Plants accumulating valuable metals, like nickel, can be farmed

This shrub oozes a green sap rich in nickel (Source: New Scientist)

Mining for metals is very destructive and expensive. For example, New Caledonia in the Pacific has rich deposits of nickel and its land has been ravaged by strip mining of the metal. However, some plants accumulate high concentrations of metals, such as nickel, possibly as a defence against pests. These plants are called hyperaccumulators and can be used to produce metals, perhaps reducing the need for mining. 

Nickel is an important metal for the making of steel and is used in many lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles, phones and other consumer items. Demand for nickel and other metallic elements is expected to surge as they are needed for electric vehicles, wind turbines, magnets, lasers and other crucial technologies.

Hyperaccumlators have been found in areas where volcanic eruptions have brought the softened Earth's mantle, rich in metals, to the surface as ultramafic rock. The resulting soils have produced plants that accumulate metals such as cobalt, arsenic, manganese, zinc, nickel and other rare earth elements. 

As a result of finding these plants, farming has commenced and it is called agromining. Metal farms are now springing up in China, Europe and Malaysia. The ultramafic soils are poor for other crops, so are now given a more profitable use. In Europe, the nickel hyperaccumulator plant is related to kale. It is harvested, baled and burnt to release a nickel rich ash. The heat from burning is used to heat surrounding homes. The return per hectare is much greater than that for wheat.

Hyperaccumulator plants can also be used to rehabilitate old mining sites, such as in New Caledonia, as it is difficult to grow other plants there. Also field trials have been set up to test agromining production on old mining sites in China.

For more information see: How to grow metal. New Scientist, January 9, 2021, No3316, pp42-5.

How can we avoid buying products with palm oil ingredients?

 

Palm Oil Free face cream (Photo Julie May)

The repeated removal of tropical jungle to plant oil palms (Elaeis guineensis) for palm oil has reduced the habitat of many threatened species, in particular the Orangutan in South East Asia. Unfortunately (or fortunately for some) the large palm fruit is rich in oil which makes it a cheap oil to harvest.

Over the last few years I have been trying to buy products that do not contain palm oil but it is very hard to know which ingredients come from palm oil. I look for products that say they are 'palm oil free' but there are not many of those and it is often said that palm oil is in almost everything! See WWF webpage below for a general list of products containing palm oil.

Well thanks to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), there is a list of ingredients that come from palm oil. Some are common ingredients that can come from other plants such as vegetable oil, vegetable fat, sodium lauryl sulphate and others, so further research is needed or the producing company contacted. Other ingredients are obviously from palm oil. The WWF also suggests looking for the sustainably produced palm oil symbol on products (see webpage).

Here is the WWF's list of ingredients coming from palm oil:

INGREDIENTS: Vegetable Oil, Vegetable Fat, Palm Kernel, Palm Kernel Oil, Palm Fruit Oil, Palmate, Palmitate, Palmolein, Glyceryl, Stearate, Stearic Acid, Elaeis Guineensis, Palmitic Acid, Palm Stearine, Palmitoyl Oxostearamide, Palmitoyl Tetrapeptide-3, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Sodium Kernelate, Sodium Palm Kernelate, Sodium Lauryl Lactylate/Sulphate, Hyrated Palm Glycerides, Etyl Palmitate, Octyl Palmitate, Palmityl Alcohol. CONTAINS: Palm oil (World Wildlife Fund).

For years I have been unknowingly using face creams that contain one or two palm oil ingredients, so I decided to try to find one without. From Coles in Australia, I found the Australian made Sukin pictured above. It has a long list of ingredients but does not contain any of the above. There are other plant oils included such as from: sesame, cacao, rosehip, macadamia, jojoba, argan, candelilla, baobab, acai, hibiscus, goji, tangerine, mandarin, lavender and carrot oils. Vegetable protein is listed but possibly not from palm oil as oils/fats do not contain protein.

For more information see the WWF webpage at: https://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/which-everyday-products-contain-palm-oil

Reusable bamboo facial pads to reduce waste and plastic use

EverEco reusable bamboo facial pads (photo J May)

These soft, reusable bamboo facial pads by EverEco can be washed in the bag provided. Having these reduces the waste of throwaway pads and the use of plastic packaging. In addition, bamboo is an easily replaced fibre as it is a very fast growing plant.

EverEco has many different sustainable products which can be viewed here and ordered online: https://evereco.com.au/.

“Carpet made from fishing nets and recycled plastic”

Source: Wikipedia

A foresighted carpet manufacturer, ege®, from Herning, Denmark, has since 1938 kept up with time, constantly improving production and sustainability practices.  It is now able to produce a 100 per cent recycled carpet. 

The backing layer of the carpet is made from recycled plastic. Water bottles made of PET plastic is broken down into flakes and then fibres used for creating the felt backings ensuring a long-lasting product. The upper layer of the carpet is made from regenerated fishing nets, which can be a hazard to marine wildlife if left abandoned. 

The company aims to foster a sustainable outcome from almost all of its production practices. 2 million litres of residual dye are recycled along with 7,000 kilograms of chemicals, 1,572 MWh recirculated heat from production facilities, 81 per cent recycled cardboard equivalent to 183,000 kilograms of packaging for carpet tiles for example and much more. 

Read more: 

- Carpet made from fishing nets and recycled plastic. State of Green, accessed June 4, 2020. 

- ege carpets: https://www.egecarpets.com/

Can’t buy enough sanitary pads – try reusable MyPads

Reusable MyPads (Source: MyPads)

MyPads are reusable menstrual and incontinence pads made from cotton and/or hemp. They are Australian-made and come from bushfire affected South Coast NSW. You can order them online from www.mypads.com.au and an introductory pack is available. 

Benefits of cloth pads: 
- they are cheaper over time than disposable tampons and pads, 
- they save sending single-use, plastic, synthetic pads to waste, 
- they are breathable and gentle on the skin, 
- the hemp inserts are more absorbent than disposable pads, 
- they are convenient as you never need to run out of pads again, 
- they are comfortable to wear. 

Why Hemp? 
- hemp requires no chemicals to grow so is kinder to the land and to your skin, 
- hemp fabric is antibacterial and anti-fungal, 
- hemp is ten times more stronger than cotton and thus more durable, 
- hemp is more absorbent than cotton so the inserts are thinner and less bulky. 

Read more at: 
- MyPads: www.mypads.com.au
 - MyPads – How Do They Work?: www.mypads.com.au/how-do-they-work/

Biodegradable drinking straws made from rye grain stalks left after harvest

Rye drinking straws made from the stalks left over after rye grain harvest. (ABC News)

There is a growing demand for biodegradable or reusable straws as some governments around the world legislate to reduce single-use plastics including plastic drinking straws.

Straws made from the hollow stems of wheat, rice and bamboo are already available in Australia, but are imported from overseas. Marion Vigot and Alexis Branlard aim to supply Australian biodegradable straws made from the strong, hollow stems of rye for the Australian market. They hope to produce 1 million straws from the first harvest and have formed the start-up company called Mister Rye based in Adelaide. South Australia is to ban single-use plastics next year and they are hoping to offer these rye straws as one of the alternatives.

One hectare of rye can produce 300,000 straws, so they only need a few hectares to make a million. They have formed arrangements with two organic rye farmers to do this. After harvesting the rye grain, the rye stalks are gently harvested and rolled into small bales by a vintage 1950’s hay baler. Then the straws are selected from between the nodes and hand cut by a team of workers. Marion and Alexis are hoping to mechanise this latter process. The straws are available online from Mister Rye at: https://www.misterrye.com/ 

For more information: 

- “Recycled rye straws an option to help environment and farmers in war on single-use plastics.” ABC News, October 11, 2019. 

– Also featured on Landline, 08/03/20, and available on iView for awhile: https://iview.abc.net.au/show/landline/series/0/video/RF1904Q006S00

Australian eucalyptus-based cleaners from Bosisto’s

Bosisto's eucalyptus spray and wipes (photo Julie May)

These effective local products were created by Bosisto’s which was founded in 1852 by Joseph Bosisto. It is the oldest fully Australian owned company and the first to extract and produce eucalyptus oil products. The oil comes from a natural forest of Blue Mallee trees at Inglewood, near Bendigo, Victoria. Today the company produces many different products that are natural and without harmful ingredients. The two spray and wipes pictured above are effective cleaners and disinfectants as eucalyptus oil is antiseptic – plus it has a pleasant odour! 

The company now uses a range of Australian native essential oils as seen in the hand and body cleaners made from: Desert lime and Eucalyptus; Kakadu Plum and Lemon Myrtle; Banksia Flower and Lavender; Waratah Flower, Mint and Mandarin to name a few. Other products include: cold and flu remedies; laundry and other cleaning products; aromatherapy and other therapeutic and personal care products. All are available online or a selection can be purchased at most Australian supermarkets, including the two cleaners pictured above. 

Reference: https://www.bosistos.com.au/

Food waste eaten by fly larvae is making compost and then stock feed

Black Soldier Fly maggots – the key to solving food waste. CSIRO

It is well known that the life cycle of insects is from eggs to larvae to pupae to adults. It is the Black Soldier Fly larvae (maggots) that are of special interest as they consume food scraps. They are eating machines, turning scraps into compost at a very fast rate.

The start-up company Gottera, based in Canberra, Australia is processing five tonnes of food waste a day with these larvae. Goterra not only manages waste to compost it also sells the mature larvae, a rich source of protein, as stock feed. So far the maggots can be used by chicken and pork producers, zoos, fish bait suppliers and as an ingredient in aquaculture pellets but have much more potential.

Goterra is all about driving Australia towards a circular economy for food production. And breeding insects is critical to their vision. The original breeding research was done in partnership with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Canberra. CSIRO’s research helped Gottera breed the flies for effective results.

References:
- Sex lives of flies could be key to tackling food waste. CSIROscope, August 14, 2019.
- Waste-not the mantra of emerging maggot industry as larvae convert to protein. The Land, January 9, 2019.
- Gottera: https://www.goterra.com.au/.
- CSIRO Insect research: https://www.csiro.au/en/Research/Collections/ANIC/Insect-research

The story behind the red wax-tipped bananas in Australia

Queensland wax-tipped bananas (Source: Verdemode)

The red wax-tipped bananas are those grown on banana plantations in Northern Queensland that use less chemicals and have created working farm ecosystems. This type of farming is called ecoganics which was started by Frank and Dianne Sciacca.

The Sciacca’s have been farming bananas for 30 years but changed the way they operated 15 years ago. The chemicals that they were advised to use on the soil and plants were not working and very costly. So Frank decided to farm more like what was done 60 years ago. Now insects abound and synthetic fertilisers are forbidden. A number of nearby farmers are following his methods and have formed a team.

Methods employed include:
- eliminating insecticides, miticides, nematicides and any fertiliser that kills organisms in the soil,
- cut herbicide use by 25%,
- applied fungicides sparingly,
- planted trees and shrubs to provide food and shelter for native animals,  
- provided a network of dams, drains and grassed areas to prevent runoff to the sea and Great Barrier Reef,
- allowed grasses and weeds to remain to provide flowers and habitats for insects and other small animals.

It took 4-6 years for improvements to appear and now the farms have working ecosystems; they save thousands of dollars in costs; production is not as good as before but this approach is profitable and sustainable. The conventional approach disrupted the ecosystem and reduced biodiversity. Now a working cycle has returned which is more biodiverse. For example, insects are seen as useful contributors as they are predators, pollinators, recyclers, scavengers, decomposers, soil creators and a food source. Other plants and animals join this web on land and in soil and water.

Nearby is a Queensland Department of Agriculture research station which is studying their results and doing further research. So far they have found the following:
- the carbon in the soil has risen (carbon sequestration),
- the number of microbes in the soil has risen,
- beneficial insects have returned,
- there is greater soil nutrient cycling,
- there is less soil nitrogen which creates competition and helps keep down pests such as Panama disease,
- greater insect diversity,
- beneficial nematodes have returned,
- research is underway to safely keep problem fungi under control.

Frank Sciacca says that these methods can be applied to other farming enterprises.

More information:
- ABC Landline: Red Tips: The story behind the bananas with the red tips.
- Pacific Coast Eco bananas

Making aluminium is costly so please recycle and buy recycled

Recycled aluminium foil and golf ball size foil for recycling (photo: J May)

Making aluminium uses a tremendous amount of energy and its mining causes environmental damage. Therefore it is important to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle aluminium and to buy the resulting recycled aluminium. All forms of aluminium can be recycled and it is a valuable recycled product.

Aluminium foil is recognised if it squashes into a ball. Collect the foil (from Easter eggs, etc.) and form into a golf ball size, so it does not slip through the cracks in the recycling sorting depot.

Aluminium comes from the ore bauxite which is strip-mined in tropical and subtropical locations. This means that a lot of original vegetation is destroyed as strip-mining destroys large areas of land. In Australia, topsoil, logs and rocks are set aside. After the bauxite is removed the sites are rehabilitated with the topsoil, logs and rocks followed by planting and seeding. (Bauxite Mining, Australian Aluminium Council Ltd). The soil level is now lower, the vegetation is altered and toxins arise from bauxite dust and water leaching. (What Aluminium Extraction Really Does to the Environment).

The manufacture of aluminium from bauxite is an expensive and energy intensive exercise, using so much electricity that, in some cases, whole coal plants have been devoted to aluminium smelters. So please reduce aluminium use, recycle it and buy recycled aluminium.

Using high-tech renewable wood to make just about everything

Source: New Scientist

This has to be the most exciting New Scientist article I have read in awhile! In material science labs around the world, people are working on an entire civilisation built on wood. The aim is to replace steel, concrete, plastics and some electronics with high-tech wood.

It is not the wood as we know it but processed wood. Some products planned to be made from this high-tech wood include: most car parts; skyscrapers; windows (wood can be processed into a strong, transparent material); aeroplanes; batteries; clothing and mobile phones. For example, Japanese engineers are due to unveil a wooden concept car at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

So far buildings, including skyscrapers, have been and are planned to be built from cross-laminated timber (CLT) which is very strong and can be processed off-site. Made to measure large flat sheets of CLT can make building construction easier and faster. Some examples of existing buildings are given in the New Scientist article cited below.

Wood is a complex mixture of organic chemicals. The most prominent is nanocellulose (40%) which is composed of long, strong fibres with excellent mechanical properties. Lignin comprises 30% of wood and the rest is a starch-like substance called hemicellulose. These three compounds can be extracted and processed into many valuable compounds.

Nanocellulose is already used as a petrochemical substitute in paints, glues, cosmetics, nappies, packaging and electronics. It has been proposed for thousands of other products, e.g. the car industry is exploring it as a replacement for glass fibres in bodywork.

Lignin is the coming revolution. It is a waste product from wood pulp and paper processing. Work is being done by chemical companies to use it to replace different petroleum-based products. The best developments so far are in coatings, adhesives and resins.

The laggard is hemicellulose which is difficult to process but the ultimate aim is to use it to replace plastic. Some examples of success here are to be found in the New Scientist article cited below.

Reference:
- Paper copy: “Welcome to the age of wood” by Graham Lawton, New Scientist, 16 March 2019, No3221, pp 33-37.
- Digital copy introduction: Our wooden future: making cars, skyscrapers and even lasers from wood.
- Individual issues of New Scientist can be purchased online from the New Scientist app for A$7.99.

This spray free Australian coffee is excellent!

Photo: Jullie May

There are a number of Australian coffees that can be ordered online but this Zentfeld’s coffee is my favourite.

In general Australian coffees are:
- chemically free as Australia does not have the common coffee pests;
- overseas coffees travel a long way to get here, so Australian coffees have much lower transport miles; and
- they are of good quality.

I hand grind coffee beans for a fresher brew and use an espresso, stove-top, stainless steel Italian-style coffee maker. The used coffee grinds are spread thinly on the garden. This way you get a lovely coffee; there are no coffee pods; composting occurs; and the only waste is the coffee bag (which in Australia must be recyclable by 2025).

For a list and links to some of the Australian coffees that are available online see: Australian grown coffee for Australians in this blog.

Recycled plastic, glass and toner being used to make roads

The recycled additive being applied to a street in Craigieburn, Melbourne (Source: ABC News)

In Victoria and Tasmania, some town and city councils are using a mixture of recycled single use plastic bags; crushed recycled glass and recycled printer toner to make roads. Currently it is more expensive but the roads are expected to last longer and the councils are moving towards meeting their requirements to deal with waste.

A 300-metre stretch of road, on Rayfield Avenue in Craigieburn, Victoria, uses an additive that's made up of 530,000 plastic bags, more than 12,000 recycled printer cartridges and 168,000 glass bottles. The same mix was used in Tasmania to seal one kilometre of road in Snug, a town south of Hobart. In both states, the additive is developed by the recycling company Close The Loop.

The single use plastic bags are from the REDcycle soft plastic recycling that is collected outside participating supermarkets.

Read more:
Rubbish is being transformed into roads, thanks to one Melbourne company. ABC News, May 29, 2018.
Plastics, glass and printer toner recycled into road in Tasmania. ABC News, December 11, 2018.

Recycled soft plastics are reprocessed in Australia to make useful products

Soft plastics can only be recycled in drop bins outside participating stores (Source: REDcycle)

In Australia, we can recycle most hard plastics in our recycling bins. But our bins do NOT take soft plastics. We can recycle clean soft plastics at participating supermarkets. You can find the recycling bins (pictured above) near the front of these supermarkets (mostly Woolworths and Coles).

This soft plastic recycling is called REDcycle, see: http://www.redcycle.net.au/ for details of what is (and is not) recyclable in this way. Please note biodegradable plastics are not recyclable.

The recycled soft plastic goes to an Australian company, Repas. The company produces a range of over 200 recycled plastic products in Australia using state-of-the-art machinery and robotics. The range includes bollards, signage, outdoor furniture (including school furniture), fitness equipment and Enduroplank™/Decking as well as products suitable for traffic control, parks and gardens and the utilities industry.

For more information see:

- REDcycle: http://www.redcycle.net.au/

- Repas: http://www.replas.com.au/

Sustainable tissues made from bamboo and sugarcane fibres

Tree-free No Issues tissues (Photo Julie May)

With bamboo being the fastest growing plant in the world, therefore easily replaced, and sugarcane fibre being a plentiful waste product, why not make more use of these sustainable products?

No Issues, an Australian company, is doing this by making soft, strong facial tissues out of bamboo and sugarcane fibres. Millions of trees worldwide are cut down each year for paper. No Issues is providing these sustainable paper tissues tree-free thus saving trees for our children’s children.

No Issues tissues are available in Australia at Coles, Woolworths, IGA, Foodland and Clarins.

Reference: https://www.noissues.com.au/about-us
See also: Can we replace plastic or steel with bamboo products?

Commercialising the production of compostable plastics from seafood waste

Tiger prawns Source: Sea-Ex

A team of post-graduate students from the University of Sydney comprising of a chemist, plant pathologist and business student are looking to launch a pilot study to make biodegradable strawberry packaging from waste crustacean shells and other all-natural ingredients. The students co-founded the company, Carapac, and are seeking funding for the pilot study.

A range of plastics can be made from crustacean shells, which do not biodegrade on the shelf but do when they reach soil which contains bacteria that break down the plastic. The students claim the compostable plastic improves the overall quality of the soil by releasing nutrients plus acting as a slow release nitrogen fertiliser.

Such sustainable, biodegradable plastics have huge potential to replace current single use plastics, particularly food packaging and plastic bags.

Reference: Idea for new plastics falls on fertile ground. The Weekend Australian, September 1-2, 2018 : https://www.theaustralian.com.au › business

Can we replace plastic or steel with bamboo products?

A bamboo tray at the Eden Project, Cornwall, UK. (photo Julie May)

There are over a thousand species of bamboo (Gigantocholoa), a primitive grass growing in a variety of forms from tiny dwarfs to towering tropical giants. The tropical giant bamboo (Dendrocalamus asper) is the fastest growing plant on the planet, recorded growing 1.2m skywards in 24 hours! Not only does bamboo grow fast, it begins growing again immediately after harvesting. A sustainable product easily replaced.

Gigantocholoa is a tropical to subtropical plant. The distribution of bamboo in general ranges from 50°N of Sakhalin in north Japan to 47°S in Chile. It occurs in altitudes up to 4,000m, from the warm humid tropics to the cold areas of northern Japan.

Common Uses:

• Bamboo is one of the most versatile plants on earth, useful for its lightweight strength, which comes from its hollow stems, for its ease of working and for its simple beauty.
• It is used by half the world’s people in thousands of products from huge skyscraper scaffolding to tiny gramophone needles and from slide rules to skins of aeroplanes. It can be used to start a cooking fire in a wet rainforest and its ashes can be used to polish jewels and manufacture electric batteries. It has made bicycles, windmills, musical instruments, kitchen utensils, paper, clothing, scales and walls strong enough to resist flood and tide, and bridges up to 260m long in China.
• Bamboo is suited to low-technology processing, as well as industrial manufacturing techniques. It is an ideal building material for low-cost, low-impact, earthquake-resistant housing projects.
• Within its stem walls short, tough fibres sit in a resilient softer matrix providing nature’s version of fibreglass. It has great tensile strength, splits straight and is very hard. You can grow your own house from bamboo every five years.
• The young shoots of Gigantocholoa are eaten as a vegetable.

Read more: Bamboo. The Eden Project: https://www.edenproject.com/learn/for-everyone/plant-profiles/bamboo

Paper straws in the UK: we can turn back the clock!

Black and white paper straw (Julie May)

The rejection of some plastics is happening quickly with single-use plastic items being banned in many places. In the UK recently, I found two examples of paper straws being used instead of plastic ones.

The black and white paper straw, above, comes from the cafe at the Tate Modern in London. It seems that some, if not all, UK National Trust cafes also use paper straws.

It was pleasing to see this sustainable and biodegradable product return. It takes me back some years when these straws were once common.

Australian grown coffee for Australians

Jaques coffee from Queensland (Photo: Julie May)

Australia is one of the few regions in the world free of the most serious coffee diseases, coffee berry borer disease and coffee leaf rust. Thus, noxious pesticides are not used on Australian coffee, enabling the farmers to use natural production systems with some producing organic coffee.

Current production of Australian coffee occurs between northern Queensland and as far south as Coffs Harbour in New South Wales. Australia has around 600,000 coffee trees, growing on 200 hectares with potential production of 300 tonnes. At this time, production of Australian coffee is not enough to keep up supplies to the big Australia-wide supermarkets. In addition, the Australian coffee growers and roasters find it difficult to compete with imported coffee.

A list of some of the Australian grown coffee available for mail order:
- NQ Gold Coffee, Qld: https://nqgoldcoffee.com.au/.
- Mackellar Range Coffee, NSW: http://mackellarcoffee.com.au/
- Jaques Coffee, Qld: https://www.jaquescoffee.com.au/
- Mountain Top Coffee, NSW: http://www.mountaintopcoffee.com.au/
- Ewingsdale Coffee, NSW: http://www.ewingsdalecoffee.com.au/coffee
- Skybury, Qld: http://www.skybury.com.au/skybury-cafeandroastery/coffee-range
- Zentveld’s, NSW: https://shop.zentvelds.com.au/
- Mount Mee Coffee, Qld: http://www.mountmeecoffee.com.au/
- Bun Coffee, NSW: (250g $14 - also available at David Jones) http://www.buncoffee.com.au/

References:
Australian Grown: http://www.midcoast.com.au/~keno/Coffee/Homegrown.html
Australian Speciality Grown Coffee: https://australianspecialtycoffee.com.au/whats-future-australian-subtropical-coffee/
Search for a cup of Australian coffee…: http://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2015-07-08/search-for-a-good-cup-of-australian-coffee-grinding-away/6603076

Adidas is using ocean plastic to make sneakers

Source: Green Matters

Adidas sold 1 Million pairs of sneakers made from ocean plastic in 2017 and are moving the initiative to apparel. Within the next six years, Adidas wants all of their products to be created from plastic that would otherwise have been put into the ocean.

To create its recycled plastic products, Adidas works with Parley for the Oceans, an organisation that gathers plastic waste from beaches and the sea, cleans it, chips it down, and turns it into yarn for use in consumer products. Products are now packaged in paper instead of plastic bags and microbeads were eliminated from the manufacturing process.

Adidas hasn’t been the only shoe company exploring sustainable options. Nike has turned to Flyleather material, which is created from cowhide waste mixed in with synthetic fibers. It’s led to a decrease in leather being thrown away and 95 percent of the water used in manufacturing is recycled. Nike notes that the product still feels like premium leather despite using recycled material.

Further reading:
Adidas sold 1 Million pairs of sneakers made from ocean plastic in 2017. Green Matters, March 2018.
Adidas: Sustainability Materials: https://www.adidas-group.com/en/sustainability/products/materials/

See also:

Some good developments with plastic recycling, production and cleanup.

Turning prawn shells into plastic.