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Scientists' warning against the society of waste

Publication . Marín Beltrán, Isabel; Demaria, Federico; Ofelio, Claudia; Serra, Luis M.; Turiel, Antonio; Ripple, William J.; Mukul, Sharif A.; Costa, Maria Clara

The 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 On the other hand, yearly, we directly waste or mismanage around 78% of the total water withdrawn, 49% of the food produced, 31% of the energy produced, 85% of ores and 26% of non-metallic minerals extracted, respectively.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/).

2022-03Journal article

Restricted access

A community of marine bacteria with potential to biodegrade petroleum-based and biobased microplastics

Publication . Fernández De Villalobos, Nuria; Costa, Maria Clara; Marín Beltrán, Isabel

The 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.

2022-12Journal article

Open access

Zinc recovery from an extreme copper-free acid mine drainage: studying the prior separation of ferric iron by solvent extraction using AliCy and/or alkalinization

Publication . Nobahar, Amir; Melka, Alemu Bejiga; Marín-Beltrán, Isabel; Neves, Luiz; Costa, Maria Clara; Dias Carlier, Jorge

Zn recovery attempts from a copper-free extreme Acid Mine Drainage with similar to 53 g/L Fe and similar to 2 g/L Zn revealed Fe co-extraction in solvent extraction with 0.9 M D2EHPA or a mixture of 0.72 M D2EHPA and 0.18 M Cyanex 272, and simultaneous precipitation of Fe during zinc sulfide recovery through biogenic sulfide addition. Therefore, alkalinization, solvent extraction with the self-prepared ionic liquid AliCy diluted in kerosene, and combinations of both these methods were studied for the separation of ferric iron (Fe3+) from such water, prior to Zn recovery. The most efficient strategy tested was a solvent extraction cycle with AliCy followed by alkalinization of its aqueous raffinate to pH 3.25 or 3.5. As a result of this approach, similar to 92% of Fe3+ is separated by SX and the remaining is removed by precipitation, with just similar to 12% or similar to 17% Zn losses, respectively. Afterwards, the highest Zn recovery from water resulting from such combination of processes was achieved by precipitation through addition of biogenic sulfide at pH = 3.5. The obtained precipitates are nanoparticles of Wurzite and Sphalerite (ZnS) of sizes between 2 to 22 nm agglomerated into larger structures. This work shows for the first time the potential of AliCy to separate Fe3+ from acidic multimetallic solutions, a known contaminant of several metal recovery processes.

2022Journal article

Restricted access