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- EnvironmentPublication . Marín Beltrán, IsabelNext week, the United Nations will meet to assess whether the goals of the 2040 Agenda for Sustainable Development have been achieved.
- Scientists' warning against the society of wastePublication . Marín Beltrán, Isabel; Demaria, Federico; Ofelio, Claudia; Serra, Luis M.; Turiel, Antonio; Ripple, William J.; Mukul, Sharif A.; Costa, Maria ClaraThe metabolism of contemporary industrialized societies, that is their energy and material flows, leads to the overconsumption and waste of natural resources, two factors often disregarded in the global ecological equation. In this Discussion article, we examine the amount of natural resources that is increasingly being consumed and wasted by humanity, and propose solutions to reverse this pattern. Since the beginning of the 20th century, societies, especially from industrialized countries, have been wasting resources in different ways. On one hand, the metabolism of industrial societies relies on non-renewable resources. On the other hand, yearly, we directly waste or mismanage around 78% of the total water withdrawn, 49% of the food produced, 31% of the energy produced, 85% of ores and 26% of non-metallic minerals extracted, respectively. As a consequence, natural resources are getting depleted and ecosystems polluted, leading to irreversible environmental changes, biological loss and social conflicts. To reduce the anthropogenic footprint in the planet, and live in harmony with other species and ourselves, we suggest to shift the current economic model based on infinite growth and reduce inequality between and within countries, following a degrowth strategy in industrialized countries. Public education to reduce superfluous consumption is also necessary. In addition, we propose a set of technological strategies to improve the management of natural resources towards circular economies that, like ecosystems, rely only upon renewable resources. (c) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
- A community of marine bacteria with potential to biodegrade petroleum-based and biobased microplasticsPublication . Fernández De Villalobos, Nuria; Costa, Maria Clara; Marín Beltrán, IsabelThe biodegradability conditions for both, petroleum-based plastics and bioplastics needs to be evaluated under environmentally realistic conditions. We assessed the biodegradability of low-density polyethylene and biobased polyethylene terephthalate microplastic films by a consortium of marine bacteria during 45 days. Bacterial growth and pH were higher in the samples inoculated with bacteria, compared to the controls. Fourier Infrared spectroscopy-Attenuated Total Reflectance and scanning electron microscopy indicated changes in the chemical functional groups, and the presence of fractures and biofilms in the surface of both plastics exposed to the bacterial community, respectively. The chemical oxygen demand further indicated signs of biodegradation of both polymers. Specific groups of bacteria showed preference for each type of microplastic. Overall, our results show signs of biodegradation, or at least biodeterioration and biofragmentation, of both types of plastics, when subjected to the selected bacterial community. Biobased PET was no more prone to biodegradation than con-ventional, petroleum-based LDPE.