Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Safe by Design for Nanomaterials—Late Lessons from Early Warnings for Sustainable Innovation

This review examines the 'Safe by Design' framework for nanomaterials, arguing that early evaluation of potential toxicity risks during the innovation process — drawing on lessons from past environmental warnings — is essential for sustainable advanced material development.

2021 NanoEthics 7 citations
Article Tier 2

Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design  Approach and Decision Support System for Advanced Materials

Researchers developed a Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design decision support system and framework for advanced materials, aligned with EU recommendations. The system guides innovators through a stage-gate model with tools for early-stage material assessment and warning flags, enabling systematic safety and sustainability evaluation from ideation through pilot development.

2025 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Curbing the Environmental Implications of Emerging Nano-Pollutants: Current Developments in Preventing Environmental Exposure Potential and Adverse Effects

This paper proposed two strategies for reducing the environmental exposure potential and adverse effects of engineered nanomaterials from nano-enabled products: a safer-and-sustainable-by-design (SSbD) approach during product development, and coordinated international policy development to regulate nanomaterial releases across product lifecycles.

2025 Advances in water security
Article Tier 2

First Steps Toward Sustainable Circular Uses of Chemicals: Advancing the Assessment and Management Paradigm

This article advances a framework for sustainable circular use of chemicals, proposing updated assessment and management approaches to reduce chemical hazards while enabling circularity in industrial and consumer product systems.

2021 ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering 53 citations
Article Tier 2

Release Assessment Methodology for Safe Sustainable and Recyclable by-Design Practices for Plastics: The Epoxy-Resin Composite Case Study

Researchers developed a release assessment methodology for epoxy resin composites to evaluate whether they meet safe and sustainable by-design criteria across their lifecycle. The framework tested for chemical release during manufacturing, use, and end-of-life, providing a standardized approach to green plastic design.

2025 Preprints.org
Article Tier 2

Design framework for circular and sustainable packaging design

Researchers developed a novel packaging design framework integrating circularity and sustainability (C&S) criteria using literature review, expert brainstorming, and field visits. The framework addresses conflicts between sustainability and functional requirements and provides practical iterative strategies for packaging designers.

2025 Proceedings of the Design Society
Article Tier 2

Leveraging nanoparticle environmental health and safety research in the study of micro- and nano-plastics

Researchers argue that two decades of research on the environmental health and safety of engineered nanomaterials provides a strong foundation for studying micro- and nanoplastics. They outline how lessons from nano-safety research apply to understanding plastic particle toxicity, bioaccumulation, trophic transfer, and environmental behavior. The study emphasizes that existing tools and methodologies from nanotoxicology can accelerate progress in assessing the risks of particulate plastic pollution.

2024 NanoImpact 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Minimizing the environmental impacts of plastic through eco-design

Researchers developed a sustainability metric for eco-designing plastic products with low environmental persistence by integrating the environmental degradation rate of plastics into established material selection frameworks. The approach allows designers to compare materials on both functional performance and environmental persistence using material property indices.

2023 4 citations
Article Tier 2

Paradigms to assess the human health risks of nano- and microplastics

Researchers proposed a new, comprehensive framework for assessing the health risks of nano- and microplastics (tiny plastic particles), addressing key gaps in how we analyze these particles, model their behavior, and use that information to protect human health — since no such standard risk assessment system currently exists.

2021 Microplastics and Nanoplastics 89 citations
Article Tier 2

Next Generation Risk Assessment approaches for advanced nanomaterials: Current status and future perspectives

This paper proposes a framework for assessing the safety of advanced nanomaterials using newer testing methods that reduce the need for animal studies. The tiered approach combines existing data with targeted testing to evaluate health risks cost-effectively. While focused on engineered nanomaterials broadly, the framework is relevant to understanding the risks of nanoplastics and could help regulators develop safety standards for these emerging contaminants.

2024 NanoImpact 31 citations
Article Tier 2

Chemicals management approach to sustainable development of materials

This review examines how chemicals management approaches must evolve for sustainable materials development, arguing that planetary boundaries and path-dependent industrial trajectories require rethinking how chemicals including plastics are produced and regulated.

2023 MRS Bulletin 12 citations
Article Tier 2

A Knowledge Analysis of an Engineering Application Related to Sustainable Development

This educational paper presents a knowledge analysis framework for engineering students to evaluate material selection criteria, incorporating sustainability considerations including environmental impacts and plastic pollution in a structured decision-making methodology.

2025 Proceedings of the ... International Florida Artificial Intelligence Research Society Conference
Article Tier 2

“Advanced materials” and the challenges on the horizon for testing their (eco)toxicity and assessing their hazard

This perspective paper examines the ecotoxicological and hazard assessment challenges posed by 'advanced materials' — including nanomaterials and novel composites — arguing that existing testing frameworks are inadequate for characterizing their complex and context-dependent environmental risks.

2022 Environmental Science Advances 6 citations
Article Tier 2

Advancement of Materials to Sustainable & Green World

Not relevant to microplastics — this is an editorial commentary from the International Association for Advanced Materials on sustainable materials science and the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.

2023 Advanced Materials Letters 10 citations
Article Tier 2

Sustainability in polymeric materials: A review on basic concepts, socioeconomic challenges, and innovations in the field of nanotechnology

This review, collaboratively produced by undergraduate nanotechnology students at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, synthesizes fundamental concepts, socioeconomic challenges, and nanotechnology innovations related to sustainability in polymeric materials, exploring pathways to reduce plastic environmental impacts.

2024 Seven Editora eBooks 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Circularity in Practice: Review of Main Current Approaches and Strategic Propositions for an Efficient Circular Economy of Materials

This review proposes a structured framework for classifying circular economy strategies — including reuse, remanufacturing, recycling, and biological cycles — and evaluates their current adoption and barriers to scaling toward genuinely circular material flows.

2022 Sustainability 24 citations
Article Tier 2

Preparing for the Next Generation of Material Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) Concerns: Guidelines for Future Data Curation Collaborations

This paper presents guidelines for international data curation collaborations in the field of environmental health and safety, addressing emerging contaminants including micro- and nanoplastics. The study outlines nine actionable guidelines structured in scalable phases to help researchers create trustworthy, standardized data for future analyses of advanced materials and environmental contaminants.

2025 Environmental Science & Technology Letters 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Circular Product Practices for a Post-Plastic Transition

This study examines how designers can support a post-plastic transition by identifying circular product practices, combining design theory with practical action frameworks to define the competencies and strategies needed for responsible polymeric material use within circular economy models.

2025 DIID
Article Tier 2

Oral exposure to micro- and nanoplastics: Developing a modular and flexible risk assessment framework for human health

Researchers proposed a modular and flexible risk assessment framework for evaluating the human health risks of oral exposure to micro- and nanoplastics. The framework integrates modern concepts such as Integrated Approaches to Testing and Assessment and Adverse Outcome Pathways, providing a systematic method for addressing the complexity and diversity of these materials.

2026 Food and Chemical Toxicology
Review Tier 2

A comprehensive critical review of Life Cycle Assessment applied to thermoplastic polymers for mechanical and electronic engineering

This review provides the first critical analysis of how life cycle assessment methodology has been applied to technical thermoplastic polymers used in mechanical and electronic engineering. Researchers identified gaps in existing studies and highlighted the formation of microplastics during production, use, and disposal as a critical but often overlooked environmental concern. The study offers practical recommendations for improving future environmental assessments of engineering plastics.

2025 Environmental Technology Reviews 7 citations
Article Tier 2

Nanosafety: An Evolving Concept to Bring the Safest Possible Nanomaterials to Society and Environment

This review provides an overview of nanosafety as an evolving field, covering toxicological assessment methods, nanotoxicology approaches, and new technologies including organ-on-chip systems and biosensors. The authors discuss Life Cycle Assessment as an increasingly important nanosafety tool for evaluating the environmental impact of nanomaterials from production through disposal.

2022 Preprints.org 11 citations
Article Tier 2

Recirculation: A New Concept to Drive Innovation in Sustainable Product Design for Bio-Based Products

This paper introduces a 'recirculation' framework for designing bio-based products that maximizes resource efficiency and minimizes waste throughout a product's life cycle. While bio-based materials offer a sustainable alternative to petroleum plastics, the authors argue that sustainable design principles must be built in from the start to maximize their environmental benefit.

2016 Molecules 52 citations
Article Tier 2

Towards a risk assessment framework for micro- and nanoplastic particles for human health

This review proposes a framework for assessing the health risks of micro- and nanoplastics to humans, noting that current methods are inadequate because these particles come in countless types, sizes, and chemical compositions. The authors recommend focusing first on inhalation risks and suggest using existing approaches for evaluating low-toxicity particles and fibers as a starting point for plastic particle safety standards.

2024 Particle and Fibre Toxicology 26 citations
Article Tier 2

A novel circular approach to analyze the challenges associated with micro-nano plastics and their sustainable remediation techniques.

This review examines the environmental concerns raised by micro- and nanoplastics, including the surge in plastic waste generated during the COVID-19 pandemic, and evaluates sustainable remediation strategies. The authors propose a circular approach that considers the full lifecycle of plastics and integrates multiple treatment technologies to address the problem at scale.

2023 Journal of environmental science and health. Part A, Toxic/hazardous substances & environmental engineering