PlasticsEurope

Plastics used in agriculture, commonly known as agriplastics (AP), offer numerous advantages in terrestrial agriculture, forestry, fisheries and aquaculture, but the diffusion of AP-intensive practices has led to extensive pollution. This review aims to synthesise scientific and policy discussions surrounding AP, examining evidence of their benefits and detrimental environmental and agricultural impacts. Following the proposal of a preliminary general taxonomy of AP, this paper presents the findings from a survey conducted among international experts from the plastic industry, farmer organisations, NGOs and environmental research institutes. This analysis highlights knowledge gaps, demands and perspectives for the sustainable future use of AP. Stakeholder positions vary on the options of ‘rejection’ or ‘reduction’ of AP, as well as the role of alternative materials such as (bio)degradable and compostable plastics. However, there is consensus on critical issues such as redesign, labelling, traceability, environmental safety standards, deployment and retrieval standards, as well as innovative waste management approaches. All stakeholders express concern for the environment. A ‘best practice’-based circular model was elaborated capturing these perspectives. In the context of global food systems increasingly reliant on AP, scientists emphasise the need to simultaneously preserve nature-based and traditional knowledge-based sustainable agricultural practices to enhance food system resilience.

Plastics used in agriculture, commonly known as agriplastics (AP), offer numerous advantages in terrestrial agriculture, forestry, fisheries and aquaculture, but the diffusion of AP-intensive practices has led to extensive pollution. This review aims to synthesise scientific and policy discussions surrounding AP, examining evidence of their benefits and detrimental environmental and agricultural impacts. Following the proposal of a preliminary general taxonomy of AP, this paper presents the findings from a survey conducted among international experts from the plastic industry, farmer organisations, NGOs and environmental research institutes. This analysis highlights knowledge gaps, demands and perspectives for the sustainable future use of AP. Stakeholder positions vary on the options of ‘rejection’ or ‘reduction’ of AP, as well as the role of alternative materials such as (bio)degradable and compostable plastics. However, there is consensus on critical issues such as redesign, labelling, traceability, environmental safety standards, deployment and retrieval standards, as well as innovative waste management approaches. All stakeholders express concern for the environment. A ‘best practice’-based circular model was elaborated capturing these perspectives. In the context of global food systems increasingly reliant on AP, scientists emphasise the need to simultaneously preserve nature-based and traditional knowledge-based sustainable agricultural practices to enhance food system resilience.

Nanotechnologies have reached maturity and market penetration that require nano-specific changes in legislation and harmonization among legislation domains, such as the amendments to REACH for nanomaterials (NMs) which came into force in 2020. Thus, an assessment of the components and regulatory boundaries of NMs risk governance is timely, alongside related methods and tools, as part of the global efforts to optimise nanosafety and integrate it into product design processes, via Safe(r)-by-Design (SbD) concepts. This paper provides an overview of the state-of-the-art regarding risk governance of NMs and lays out the theoretical basis for the development and implementation of an effective, trustworthy and transparent risk governance framework for NMs. The proposed framework enables continuous integration of the evolving state of the science, leverages best practice from contiguous disciplines and facilitates responsive re-thinking of nanosafety governance to meet future needs. To achieve and operationalise such framework, a science-based Risk Governance Council (RGC) for NMs is being developed. The framework will provide a toolkit for independent NMs' risk governance and integrates needs and views of stakeholders. An extension of this framework to relevant advanced materials and emerging technologies is also envisaged, in view of future foundations of risk research in Europe and globally.

Emissions of plastic waste to the environment and the subsequent degradation into microplastic particles that have the potential to interact with biological organisms represent a concern for global society. Current understanding of the potential impacts on aquatic and terrestrial population stability and ecosystem structure and function associated with emissions of microplastic particles is limited and insufficient to fully assess environmental risks. Multistakeholder discussions can provide an important element in helping to identify and prioritize key knowledge gaps in assessing potential risks. In the present review, we summarize multistakeholder discussions from a 1‐d International Council of Chemical Associations–sponsored symposium, which involved 39 scientists from 8 countries with representatives from academia, industry, and government. Participants were asked to consider the following: discuss the scientific merits and limitations of applying a proposed conceptual environmental risk assessment (ERA) framework for microplastic particles and identify and prioritize major research needs in applying ERA tools for microplastic particles. Multistakeholder consensus was obtained with respect to the interpretation of the current state of the science related to effects and exposure to microplastic particles, which implies that it is unlikely that the presence of microplastic in the environment currently represents a risk. However, the quality and quantity of existing data require substantial improvement before conclusions regarding the potential risks and impacts of microplastic particles can be fully assessed. Research that directly addresses the development and application of methods that strengthen the quality of data should thus be given the highest priority. Activities aimed at supporting the development of and access to standardized reference material were identified as a key research need. Environ Toxicol Chem 2019;38:2087–2100. © 2019 The Authors. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of SETAC.

The studied material is a 5xxx aluminium alloys containing 2 types of intermetallic particles : Alx(Fe;Mn) and Mg2Si. It is usually used in car industry as reinforcement pieces or in packaging industry, such as bottle liquid box lid. Scanning electronic microscope coupled with EDX analysis shows complex shapes of intermetallic particles. The particle shape is obtained during the solidification of alloys. Particles fill vacant spaces between aluminium grains. Therefore final sheet properties depend on intermetallic particles shapes and notably on the matrix-particle interface properties. The goal of the present study is to classify intermetallic particles versus their shapes using local curvature information. The aluminium alloys sample is observed by X ray micro tomography performed at the ESRF. Three dimensional images are segmented, and intermetallic particles are identified in a data base. Each particle is stored as a set of voxels. The surface of each particle is meshed by a marching cubes triangular meshing with the software Amira©. A simplification of the surface is performed by an algorithm contracting the edges. Finally, principal curvatures: kmin and kmax are estimated by Amira© on each facet centre of the mesh. From the full intermetallic population, the bivariate distribution of kmin and kmax is estimated. The obtained graph kmin ¡kmax shows geometrical properties of interface portions of the surface of particles. A factorial correspondence analysis is performed to summarize the information on all intermetallic particles. In the obtained subspace, particles are classified into five shape families, in relation with their interface geometrical properties.

The corrosion behavior in impure helium of Haynes 230, a nickel base alloy candidate for heat exchangers in Very High Temperature Reactors (VHTR), has been investigated. The study focused on the formation and the subsequent destruction of the surface oxide layer at 900 °C and 980 °C. In-situ gas-phase analysis coupled to post-exposure surface analyses showed that a chromium-rich surface oxide formed on Haynes 230 at 900 °C but was unstable above a critical temperature T A : the chromium-rich oxide reacted with carbon in solution in the alloy to produce chromium and CO(g). The effect of carbon monoxide partial pressure in the gas phase as well as the influence of chromium and carbon activities in the alloy on T A are discussed taking thermodynamics and kinetics aspects into account.

Several works on laser-matter interaction has shown the differences in sizes for the Heat Affected Zone (HAZ) obtained with nanosecond and femtosecond regimes in laser cutting or drilling. To understand more clearly the basic phenomena that occur in femtosecond regime during the absorption of light by matter, and specially in the case of metals, we have developed both an experimental and a theoretical approach. We use a new method aimed at quantifying the dimensions of the HAZ, using thin-down samples which are micro-drilled and then observed by a transmission electronic microscopy (TEM) technique. The grain size in the samples is analysed near the micro-holes. According to theoretical studies, the thermal diffusion is due to the smaller value of the electron specific heat compared to the lattice one. The thermal diffusion length is found to be a few hundred of nanometers in the case of metals. We use a thermal model to describe the heat diffusion in the sample in order to obtain a theoretical estimation of the HAZ. Holes are drilled in Aluminum using nanosecond and femtosecond laser pulses and characterized by Transmission Electronic Microscopy (TEM). The method for quantifying the dimensions of the heat affected zone (HAZ) surrounding micro-holes is based on the analyze of the grain size evolution. The experiments are using the same Ti-Sapphire laser source (1 kHz, 800 nm). The regeneratively amplified ultra-short pulses (150 fs) are utilized at a low fluence regime (typically 0.01-0.5 mJ/pulse), while the longer pulses (ns) are obtained from the regenerative amplifier without oscillator seeding (0.5 mJ,τ approximately 7-8 ns). The main conclusion is that a 40 micrometers wide HAZ is induced by nanosecond pulses, whereas the femtosecond regime does not produce any TEM observable HAZ. It has to be noticed that the width of the femtosecond HAZ is roughly less than 2 micrometers , which is our observation limit. These results are in agreement with theoretical predictions.