Organic Plastic.

Organic Plastic.| Sustaining Our Planet for Future Generations

Sustaining Our Planet for Future Generations

There is concern worldwide that environmental issues we face today will have an impact on future generations. Your challenge is to create a way to communicate the importance of environmental responsibility to people of all ages.

Summary

Our goal in this hackathon is to spread the use of alternative products instead of using petroleum-based plastics. Alternative products include PLA (polylactic acid) currently in use. As a team, we researched the production, benefits and usage areas of PLA. PLA comes from renewable sources that absorb CO2 and turn it into glucose. This is then processed to obtain an almost carbon free product. PLA is a plastic that we can use to protect the environment and let's join hands to increase it. This world is all of us and we are trustees. Think of your life, protect your nature .

How We Addressed This Challenge

One of today's biggest environmental problems is petroleum-based plastics. Carbon dioxide emission in the manufacturing process, water consumption, energy costs and negativities in the recycling process after use and the process of extinction in nature for centuries are dangerous raw materials for our future.

Plastic pollution is the accumulation of plastic objects and particles in the Earth's environment that adversely affects wildlife, wildlife habitat, and humans. Plastics that act as pollutants are categorized into micro-, meso-, or macro debris, based on size. Plastics are inexpensive and durable, and as a result levels of plastic production by humans are high. However, the chemical structure of most plastics renders them resistant to many natural processes of degradation and as a result they are slow to degrade Together, these two factors lead to a high prominence of plastic pollution in the environment.

Plastic is definitely used in every product produced in the world. Considering that plastic has a 150-year history, it is certain that we will face bigger problems in the next century.

If we want our future generations to live in a cleaner world, we must remove petroleum-based plastics from our lives over time. Instead, new visions about the production, widespread use and disposal of organic plastics produced entirely from organic raw materials should be created, and the use of organic plastics should be encouraged. In the production of organic plastic, renewable animal and vegetable resources such as corn cane, peas, vegetable oil or microbiota are used.

The first Organic plastic was discovered in the 1980s. In the years it was discovered, its commercial use and manufacturing raw materials were limited. It is now produced from many raw materials and its production cost is 65% lower than petroleum-based plastics.

How We Developed This Project

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/blogs/fromthefield/2017/10/26/plastic-plastic-where-is-all-our-plastic/ Starting from this article, we thought about how plastics can be produced outside of oil. Then, as a result of our research, we came to the conclusion that we can use PLA (organic plastic). Polylactic acid (PLA) is a type of plastic that is used in building models and prototypes of solid objects and components. It is a thermoplastic polyester that serves as the raw material in 3-D printing or additive manufacturing processes and applications. Polylactic acid is primarily created using renewable or green sources such as sugar cane, starch and corn. As a result, it can easily be recycled. It is used in most additive manufacturing processes that design 3-D models and prototypes through plastic-based materials. In fused deposition modeling (FDM) technology, the molten polymer filament, which is extruded from the controller nozzle, is polylactic acid. PLA is bio-based and biodegradable. These are the most outstanding properties, especially considering that one does not automatically imply the other. Being bio-based implies that the material is derived from biomass. As for being biodegradable, PLA undergoes a transformation into natural material, such as water, carbon dioxide, and composite. This process is carried out by microorganisms in the environment and is strongly dependent on conditions such as temperature and humidity. The benefits of PLA are:

· Healthcare and Medical industry: PLA plastic is biocompatible, meaning that it can be used for devices in the human body with minimum inflammation and infection. As a result, and given its attractive source, it has been employed in the production of biomedical and clinical applications , in bone fixation devices, such as screws, plates, surgical structure and meshes, and drug delivery systems. An amazing addition is the possibilities in tissue engineering. Its bio-compatibility and its ability to dissolve in the body show that it posses great promise in solving problems such as tissue loss and organ failure.

· Structural applications: PLA material can be used in the construction industry as, for example, foam for insulation, fiber used in carpets, and in furnishing. However, given its properties and biological susceptibility, it has restricted applications in this industry.

· Textile industry: Efforts in the plastic industry, aim to take bio-sourced PLA fiber to replace non-renewable polyester textiles. The advantages include breathability, lower weight, and recyclability, among others.

· Cosmetics industry: Consumer awareness of plastic pollution has driven industries as the cosmetic one to seek sustainable solutions that ensure product preservation.

How We Used Space Agency Data in This Project

Additive manufacturing of polymeric systems using 3D printing has become quite popular recently due to rapid growth and availability of low cost and open source 3D printers. Two widely used 3D printing filaments are based on polylactic acid (PLA) and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) systems. PLA is much more environmentally friendly in comparison to ABS since it is made from renewable resources such as corn, sugarcane, and other starches as precursors. Recently, polylactic acid-based metal powder containing composite filaments have emerged which could be utilized for multifunctional applications

PLA Plastics can be easily processed by 3D printers, safe use in medical applications and no harmful gases spread to the air during processing. In addition, soil agriculture work is carried out in space. The disposal of PLA wastes can be tried in the soil agriculture experiments used there.

https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-pollution From this article, we learned how much plastic pollution has increased over the years. We also reviewed these articles and benefited from some articles from NASA and other space agencies :

http://www.aero.jaxa.jp/eng/publication/magazine/sora/2009_no33/ss2009no33_03.html ,

https://profils-profiles.science.gc.ca/en/publication/influence-citric-acid-properties-glycerol-plasticized-dry-starch-dtps-and-dtpspolylactic , https://www.nasa.gov/vision/space/travelinginspace/25aug_plasticspaceships.html