Bacillus subtilis SK01 and its application in plastic degradation. Bacillus subtilis SK01 collected by China Center for Type Culture Collection (CCTCC), CCTCC NO: M2020812 is used to prepare a degradable plastic that can protect Bacillus subtilis SK01 from the damage of high temperature and reduce the difference with polyene plastics in specific gravity. The plastic may be stored for more than 1 year to ensure that the microbial enzymes produced by Bacillus subtilis SK01 can achieve 49.11% of total degradation of organic solids after 153 days in an environment for composting or soil burial, and can be slowly degraded by sunlight (photodegradation) or immersion in water. Under an environment other than that mentioned above, the finished products of polyene plastics added with Bacillus subtilis SK01 are consistent with the non-degradable plastics in shelf life, satisfying the demand of a variety of polyene plastics.

Poly and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAs) are extremely resistant to natural degradation. Described herein are compositions, assays, and methods for generating microorganisms capable of accelerating degradation of these products using a directed evolution strategy. A minimal media including the target carbon source of interest, creates selective pressure for microorganisms capable of degradation. Extremely slow growth rates on these alternative carbon sources is nevertheless measureable using automated image capture and processing pipeline allows one to observe very small changes in cell growth over the course of a very long period of time, thereby identifying microorganisms that could not otherwise be identified.

A system for recovering recyclable materials from mixed waste is provided. The system processes existing municipal solid waste collections to recover recyclable materials from the waste. The system uses various separation processes sequenced with a rotating, horizontal constant-flow steam based waste processing vessel to efficiently separate high value materials such as metals and rigid plastics while additionally separating low value plastics and post-consumer commodities. The system reduces landfill load and operational costs while simultaneously providing the reduction of carbon emissions achieved with recycling post-consumer commodities.

Processes and systems for converting waste plastics include feeding a waste plastic to a melt tank, and in the melt tank, heating the waste plastic to form a molten plastic. The molten plastic is withdrawn from the melt tank and fed to a pyrolysis reactor. In the pyrolysis reactor, the molten plastic is heated to a pyrolysis temperature, producing a pyrolysis oil product and a liquid pitch product. The pyrolysis oil is then separated into a pyrolysis gas fraction, a light pyrolysis oil fraction, a medium pyrolysis oil fraction, and a heavy pyrolysis oil fraction.

A process for treating photopolymer material that makes up master plates in flexographic printing includes: shredding and refining the plates into pieces smaller than 10 mm in any direction; subsequent cold grinding to obtain a powder with a particle size ranging from 100 to 500 microns; drying the powder at a temperature of 80-120 C. for two hours; introducing the dried powder into a twin-screw extruder with corotating screws with rotation of the screws between 150 and 250 rpm where the dried powder is mass mixed with a polymer melt at a temperature of 160-300 C.; collecting at an exit of the extruder a homogeneous mass mixture of polymer melt and powder which is collected in the form of an extruded wire which is cooled; and pelletizing the extruded wire.

An apparatus for the production of items of clothing, which includes at least one shredder, at least one pulverizer, at least one mixer for the mixing of the powder that originates from the pulverizer with at least one other substance chosen preferably from a solvent, polyethylene glycol, and a polyether and organic binders, with consequent obtainment of a mixture. The apparatus also includes at least one extruder of the mixture, which is arranged on a movement unit with at least two axes, for the deposition of layers of the mixture on a predefined surface, with consequent provision of at least one portion of an item of clothing and the like according to a method of the type of additive manufacturing.

A system for initiating a recycling program of consumer electronic devices, wherein the system includes a collection device configured to collect a plurality of consumer electronic devices from users, a processing unit located within a permitted facility, communicatively connected to the collection device, wherein the processing unit is configured to disassemble each consumer electronic device of the plurality of consumer electronic devices into a plurality of base components through an electronic device disassembling process, wherein the plurality of base components includes a plurality of plastic components and at least a battery component, process the plurality of base components, wherein processing the plurality of base components includes disintegrating the plurality of plastic components into a plurality of granules and decomposing the at least one battery component into a plurality of electrochemical materials, and generate a recycled output using the processed plurality of base components.

A panel including a first layer including fragments from a first blend of paper fragments of a first size and plastic fragments of a second size, a second layer including fragments from a second blend of paper fragments of a third size and plastic fragments of a fourth size, the third size being different from the first size, and the fourth size being different from the second size, and a third layer comprising fragments from the first blend. The second layer is disposed between the first layer and the third layer.

A method may include determining a first dry mass flow rate of a wet paper material stream based on a first amount of contaminants, a first moisture content, and a first wet mass flow rate of the wet paper material stream, determining a second dry mass flow rate of a wet plastic material stream based on a second amount of contaminants, a second moisture content, and a second wet mass flow rate of the wet plastic material stream, calculating, using the first dry mass flow rate and the second dry mass flow rate, a paper/plastic ratio of a combined stream of the paper material stream and the plastic material stream, and adjusting, a flow rate of paper into the paper material stream and a flow rate of plastic into the plastic material stream such that the calculated paper/plastic ratio of the combined stream equals a target paper/plastic ratio.

Processes are disclosed for recovering stiff poly(vinyl butyral) from a plasticized poly(vinyl butyral) multilayer sheet containing the stiff poly(vinyl butyral) and soft poly(vinyl butyral). The processes include grinding the plasticized poly(vinyl butyral) multilayer sheet to obtain a granulate; adding additional plasticizer to the granulate to remove at least a portion of the soft poly(vinyl butyral); and physically separating the granulate from the resulting solution.