INTRODUCTION In 2013, every Spanish citizen produced around 450 kilos of rubbish. From the total quantity of rubbish produced, 60% of it ended up in landfills. Rubbish in landfills pollutes the environment and damages the ecosystems. As a consequence, other strategies to treat the garbage are established, such as: recycling, producing compost or incinerating. However, another emerging strategy is the production of eco-friendly products that do not damage the environment. Eco-friendly products have the characteristic of a very quick degradation (around six months) and no pollution. Degradation is a process in which a material is broken into smaller molecules usually by microorganisms in the soil (bacteria and fungi). However, degradation can be initiated artificially in some cases by exposure to heat. In addition, one of the most common materials nowadays is plastic. The problem with plastic is that it takes more than 100 years to degrade it and so it damages a lot the environment. Therefore, biodegradable plastics have been designed using plants such as biobags or biofilm. Furthermore, ecological clothes have been created too. It is the case of clothes created with pineapple or bamboo fibers. To conclude, plants can produce eco-friendly materials of daily-use 1
PLANTS TO PRODUCE PACKING MATERIALS - Lecture 1. Millions of plastic bags are used every day around the world. Due to their low weight, many of them usually end up contaminating the natural environment: plastic bags caught in tree branches or bushes. As a consequence, plastic bags show one of the main problems of pollution. Plastic is used as a packing material. However, it shows problems to recycle it as a lot of energy is needed. The main method used in Europe to recycle is using landfills, but this pollutes the land and water sources. For this reason, degradable bags are slowly starting to replace classic plastic bags. They are called biodegradable bags or biobags, which try to make the reduction of waste easier and safer for the environment. The degradable plastic bags are usually made from plant material like cornstarch, resins or vegetable oils. Recently, biobags made from potato peels can be bought in some supermarkets (Carrefour). In order to fulfil the requirements, biobags must be decomposed by bacteria in 6 months: after this time, there should be not remains of the degradable bags left. 2
PLANTS TO PRODUCE PACKING MATERIALS - Lecture 2 Nowadays there is a big problem with trying to recycle rubbish and avoiding contamination. A big part of this rubbish is related to the packing materials that is used more and more every year. Packing materials are used to protect the food we eat, the packs or letters we send An example of these materials is the plastic film that usually protects food at home or in the supermarket. One of the main problems of the plastic film is that it pollutes the environment and it is difficult to recycle. For that reason, Spanish scientists have investigated and discovered that materials from plants can be used to produce a plastic film. This plastic film is called biofilm and it is produced using corn, wheat or potatoes. One of the main advantages this biofilm has is that it can be easily degraded by the microorganisms (bacteria, fungi or algae) in the soil; it is 100% degraded whereas the normal plastic film is not. Therefore it reduces the pollution in the environment. In addition, one of the uses of this biofilm is packing food. Biofilm is another case of a daily-used material which can be produced by plants, reducing the pollution in the environment. Plants also can produce eco-friendly materials to use every day. 3
PLANTS TO PRODUCE ECO-CLOTHES - Lecture 1 Society is starting to be more and more concerned about the problem of pollution and the way humans modify nature. As a consequence, the words organic or eco-friendly are very common as people try to damage less the environment. This objective has arrived to the fashion world and the way clothes are produced. The main materials that clothes are made of at present times are cotton and linen. However, some plants are starting to be used as a sustainable alternative to these main producers of clothes. This is the case of the pineapple plant, which can be used to create eco-friendly clothes. The pineapple fibers from the leaves are what is used to give clothes. The extraction of these fibers is hand-made because they break very easily. It has to be mentioned that pineapple fabric was very popular in the XIX century. However, the production of pineapple stopped when the cotton production was discovered to be cheaper. For that reason, pineapple production of clothes was difficult to re-establish. It began with the production of very expensive clothes; as a consequence, it was a sign of rich people. Nowadays, pineapple fibers are starting to emerge as a sustainable alternative to create clothes. Two years ago, a Spanish cloth designer created an enterprise called Piñatex, in which pineapple fibers are used to create clothes. 4
PLANTS TO PRODUCE ECO-CLOTHES - Lecture 2 Textile industries nowadays make their clothes with plants like cotton or linen. The problem is that in order to continue producing clothes, these plants must grow very quickly. But in nature this does not happen so fast and ecosystems suffer a lot. For that reason, ecological clothes are starting to appear. It is the case of bamboo, a plant which is environmentally friendly. Moso bamboo in the specific plant which is used to produce clothes. From the bamboo plant, the fibers are extracted in factories; the fibers are the part of the plant used to make clothes. One of the advantages is that it does not damage the environment as much as other plants. In addition, bamboo is very easy to grow as it does not require a lot of water. In order to understand better the advantages of bamboo plants for the textile industry, it can be compared with cotton. Bamboo plants do not need pesticides to grow whereas cotton requires a big quantity of them. Furthermore, bamboo fibers are longer than cotton so less bamboo plants are needed to produce a piece of cloth. Bamboo also has a unique quality, which is antibacterial. Finally, bamboo clothes show a much vivid colour than cotton clothes. 5