1. Chapters 7 and 8 Brooke Winters, Kelly Li, Darius Reiter, and Peiyu Guo

2. Closing the Loop Nathaniel Wyeth-an engineer in a family of the conventional arts Mechanical engineer, joined DuPont in 1936 “I’m in the same field as the artists—creativity—but theirs is a glamour one” (171) Known for the PET bottle Plastic bottles initially exploded under the pressure of carbonation Wyeth utilized polyethylene terephthalate “Clear as glass but shatterproof and just a fraction of its weight” (172)

3. The PET Bottle Led to “chug-on-the-go” drink market due to the convenience of plastic as well as “the changeover to what the industry calls ‘one ways’” (173-174) “Plastic bottles intensified the consequences of the shift to one ways, adding a nondegradable variety of trash to the growing number of litter carelessly discarded along roadways, beaches, and parks, and to the swelling volumes of products and packaging we discarded in our weekly trash. The abandoned soda bottle was an unsightly corollary to the new ethos of convenience, the sort of sour note that might cause you to question a relationship that otherwise seemed like so much fun” (174).

5. Value of the PET Bottle “If recycling has an iconic object, it’s the PET bottle” (174). Can be made into pallet strapping, paint brushes, carpets, clothes, sleeping bag fill, furniture, ext… Has the potential to be a great resource, but problems arise due to the low recycling rates “We forget that an item like a used soda bottle is a resource worth saving, not trash to be thrown away…” (175).

6. Recycling Process: Domestic San Francisco: Reputation for recycling “The system is surprisingly low tech” Challenges: different types of polymers, cross contamination of plastics, even troubles with the same type (a PET bottle that’s been blown into shape has a different melting temperature than a PET cookie tray that’s been molded through extrusion) West Coast ships much of its plastic to China.

7. Recology ● Company in charge of San Francisco’s waste ● ‘Pay as you throw’ policy-the more you recycle and compost, the lower your garbage bill is ● Limitations-enforcing the program can be difficult in apartment complexes, nonresidential areas ● Once drivers take waste to Recycle Central, waste is sorted by plastic code ○ Mainly done by hand: Increased efficiency but increased cost as well

8. Recycling Process: International China currently takes about 70 percent of the world’s used plastics “Surprisingly, by some analyses, shipping our plastic waste to China is an environmental plus. Using plastic scrap reduces the amount of virgin resin China has to produce itself, which means fewer greenhouse gas emissions” (185) Labor cost: China vs. U.S.

9. Closing the Loop Pros and Cons with single stream recycling Vacuum cleaner incident Trade off between quantity and quality “It’s also showed the development of closed-loop recycling systems, in which used plastic bottles can be recycled back into new plastic bottles. Closed-loop systems represent recycling at its most environmentally beneficial. Turning an old bottle into a new one offsets the need for virgin resins, which is ultimately the best way to reduce the resources required to make the things we want” (189)

10. The Bottle Bill How it works? “Not only an environmental plus, but an economic one”

11. The Plant Bottle

12. Green Plastics Plastic that's starting place is a renewable raw material Often created from plant based polymers Made of renewable sources of carbon. And the carbon dioxide released at the end of the plastics life is reabsorbed by the plants that sprout next season Move us back into the protective loop of the natural carbon cycle Appeal due to the fact that they do not draw on fossil fuels, they do not persist in the environment as long, and theoretically created without harmful chemicals

13. Green Plastics Classification Based on the definition of green plastics, E. S. Stevens classifies modern day green plastics into three categories: 1. Polymers extracted directly from biomasses (plants or animals), with or without modification (Referred Type I here after). For example polysaccharide starch modified polymers and polymers derived from cellulose. 2.Polymers processed directly by microorganisms through large scale fermentation process (Referred Type II here after). For example polyhydroxyalcanoates (PHA), copolymer of Polyhyrodxy butyrate and hydroxyvalerate (PHBV). 3. Polymers obtained from resins (monomers) produced with renewable and naturally occurring raw materials (Referred Type III here after). For example polyesters such as polylactic acid (PLA) processed from naturally occurring lactic acid monomer.

14. Plastic scoreboard Two different score boards one for regular plastics and one for bioplastics Created in order give the generic life-cycle of a product and assign scores based on that. Companies can choose what plastic to use based on the score the plastic recieved Ideally people would choose plastics with lower scores and have less environmental impact

15. What is Biodegradable? When a compound can be completely decomposed Many products listed as green are not actually fully biodegradable But rather these products just break down into smaller pieces quicker but do not actually decompose. Example is green PVC credit cards. Can’t be green as PVC is toxic and persistent.