aim-slash-plastic-waste-within-decade <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Cities and countries aim to slash plastic waste within a decade</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/garbage-pile-%28weblead%29.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=Z581MpD0 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/garbage-pile-%28weblead%29.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=eoSZkL2_ 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/garbage-pile-%28weblead%29.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=W1Fm0Ot3 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/garbage-pile-%28weblead%29.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=Z581MpD0" alt="Photo of a pile of plastic waste"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>Christopher.Sorensen</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2019-04-22T14:42:05-04:00" title="Monday, April 22, 2019 - 14:42" class="datetime">Mon, 04/22/2019 - 14:42</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Plastics pile up at Thilafushi, an artificial island created as a landfill, in the Maldives (photo by Shutterstock)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/chelsea-rochman" hreflang="en">Chelsea Rochman</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/diane-orihel" hreflang="en">Diane Orihel</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/global-lens" hreflang="en">Global Lens</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/ecology-evolutionary-biology" hreflang="en">Ecology &amp; Evolutionary Biology</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/environment" hreflang="en">Environment</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/global" hreflang="en">Global</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/plastics" hreflang="en">Plastics</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/conversation" hreflang="en">The Conversation</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>If all goes well, 2030 will be quite a special year.</p> <p>Global and local community <a href="https://sdg.iisd.org/news/unea-4-commits-to-global-environmental-data-strategy-reducing-single-use-plastics/">leaders from more than 170 countries have pledged</a> to “significantly reduce” the amount of single-use plastic products by 2030. Success would result in significantly less plastic pollution entering our oceans, lakes and rivers.</p> <p>Today, societies around the world have a love affair with disposable plastics. Just like some love stories, this one has an unhappy ending that results in plastic bags, straws and takeout containers strewn about the global environment.</p> <p>As researchers who study the contamination and effects of plastic pollution on wildlife, it would be nice if by 2030 we no longer heard about plastics showing up in the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-47608949">stomachs of dead whales</a>, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/05/a-remote-paradise-island-is-now-a-plastic-junkyard/526743/">littering the beaches of distant islands</a> and contaminating <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/08/20/636845604/beer-drinking-water-and-fish-tiny-plastic-is-everywhere">tap water and seafood</a>.</p> <p>It is time for some good news about the environment, including stories about how cities and countries are managing plastics and other waste materials in more sustainable ways, and how children will have cleaner beaches to play on.</p> <figure class="align-center "><img alt="photo of two children running on a beach" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269042/original/file-20190412-76837-1h00f22.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269042/original/file-20190412-76837-1h00f22.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269042/original/file-20190412-76837-1h00f22.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269042/original/file-20190412-76837-1h00f22.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=400&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269042/original/file-20190412-76837-1h00f22.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269042/original/file-20190412-76837-1h00f22.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269042/original/file-20190412-76837-1h00f22.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=503&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w"> <figcaption><span class="caption">Plastic doesn’t belong on the beach (photo by&nbsp;</span><span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption> </figure> <h3>No reason to wait</h3> <p><a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1738284?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">Scientists have known</a> about plastic pollution in our oceans for more than four decades. It is pervasive in rivers, lakes and soils, too. Plastic pollution knows no boundaries, with <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/10/12/124006">small bits of plastic</a> found from the equator to the poles and even on the <a href="https://theconversation.com/microplastics-have-even-been-blown-into-a-remote-corner-of-the-pyrenees-115503">remote slopes of the French Pyrenees mountains</a>.</p> <p>Plastic waste damages ecosystems, smothers coral reefs and fills the bellies of sea life. In the absence of action, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-018-0212-7">the amount of plastic waste produced globally is predicted to triple between 2015 and 2060</a>, to between 155 and 265 million tonnes per year.</p> <p>As a welcome response, global leaders have decided to act. At the <a href="http://web.unep.org/environmentassembly/">UN Environment Assembly</a> in Nairobi in March, environment ministers from around the world signed a voluntary commitment to make measurable reductions in single-use plastic products, including straws, shopping bags and other low-value plastic items that are sent to landfills after being used once.</p> <p>Similar goals to deal with plastic pollution have been introduced by municipal, provincial, federal and regional governments across the globe. Non-profit organizations and industry leaders are making efforts to tackle the problem of plastic pollution. For example, <a href="https://oceanconservancy.org/trash-free-seas/plastics-in-the-ocean/">Ocean Conservancy</a> is uniting citizens and organizations around the world in cleanups to meet their goal of an ocean free of plastics by 2030, and <a href="https://www.unilever.com/sustainable-living/reducing-environmental-impact/waste-and-packaging/">Unilever</a> has pledged to use 100 per cent recyclable packaging by 2025.</p> <h3>Canada joins the movement</h3> <p>Canada introduced the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/halifax-g7-meeting-plastics-1.4827886">Ocean Plastics Charter</a> at the G7 summit in 2018, committing nations to work with industry to make all plastics reusable, recyclable or recoverable by 2030. That means sending no plastic waste to landfills.</p> <p>Vancouver aims to be a zero-waste city by 2040. Although the city has <a href="https://thetyee.ca/News/2019/02/28/Less-Waste-Vancouver-Green-Goal/">reduced the mass of waste going to landfills by 23 per cent since 2008, it still has a long way to go</a>.</p> <p>Ontario also has its sights on being waste-free by developing a <a href="https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/circular-economy/concept">circular economy</a>, which means keeping materials in use for as long as possible. The province aims to cut the amount of waste sent to landfills in half by 2030, a reduction of <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/page/strategy-waste-free-ontario-building-circular-economy">4.5 million tonnes</a>, through reuse and recycling.</p> <p>To propel Ontario into action, Ian Arthur, the member of the Ontario provincial parliament for Kingston and the Islands, introduced a <a href="https://www.ola.org/en/legislative-business/bills/parliament-42/session-1/bill-82">private member’s bill</a> in March to eliminate Ontario’s use of non-recyclable single-use plastic products such as straws, coffee cups and plastic cutlery, which ultimately end up in landfills. These plastics do not feed into a circular economy.</p> <p>In addition, <a href="https://www.thewhig.com/news/local-news/kingston-pupils-petition-targets-plastic-bags-polystyrene">school children in Ontario are working toward&nbsp;collecting 10,000 signatures on petitions</a> to ban single-use plastics in the province.</p> <p>Canadians would like to see more action against plastic waste. According to a <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/blog/plastic-waste-survey-results">recent poll</a>, 90 per cent of Canadians were either very concerned or somewhat concerned about the environmental impact of plastic waste, and 82 per cent thought government should do more to reduce plastic waste.</p> <h3>Bye bye plastic waste</h3> <p>Our research, and the research of others, has found that single-use plastic products <a href="https://www.shorelinecleanup.ca/">litter our beaches and coastlines</a>, small pieces of plastics contaminate our <a href="/news/beyond-our-oceans-microplastics-pollute-rivers-and-lakes-too">Great Lakes</a> and the <a href="https://thenarwhal.ca/plastics-are-showing-up-in-canadas-arctic-birds/">Arctic Ocean</a>, and microplastics are present in our sport fish and drinking water.</p> <p>Ambitious global, regional and local collaborations are sorely needed to truly realize these goals. It’s time to commit to ending the love affair with disposable plastics.</p> <p>Individual action does work. Quench your need for caffeine by using a reusable mug. Hydrate with water from a durable and refillable bottle. Purchase groceries that come in containers that can be reused or recycled. Plan your kid’s birthday party and your work meetings without using disposable single-use plastics.</p> <p>A decade of positive habits could lead to a future where plastic is no longer waste, but valued as a material that can be reused and recycled – shifting our current paradigm to a more sustainable one that lasts far beyond 2030.<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. 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More info: http://theconversation.com/republishing-guidelines --></p> <p><em><span>Chelsea Rochman&nbsp;is an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the&nbsp;University of Toronto.&nbsp;</span></em></p> <p><em><span>Diane Orihel&nbsp;is an assistant professor&nbsp;in the&nbsp;School of Environmental Studies at&nbsp;Queen's University.</span></em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/cities-and-countries-aim-to-slash-plastic-waste-within-a-decade-114790">original article</a>.</em></p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Mon, 22 Apr 2019 18:42:05 +0000 Christopher.Sorensen 156362 at