Materials scientists are cooking up environmentally friendly polymers from natural sources like silk, plant fibers and whole algae. Economics and acceptance remain hurdles. By Boyce Upholt / Knowable ...

Scientists at Rice University and University of Houston have developed an innovative, scalable approach to engineer bacterial cellulose into high-strength, multifunctional materials. Using a spinning ...

A green accounting method called “mass balance” certifies that something was manufactured with recycled plastic — just not necessarily much of the bottle making the claim. By Julie Creswell and Hiroko ...

Bamboo plastic sounds like a compelling eco-friendly material for a variety of applications, but its questionable durability and recyclability leave a lot to be desired. Researchers at Northeast ...

The latest chemistry news, including important research advances, business and policy trends, chemical safety practices, career guidance, and more. Most TPU plastics used today end up in landfills.

Biotech startup FutureBio, the first tenant of UC Berkeley’s Bakar Labs for Energy and Materials, hopes to produce and recycle a new kind of durable, biorenewable plastic at a lower cost than regular ...

Plastics are durable and strong, which is great while they’re being used but frustrating when they end up in the environment. Scientists at RIKEN in Japan have developed a new type of plastic that’s ...

There’s no question that Amazon is known for its packaging. Boxes and mailers with the ubiquitous smile logo now dot the porches of every neighborhood in the country. And with the company’s 2017 ...

Editor’s note: This story is part of ‘Meet a UChicagoan,’ a regular series focusing on the people who make UChicago a distinct intellectual community. Read about the others here. When asked to explain ...