Posts
By UNT News Service, North Texas e-News, Dec. 17, 2009
DENTON (UNT), Texas — Commencement ceremonies honoring the accomplishments of about 2,800 students will be held Dec. 18 and 19 (Friday and Saturday) on the University of North Texas campus. This fall, 2,256 undergraduate students applied for December graduation, in addition to 478 master's students and 59 doctoral students.
While the students walking across the stage this December may look similar to students from previous years, there will be one notable difference: some of this year’s students will be wearing biodegradable gowns.
Offered through the UNT Bookstore, the Jostens Elements Collection graduation gowns will decompose in soil in one year. The acetate fabric fiber of the gowns is made from natural wood sourced from renewable forests. In addition, the zipper is made from fully recycled polyethylene terephthalate, a plastic typically used for consumer goods like soft drink bottles. The packaging of the gowns also contains materials from ECM BioFilms, which makes it easier for the bag to decompose.
Click here to read the full article
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Going green for graduation: UNT students wear biodegradable gowns
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Algae Could Be the Key to Ultra-Thin Biodegradable Batteries
By Ariel Schwartz, Inhabitat, Nov. 25, 2009
Algae is often touted as the next big thing in biofuels, but the slimy stuff could also be the key to paper-thin biodegradable batteries according to researchers at Uppsala University in Sweden. Eventually, the bio batteries could compete with commercial lithium-ion batteries.
Conducting polymers have long been thought to be a solution in developing lightweight, flexible, nonmetal batteries. But up until now, these polymers have had been impractical because regular paper can’t hold enough of them work effectively. Now Uppsala researcher Maria Stromme and her team has found that the smelly algae species that clumps on beaches, known as Cladophora, can also be used to make a type of cellulose that has 100 times the surface area of cellulose found in paper. That means it can hold enough conducting polymers to effectively recharge and hold electricity for long amounts of time.
The algae-based paper sheet batteries hold up to 200% more charge than regular paper-based cellulose batteries, and they can recharge in as little as 11 seconds. Eventually, they could be used in any application that requires flexible electronics — for example, clothing or packaging that lights up. Perhaps most importantly, the algae batteries could one day cut down on e-waste from conventional metal batteries.
Via Live Science
Monday, August 17, 2009
FTC cracking down on bamboo claims
New publication helps retailers, suppliers follow guidelines
Home Textiles Today, Aug. 17, 2009
New York – The Home Fashion Products Association has issued an alert about the Federal Trade Commission charging suppliers with deceptive labeling and advertising over the use of the word “bamboo.”
The FTC has charged four sellers of clothing and other textiles products for claiming bamboo construction on products manufactured from rayon. The complaints also charge the companies with making false and unsubstantiated “green” claims that the products are manufactured using an environmentally friendly process, that they retain the natural antimicrobial properties of the bamboo plant, and that they are biodegradable.
“It is a violation of the FTC textile labeling rules to identify a fabric as simply 100% bamboo or 100% bamboo rayon. Bamboo is not a generic fiber,” wrote Robert Leo of Meeks, Sheppard, Leo & Pillsbury, the association’s counsel.
Rayon is the generic name for a fiber made from cellulose such as pine, spruce, hemlock or bamboo.
Click here to read the full article
