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61,005 resultsShowing papers similar to Chemicals management approach to sustainable development of materials
ClearChemistry must respond to the crisis of transgression of planetary boundaries
This paper argued that chemistry as a discipline must urgently respond to the transgression of planetary boundaries, including those related to chemical pollution. The study outlined three steps: understanding the threats from a chemistry perspective, developing sustainable solutions through innovation, and transforming chemistry education and industry toward sustainability and circularity.
Expanding plastics recycling technologies: chemical aspects, technology status and challenges
This review examined the full life cycle of plastics and evaluated options for managing plastic waste, with a focus on chemical recycling technologies. The study suggests that overcoming barriers to industrial chemical recycling could open new opportunities for reducing plastic pollution.
Chemistry and materials science for a sustainable circular polymeric economy
Researchers reflected on the fundamental chemistry challenges limiting a circular plastic economy — including the sheer variety of polymer types, contamination during use, and imperfect recycling — and argued that solving plastic pollution requires both chemical innovation and systemic non-chemical interventions.
Technology cannot fix this: To stay within planetary boundaries, plastic growth must be tackled
Researchers argue in response to Bachmann et al. that technological solutions alone cannot address plastics pollution within planetary boundaries, contending that the full lifecycle of plastics — from resource extraction to earth system process impacts — must be considered and that plastic growth itself must be curtailed.
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.
The Future of Chemical Sciences is Sustainable
This perspective discusses how chemistry as a discipline must embrace sustainability across environmental, economic, and equity dimensions. Researchers propose a framework of priorities and metrics to help guide chemical sciences toward more sustainable practices. The study highlights the role chemistry plays in addressing global challenges including plastic pollution and the development of greener materials.
An anthropocene-framed transdisciplinary dialog at the chemistry-energy nexus
Researchers analyzed key molecules at the chemistry-energy nexus, including carbon dioxide, hydrogen, methane, ammonia, and synthetic polymers, within the planetary boundary framework. The study suggests that the energy transition will require major shifts in how these molecules are produced and used, with implications for reducing plastic pollution and other environmental impacts tied to the chemical industry.
Regulating chemicals globally is key to a successful plastics treaty
This review argued that a successful global plastics treaty must regulate the more than 16,000 chemicals used across the plastic life cycle, not just the plastics themselves, as thousands of these chemicals meet criteria for persistence, bioaccumulation, and toxicity yet remain largely unregulated.
Plastics Pollution and the Planetary Boundaries framework
This paper examines how plastics pollution affects Earth-system processes along the full impact pathway from production to environmental fate, arguing that plastics have exceeded the planetary safe operating space and that their interactions with climate change and biodiversity loss exacerbate the consequences of breaching multiple planetary boundaries simultaneously.
Strategies and technologies for sustainable plastic waste treatment and recycling
This review covers current and emerging methods for recycling and treating plastic waste to reduce environmental pollution. The authors emphasize that improperly managed plastics break down into microplastics that contaminate ecosystems, and they evaluate strategies including chemical recycling, biodegradation, and energy recovery as more sustainable alternatives to landfilling.
A multidisciplinary perspective on the role of plastic pollution in the triple planetary crisis.
This perspective paper argues that plastics are a central driver of all three dimensions of the planetary crisis — pollution, climate change, and biodiversity loss — and must be addressed with the same urgency as carbon emissions. The authors call for a multidisciplinary approach that recognizes plastics as a systemic environmental threat rather than a siloed waste management issue.
Perspectives on sustainable plastic treatment: A shift from linear to circular economy
This review examines emerging technologies for converting plastic waste into useful chemicals and fuels, including methods like pyrolysis, photocatalysis, and electrocatalysis. Researchers highlight how these approaches could shift plastic management from a throw-away model to a circular economy where waste becomes a resource. The study identifies remaining knowledge gaps and proposes future research directions for sustainable plastic treatment.
The time for ambitious action is now: Science-based recommendations for plastic chemicals to inform an effective global plastic treaty.
A broad scientific review made the case for ambitious global action on plastic pollution, cataloguing the more than 16,000 chemicals in plastics — including many known toxins — and their potential to leach into food, water, and the environment. The authors argue that the scale of chemical risk from plastics justifies sweeping regulatory action on both production and chemical content.
Navigating the Crossroads
This book chapter reviewed regulatory frameworks for industrial chemicals (REACH, TSCA, GHS) that govern adhesives, inks, cosmetics, agrochemicals, flame retardants, and other industrial outputs, addressing their human health and environmental risks. It provides context on how plastics and associated chemicals fit within broader chemical regulation.
A critical review on sustainable hazardous waste management strategies: a step towards a circular economy
Researchers review global strategies for managing hazardous industrial and household waste — including chemicals, heavy metals, and electronic waste — with a focus on aligning disposal practices with circular economy principles that minimize environmental and health harm. The review finds that prevention, recycling, and advanced treatment technologies must work together, guided by stronger international policy frameworks.
Role of Plastics in Modern Life: Benefits, Risks and Environmental Consequences
This review examines the dual role of plastics in modern society — their economic benefits alongside environmental and public health risks — and surveys strategies for more sustainable plastic production and disposal.
Assessing and managing environmental hazards of polymers: historical development, science advances and policy options
Researchers critically reviewed how polymer environmental safety regulations, largely unchanged since the 1990s, fail to keep pace with scientific understanding of plastic pollution. They identified four key areas needing regulatory attention, including better transparency about polymer identities, improved understanding of environmental fate across size categories, and more comprehensive hazard assessments. The study suggests that current regulatory frameworks worldwide need significant updates to adequately manage the environmental risks posed by polymers.
Unsustainable Horizons
This article examined unsustainable development trajectories and their environmental consequences, discussing how current production and consumption patterns generate plastic pollution as part of broader ecological overshoot.
Harmonious and sustainable evolution of production
This paper examines the tensions between scientific and technological progress and contemporary environmental challenges, focusing on inadequate plastic waste management, microplastic dispersion from landfills, and the need to rethink single-use plastic and cosmetic products through a review of international regulations and a national case study.
Sustainable Development Issues in Chemistry Learning as Educational for Sustainable Development Implementation: A Systematic Literature Review
This systematic literature review synthesized research on integrating sustainable development issues into chemistry education. While not directly about microplastics, it identified microplastic pollution as one of the sustainability topics being incorporated into chemistry curricula to help students understand real-world environmental challenges.
High School Sustainable and Green Chemistry: Historical–Epistemological and Pedagogical Considerations
Not relevant to microplastics — this is a chemistry education paper discussing how to better integrate sustainable and green chemistry into high school curricula, tracing the history of the Science, Technology, and Society movement and advocating for systems thinking approaches.
Bottlenecks of Global Plastic Strategy and the Way Forward of Microplastics Management
This review examines bottlenecks in global plastic waste management strategies, arguing that rising plastic use in everyday activities has outpaced regulatory and logistical capacity, and proposing pathways forward for more effective microplastics management at a global scale.
Guiding the transition to a sustainable plastic system: towards a plastic system assessment framework
This thesis developed a plastic system assessment framework to evaluate short-lived plastic products against sustainability criteria, balancing the triple planetary crisis contributions of plastic production against the functional value plastics provide in modern daily life.
A comprehensive review on integrative approach for sustainable management of plastic waste and its associated externalities
This review examines the challenges of managing plastic waste in developing countries, where inadequate infrastructure leads to open dumping and the generation of microplastics and nanoplastics. Researchers assessed various management strategies including mechanical recycling, chemical recycling, and energy recovery approaches. The study emphasizes the need for integrated, sustainable waste management systems to reduce the environmental and health externalities of plastic pollution.