Environmental concerns polystyrene

Plastic products are known to eventually break down into smaller and smaller pieces (nanoparticles) until they are small enough to enter the cells of living organisms. Because the amount of discarded plastic is so substantial, nanoplastic particles pose an emerging environmental concern. The health effects of nanoplastics are not thoroughly understood, but polystyrene particles up to 240 nm in diameter have been proven to be transportable through placental cells [52],... 

Many polymer foams are available, but the foam market is mainly based on polyurethane, polystyrene, polyolefin, and polyvinylchloride foams and this market is still increasing owing to environmental concerns related to energy saving. Therefore, in the following sections, flame retar-dancy of such foams will be reported moreover, owing to their particular fire behavior some details for phenolic foams will also be shown. 

This work was motivated by the need to quantify the pentane vapor diffusion through closed-cell polystyrene foam (Salejova et al., 2005). Once the polystyrene foam is formed, the pentane as the blowing agent has to diffuse out from the cellular microstructure and is replaced by air. Freshly foamed polystyrene is not dimensionally stable and it shrinks as it relaxes on the timescale of days to weeks. Environmental concerns call for the reduced consumption of pentane as the blowing agent. 

You yearn for the old days of polystyrene (Styrofoam) cups, which never got hot. Being an ambitious student (and looking for a distraction), you decide to come up with a process to recycle polystyrene (Styrofoam) so that environmental concerns will no longer keep the coffee shop from using this very good insulating material. 

Exfoliating scrubs are used to remove dead surface cells and allo w other products, such as essential oils, to penetrate the skin more effectively. These are principally suspensions of some kind of particles that are intended to do the exfoliating. Examples include ground pumice, microbeads, ground nut shells (such as walnut) and ground fruit seeds (such as apricot). Other additives may include oils, salts and scents. Some environmental and health concerns about the use of microscale polystyrene beads as exfoliating agents have been noted in Section 8.6. 

The production of durable functional products without using petroleum-based raw materials is a focus of much academic research today but it is also prioritized by many industries. Many questions still remain concerning the use, production and properties of bio-based and/or degradable polymers and whether or not they are more environmentally friendly than oil-based products. Polylactide is a bio-based compostable thermoplastic that is considered as one of the most promising materials for replacement of traditional volume plastics. The properties of polylactide can be tuned to resemble polystyrene, polyfethylene terephthalate) or polyolefins by controlling the stereochemistry by copolymerization or blending. This chapter reviews the life-cycle of polylactide based materials as well as the properties and applications. The recent trends in the area are also discussed. 

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