Since day one, retailers and consumers have favoured plastic carrier bags. However, owing to the numerous environmental disadvantages, lightweight plastic carrier bags have been drawing the attention of the European Union competent authorities. Therefore, many European Union member states have taken action so as to reduce the use of plastic carrier bags. Based on the existing legislation and voluntary initiatives for the reduction of lightweight plastic carrier bags, the challenges and achieved outcomes from the implemented policy options in the various European Union member states are discussed and commented regarding the forthcoming transposition of the 'Directive 94/62/EC on packaging and packaging waste to reduce the consumption of lightweight plastic carrier bags' into the European Union member states' national law.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0734242X15577858 | DOI Listing |
Water Res
December 2024
College of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China; The Key Lab of Pollution Control and Ecosystem Restoration in Industry Clusters, Ministry of Education, Guangzhou 510006, China. Electronic address:
Most ocean plastics originate from terrestrial emissions, and the plastisphere on the plastics would alter during the traveling due to the significant differences in biological communities between freshwater and marine ecosystems. Microorganisms are influenced by the increasing salinity during traveling. To understand the contribution of plastic on the alteration in biological communities of plastisphere during traveling, this study investigated the alterations in microbial communities on plastics during the migration from freshwater to brackish water and saltwater.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMar Pollut Bull
January 2025
Stockbridge School of Agriculture, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USA.
Microplastics (MPs) in nature inevitably undergo various aging processes and may exhibit varied interfacial interactions with the coexisted contaminants. Here several discarded disposable polyethylene and polypropylene plastic packaging materials were collected and employed as the raw materials of MPs, and the effects of stimulated UV irradiation and microbial colonization on the variations of surface physicochemical characteristics, including biofilm content, oxygen-containing functional groups, oxygen/carbon ratio, hydrophilicity and surface charge properties were explored. Simultaneously, the adsorption behavior of each MPs on the representative cationic dye crystal violet (CV), as well as the influences of salinity and pH of CV solution, was investigated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Mater Chem B
January 2025
National Engineering Research Center for Biomaterials, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, China.
Microtia profoundly affects patients' appearance and psychological well-being. Tissue engineering ear cartilage scaffolds have emerged as the most promising solution for ear reconstruction. However, constructing tissue engineering ear cartilage scaffolds requires multiple passaging of chondrocytes, resulting in their dedifferentiation and loss of their special phenotypes and functions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Adv
January 2025
Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, USA.
J Biomed Mater Res A
January 2025
Department of Periodontics, Dr. R. Ahmed Dental College and Hospital, Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
Chronic osteomyelitis of the maxillofacial bones (i.e., jaw bones) is a persistent infection that requires effective treatment.
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