Plastic recycling in focus as treaty talks get underway in Paris

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Reuters

May 29 (Reuters) - As talks start this week on a global plastics treaty, debate is emerging between countries wanting to limit the production of more plastics and the petrochemical industry favoring recycling as the solution to plastic waste.

Ahead of a meeting starting on Monday, many countries have said a goal of the treaty should be "circularity" – or keeping already-produced plastic items in circulation as long as possible. Coming into the talks in Paris, a 55-nation coalition called for a strong treaty including restrictions on certain hazardous chemicals as well as bans on problematic plastics products that are hard to recycle and often end up in nature.

"We have a responsibility to protect human health in our environment from the most harmful polymers and chemicals of concern through the treaty," said Rwanda's environment minister, Jeanne d'Arc Mujawamariya, who is the co-chair of the High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution. French President Emmanuel Macron said "there is no time to lose" on the issue. "The aim must be to produce a text that everyone agrees on by the end of 2024, a year before the United Nations Conference on Oceans in Nice," he said in a video message released on Monday.

The U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP), which is hosting the talks, released a blueprint for reducing plastic waste by 80% by 2040. The report, issued earlier this month, outlined three key areas of action: reuse, recycling and reorientation of plastic packaging to alternative materials.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/plastic-recycling-focus-treaty-talks-get-underway-paris-2023-05-29/

[Evolve Dammit]

1. A huge problem (not like we don't have enough) but we are killing our oceans and wildlife. And

probably ourselves..

[cstanleytech]

2. One thing I would love is an outright ban on plastics currently used for beverages and most foods.

I could see about things like clear plastic Reynolds wrap probably but plastic soda bottles, Ziploc bags and plastics for things like lunchables should not be permitted if they cannot breakdown into harmless inert components within a 2 year period on their own.

[Deminpenn]

3. A couple days ago,

chatted up a college age Walmart employee who was majoring in polymers. Told him he was going into a dying field and cited my own personal decisions to avoid plastic packaging as much as possible like buying pop in cans rather than plastic bottles. Not sure he believed me that plastics weren't the future, though.

[BumRushDaShow]

4. "Told him he was going into a dying field"

My senior year of college, I did did 2 semesters of research (6 credits each semester, which was 4 hours of lab per credit) in organometallic chemistry (doing synthesis reactions to find ways to make longer polymer chains), I will tell you that although "plastics" are made up of "polymers", "polymers" are NOT all "plastics".

There are who knows how many different types of "polymers", including those seen in biological substances like something very familiar - https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacs.1c08484

Polymers Strive for Accuracy: From Sequence-Defined Polymers to mRNA Vaccines against COVID-19 and Polymers in Nucleic Acid Therapeutics

Aman Ishaqat and Andreas Herrmann*

Cite this: J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2021, 143, 49, 20529–20545
Publication Date:November 28, 2021
https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.1c08484
Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society

Abstract

Unquestionably, polymers have influenced the world over the past 100 years. They are now more crucial than ever since the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. The pandemic paved the way for certain polymers to be in the spotlight, namely sequence-defined polymers such as messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA), which was the first type of vaccine to be authorized in the U.S. and Europe to protect against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This rise of mRNA will probably influence scientific research concerning nucleic acids in general and RNA therapeutics in specific. In this Perspective, we highlight the recent trends in sequence-controlled and sequence-defined polymers. Then we discuss mRNA vaccines as an example to illustrate the need of ultimate sequence control to achieve complex functions such as specific activation of the immune system. We briefly present how mRNA vaccines are produced, the importance of modified nucleotides, the characteristic features, and the advantages and challenges associated with this class of vaccines. Finally, we discuss the chances and opportunities for polymer chemistry to provide solutions and contribute to the future progress of RNA-based therapeutics. We highlight two particular roles of polymers in this context. One represents conjugation of polymers to nucleic acids to form biohybrids. The other is concerned with advanced polymer-based carrier systems for nucleic acids. We believe that polymers can help to address present problems of RNA-based therapeutic technologies and impact the field beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.



(snip)

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacs.1c08484

So although "polymers" used in "plastics" might be waning, "polymers" used for medical purposes are about to take off into the stratosphere like you have seen with the biologic-based polymers used for the mRNA vaccines for example.

In fact I just saw an article a few days ago that describes a measles vaccine delivered by a "patch" with a microarray of "needles" that are a vaccine/polymer combo, that barely penetrate the skin to deliver the vaccine subdermally without a traditional needle.

There are studies going on in Gambia for mass vaccination in areas where traditional needle-based vaccines can be difficult to store and administer - https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/05/26/1177678380/virtually-ouch-free-promising-early-data-on-a-measles-vaccine-delivered-via-stic



Those types of microarray patches have been in trials for flu vaccine delivery as well - https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2817%2930575-5/fulltext

A good review of what is being looked at for that type of vaccine delivery - https://link.springer.com/article/10.1208/s12249-022-02250-8



So "polymer chemistry" is the opposite of a "dying field".

[Deminpenn]

5. This young man spoke as if he were studying

for plastics, maybe plastics recycling. But still interesting information.

[BumRushDaShow]

6. Well again

"plastics are polymers" but not all polymers are "plastics" and potentially what might act as a "plastic" could be biodegradable/compostable but is still a "polymer".

I have bought items from a company called "Responsible Products" that sells biodegradable/compostable dinnerware and eating utensils, and have some of their sandwich bags too.