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Volume 7 Issue 2, February 2022

Plastics shape the modern world, but between their reliance on fossil fuels and their massive accumulation as waste, plastics are also at the heart of a dual environmental crisis. In this month’s Focus Issue, our collection of articles explores plastics from many perspectives, including biopolymers for a circular economy, the design of polymers with end-of-life management in mind and the issue of microplastics. See Plastics give and plastics take.

Image: Vânia Zuin and Klaus Kümmerer, University Lüneburg, and Rafael Meireles Barroso, Cia. Peculiar. Cover design: Charlotte Gurr.

Volume 7 Issue 2

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Editorial

  • Plastics have profoundly changed what is possible in modern society. But between their reliance on fossil fuels and their massive accumulation as waste, plastics are also at the heart of a dual environmental crisis.

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    Editorial

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Comment

  • The European Environmental Agency (EEA) has formulated five early warning signs to be considered by regulators when it comes to materials and substances. These warning signs reflect many concerns raised about plastics and are thus worth considering during the design and regulation of new and established polymeric materials.

    • Freja Lund Paulsen
    • Maria Bille Nielsen
    • Steffen Foss Hansen
    Comment

  • The positive benefits afforded by the widespread use of plastics need to be reconciled with negative impacts on the environment and health across the entire plastics life cycle. Optimizing the balance in several facets of plastics production, use and waste management is necessary for a more sustainable relationship with these materials in the Anthropocene.

    • Denise M. Mitrano
    • Martin Wagner
    Comment

  • Environmentally benign and sustainable chemistry has the potential to address negative environmental impacts associated with the production and degradation of synthetic polymers. In particular, green synthesis of plastics could be achieved by the convergence of visible-light-driven photocatalysis and reversible-deactivation radical polymerization.

    • Yungyeong Lee
    • Cyrille Boyer
    • Min Sang Kwon

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    Comment
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Research Highlights

  • An article in Advanced Materials reports an environmentally friendly hybrid mineral that presents the same flexibility and moldability as traditional plastics.

    • Giulia Pacchioni

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    Research Highlight

  • An article in Advanced Functional Materials reports a fully edible, strong and plastic-free straw based on bacterial cellulose.

    • Ariane Vartanian

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    Research Highlight

  • An article in the Journal of the American Chemical Society reports a method to exploit the stereochemical differences between two sugar-based monomers to fabricate a family of plastic-like materials with a range of degradation and mechanical properties.

    • Giulia Pacchioni

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    In Brief
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Reviews

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