Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or investment advice. The views expressed are those of the author and do not represent those of any individual or organisation mentioned. Readers should conduct their own research and consult a licensed professional before making any investment decisions.

Aduro’s NGP Pilot Plant Enters Operating Campaigns

When a pre-revenue cleantech company transitions from construction milestones to live operating data, the investment thesis either holds or collapses. For Aduro Clean Technologies (NASDAQ: ADUR | CSE: ACT | FSE: 9D5), February 2026 marked a decisive shift. The company’s Next Generation Process (NGP) Pilot Plant in London, Ontario, has officially moved into initial operating campaigns, generating the kind of structured, repeatable data that separates laboratory promise from commercial viability.

Installations at the facility were completed in December 2025, and the plant is now functioning as an integrated process unit designed for continuous operation rather than isolated test runs. Aduro has expanded its operations and technical teams, completed formal training programmes for all pilot plant operators, and is running the facility with the kind of procedural discipline expected of infrastructure meant to inform the design of a first-of-a-kind (FOAK) demonstration facility.

The campaigns themselves serve a specific purpose: optimising process conditions through repeated, structured test operations, generating the data package required for commercial scale-up and FOAK facility engineering, qualifying real-world feedstocks sourced from customer engagement programmes rather than controlled laboratory samples, and supporting ongoing partner discussions with live operating data.

For investors tracking the chemical recycling sector, this milestone carries particular weight. Yazan Al Homsi, a cross-border venture capitalist and CFA charterholder who operates between Vancouver and Dubai through Founders Round Capital and Catalyst Communications DMCC, has held an investment position in Aduro as part of a broader thesis on AI-enhanced waste management and circular economy technologies. The transition from construction to operational data represents exactly the kind of inflection point that validates early-stage positioning in capital-intensive cleantech.

CFO Deploys Six Figures of Personal Capital

Adding to the operational milestone is a quieter but equally telling signal from inside the company. SEDI insider filings show that Aduro’s CFO, Mena Beshay, has been steadily exercising stock options over the past year, deploying six figures of personal capital into increasing his direct ownership of company shares. The pattern through early 2026 reflects consistent accumulation rather than a one-off transaction. An independent analysis of the insider buying pattern highlights the significance of this sustained capital deployment.

This is not new behaviour for Beshay. When he joined Aduro as CFO in May 2022, he immediately subscribed for $105,000 in a private placement, backing the company with his own money on his first day. That he has continued to increase his personal stake throughout the company’s development phase, right through to the pilot plant going live, speaks to a level of conviction that extends well beyond standard executive compensation.

CFOs occupy a unique vantage point within any company. They see every cash flow model, every contract, and every expenditure. They understand the burn rate, the runway, and the realistic timeline for milestones. When a CFO is deploying significant personal capital into option exercises across an extended period, it represents an informed bet by the person with the most complete financial picture of the business.

A Global Conference Blitz Signals Commercial Intent

The pilot plant milestone is not happening in isolation. Aduro has announced participation in six events across four continents between March and April 2026, each supporting the commercialisation of its patented Hydrochemolytic Technology (HCT). The breadth and specificity of these engagements tells a story about where the company sees its commercial trajectory heading.

At Residuos Expo in Mexico City (March 3 to 5), Aduro representatives alongside ECOCE will showcase a joint programme on chemical recycling of post-consumer films and flexible packaging. At AMI Chemical Recycling North America in Houston (March 10 to 11), the company will present on carbon efficiency in polyolefin recycling and how its Hydrochemolytic Oil is designed for steam cracker integration, including the processing of multilayer feedstocks.

Alberta Circular Plastics Day in Calgary (March 11) will feature Aduro on a panel discussing the scaling of chemistry-based recycling. A government-supported Cleantech Mission to South Korea (March 23), hosted at the Canadian Embassy in Seoul, will see the company in pre-arranged business-to-business meetings focused on Asia-Pacific partnership development.

In Europe, the GO CIRCULAR Globuc Summit in Mannheim (March 25 to 26) will advance FOAK facility planning and commercialisation discussions around offtake, integration, and partnerships. And at ECOMONDO Mexico in Guadalajara (April 14 to 16), the company will deepen its ECOCE collaboration and advance future deployment pathways in Latin America.

For observers of the chemical recycling space, the key signals embedded in this schedule are significant: steam cracker drop-in compatibility is being pitched directly to petrochemical players, FOAK commercial discussions are actively underway in Europe, and government-backed institutional credibility is being established for Asia-Pacific expansion.

What the Convergence Means for the Investment Landscape

Yazan Al Homsi has previously articulated an investment philosophy centred on companies with strong intellectual property moats operating in markets with large total addressable markets. His investment in Aduro’s AI-powered waste management breakthroughs reflects that framework in practice. Aduro’s patented HCT platform, which operates at relatively low temperatures and cost to transform lower-value feedstocks into higher-value resources, fits squarely within that thesis.

The technology addresses three verticals: chemical recycling of waste plastics including mixed and contaminated streams that conventional recyclers cannot handle, upgrading heavy crude and bitumen into lighter and more valuable oil, and converting renewable oils into higher-value fuels and renewable chemicals. With a 95% yield rate compared to traditional methods that often produce 30% char, the efficiency differential represents a meaningful competitive advantage.

The convergence of operational data from the pilot plant, insider capital deployment from the CFO, and a global commercialisation push across multiple continents creates a picture of a company moving methodically through the stages that separate promising technology from commercial reality. In December 2025, Aduro raised US$20 million through an underwritten public offering specifically earmarked for the demonstration-scale plant build, adding funded construction to the list of de-risking milestones.

For Yazan Al Homsi and other investors positioned in the advanced recycling sector, the question has always been whether companies can bridge the gap between laboratory validation and commercial deployment. Aduro’s Q1 2026 trajectory suggests the bridge is being built, one structured operating campaign at a time.

The post From Pilot Plant to Global Stage: How Aduro Clean Technologies’ 2026 Expansion Signals a Turning Point for Chemical Recycling Investors Like Yazan Al Homsi appeared first on Green Prophet.

Plastic products are ubiquitous in our food supply chain, shedding microplastics into every part of the human ecosystem. As they degrade, microplastics break down into even smaller fragments called nanoplastics — tiny particles that can affect biological molecules in ways not fully understood.

In a new study, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign examined what happens when nanoplastics interact with Salmonella, potentially affecting food safety and human health.

“Salmonella enterica is a major foodborne pathogen that is often found in meat, poultry, and ready-to-eat food. We are testing ground turkey from grocery stores in our lab for a study on food safety, and finding that it is frequently positive for Salmonella.

“If you cook the meat properly, you should not have a problem. However, ground turkey is often packaged in plastic, and we wanted to explore how Salmonella react when they come into contact with plastic polymers,” said senior author Pratik Banerjee.

Banerjee’s team previously studied the interaction of nanoplastics and an E. coli strain responsible for major outbreaks of severe gastroenteritis. In this study, they focused on Salmonella enterica and polystyrene, a commonly used plastic material for food packaging and disposable utensils.

“We examined the physiology of Salmonella in response to nanoplastics, and we found an increased expression of virulence-related genes. The bacteria also formed thicker biofilms, which further indicates they are becoming more virulent,” said Jayita De, a graduate student in Banerjee’s lab and lead author on the paper.

Biofilm is an agglomeration of microorganisms growing together to form a protective layer, increasing survival for pathogenic bacteria under physiological stress. You might see biofilms as a slimy film in your kitchen sink or on your cutting board after handling raw meat.

However, while Salmonella initially showed increased virulence, prolonged exposure to nanoplastics slowed its stress response.

“When the bacteria first encounter nanoplastic particles, they go into offensive mode and become more virulent. But after a while, they start losing their resources and energy, so they switch to defensive mode, which allows them to persist in the environment for a longer time. If the concentration of nanoplastics rises, they can again switch to an offensive mode. It’s a trade-off between offense and defense,” De said.

The overall conclusion is that interaction with nanoplastics induces behavioral changes in Salmonella enterica, but further research is needed to determine the direction and impact of those changes.

Equally concerning is the possibility that nanoplastics can affect antibiotic resistance in Salmonella, Banerjee said.

“Any compound that puts physiological stress on the bacteria can trigger antimicrobial resistance. Nanoplastics are not antimicrobials, but mere exposure to them could convert bacteria that previously were not resistant to a particular antibiotic in a process called cross-resistance,” he explained.

This is the topic of an ongoing study, but initial findings indicate that polystyrene nanoplastics can cause Salmonella to increase the expression of antimicrobial-resistant genes, Banerjee added.

“However, we don’t want to sound the alarm and advocate that people stop using plastics. Plastic packaging provides a lot of benefits, such as reducing food spoilage and waste while keeping expenses low. We don’t know yet whether this is something we should be worried about,” he said.

Banerjee’s research team is among the first to examine the interactions between foodborne pathogens and plastic particles, thereby advancing this emerging field from a food safety perspective. He hopes other researchers around the world will pick up the mantle, because there is a lot more to learn about consequences, risks, and tolerances before any policy recommendations can be made.

The post How plastics can increase food poisoning appeared first on Green Prophet.

When I first studied forestry at the University of Toronto with Professor Sandy Smith, I didn’t realize how deeply the school’s ecological roots would shape the way I look at the world. The University of Toronto has always been, at its core, an environmental university. from its forestry program and plant biology labs to courses in sustainable cities.

So it’s not surprising that one of Canada’s emerging cleantech companies tackling plastic pollution also began there. Meet erthos, a Toronto-area startup developing plant-based materials designed to replace traditional petroleum plastics and help move the global economy toward a circular model.

The company began as a student project at the University of Toronto, where the founders started exploring alternatives to plastic while studying subjects ranging from environmental economics to plant biology. Their early work focused on whether agricultural byproducts and plant-derived ingredients could replicate the performance of conventional plastics, without leaving behind the same environmental legacy.

What began as a campus sustainability idea has since grown into a cleantech company that uses AI to design bio-based resins that can replace common plastics such as polypropylene or polystyrene, while still working within existing manufacturing systems. One of their recent talks was with Colgate-Palmolive.

That compatibility with industry matters. One of the biggest barriers to replacing plastics is the massive infrastructure already built around them. Factories, molds, and production lines are designed for petroleum-based materials. If a sustainable material requires entirely new manufacturing systems, adoption slows dramatically. We see that working with big brands isn’t enough. The pineapple textiles and leather company Pinatex, which uses pineapple waste, emerged to great fanfare and worked with brands like Stella McCartney, but one-off and non-committal marketing opportunity can’t build a business. We need more commitment and responsibility taken by brands such as Colgate-Palmolive, H&M, and all ranges of food and plastics industries.

Can erthos help? It focuses on designing materials that can fit into the systems companies already use, making it easier for brands to transition away from fossil-fuel plastics without rebuilding their supply chains. Getting a product to fit into existing moulds and machines is the key for change from plastics to bio-plastics.

The company combines biomaterials science with advanced data tools, they say, to design plant-based formulations made from renewable ingredients such as plant fibers, starches, and oils. By using AI to test and refine formulations quickly, the goal is to create materials that match the durability and functionality of traditional plastics while reducing environmental impact. See Tipa, a brand that works.

The stakes are enormous. Hundreds of millions of tonnes of plastic are produced globally each year, and only a small portion is recycled. The rest accumulates in landfills, waterways, and ecosystems where it can persist for centuries. Worse even, bits of plastics called microplastics are getting into our lungs, our waterways, our food, our brains.

Startups like erthos are trying to change that equation by addressing plastic at its source, replacing the material itself rather than simply managing the waste it creates.

Today the company works with brands exploring alternatives for packaging, consumer products, and other plastic-heavy industries, helping design materials that can be recyclable, compostable, or derived from renewable feedstocks.

Erthos is a Canadian cleantech startup developing plant-based materials designed to replace petroleum plastics and support a circular economy. Founded in 2019 by Nuha Siddiqui, Kritika Tyagi, and Chang Dong at the University of Toronto, the company combines biomaterials science with artificial intelligence to create sustainable plastic alternatives.

Its proprietary platform, ZYA, uses AI to design bio-based resins that can perform like traditional plastics while working within existing manufacturing systems.

Erthos has raised $11.2 million in total funding, including a $6.5 million oversubscribed Series A led by Horizons Ventures, with participation from The51 Food & AgTech Fund, Thrive Venture Fund at BDC Capital, Francis Family Fund, TELUS Pollinator Fund for Good, DcarbonVC, Middle Cove Capital, and earlier investors Golden Ventures and Bee Partners.

::erthos

More Bio Plastics News from Green Prophet

• This Plastic Is Made From Corn: A Biodegradable Alternative to Fossil Plastics
• Sustainable Plastics That Emerge From the Sea
• Teen Scientist Creates Bioplastic from Banana Peels
• Eco-Friendly Compostable Food Packaging for Restaurants
• DuPont Turns to Algae to Create Alternative Seafood

The post erthos uses AI to scale bio-plastics that work in industry appeared first on Green Prophet.

For years, consumer electronics companies have talked about reducing plastic. What’s been missing is a way to do it without compromising performance, safety, or scale. Of course we’ve been faithful on reporting on novel technology and applications of bio-plastics, that used by Stella McCartney, which is made from mushrooms, or bio-plastics made by Tipa. But this is a drop in the plastic bucket.

This week, Sony Corporation announced what may be one of the most consequential, and least flashy, breakthroughs in sustainable manufacturing: the creation of the world’s first fully visualized global supply chain for renewable plastics designed specifically for high-performance audio-visual products.

Fourteen companies across five countries and regions have joined in and these are spanning raw materials, chemicals, polymers, additives, and manufacturing. They have aligned to replace fossil-based plastics with biomass-derived alternatives, not in theory, but in products Sony plans to launch globally.

Why this matters more than recycled plastic

We know that most plastics do not get recycled, despite our best intentions to put our bottles in the recycling. With electronics, it is more complicated: Electronics are plastic-heavy for a reason. Casings, optical components, flame-retardant housings, and internal parts require tight tolerances, heat resistance, flame resistance, and optical clarity. These properties are difficult often impossible to create using mechanically recycled plastics alone.

That limitation has quietly stalled progress. Sony and its partners tackled the problem upstream by redesigning the entire materials pipeline, starting not with finished parts, but with renewable chemical feedstocks. Using a certified mass-balance approach, biomass-based inputs such as renewable naphtha are introduced at the earliest stages of chemical production, then tracked through each conversion step — from monomers to resins to finished components.

The result: plastics with the same performance characteristics as virgin fossil-based materials, but with a significantly lower carbon footprint.

One of the most important aspects of the initiative is transparency. High-performance plastics typically pass through dozens of opaque steps, making it nearly impossible to calculate or verify emissions. By mapping and fixing the supply chain end-to-end, Sony and its partners can now track greenhouse gas emissions across the entire lifecycle, enabling real carbon accounting rather than estimates or offsets.

The supply chain includes chemical and materials heavyweights such as Mitsubishi Corporation, Neste Corporation, Toray Industries, Mitsui Chemicals, Idemitsu Kosan, ENEOS, Hanwha Impact, Formosa Chemicals & Fibre, and SK Geo Centric, among others.

Each partner handles a precise step: renewable naphtha, styrene monomer, para-xylene, PET resin, polycarbonate resin, flame retardants, and PC/ABS blend, all engineered to meet electronics-grade requirements.

This level of coordination is rare, and that’s why the announcement matters. It shows that renewable plastics are no longer a niche materials problem, but a solvable industrial systems problem.

Sony frames the initiative as part of its “Creating NEW from reNEWable materials” project, aligned with the company’s broader Road to Zero environmental plan targeting net-zero environmental impact by 2050.

The post Sony builds the world’s first global supply chain for renewable plastics in high-performance electronics appeared first on Green Prophet.

If you’ve ever picked up plastic on a beach cleanup, you may have held more than trash in your hands. A new study shows microplastics are rapidly colonized by pathogenic and antimicrobial-resistant bacteria — turning tiny plastic pellets, wrappers and bottles littering the beach into traveling vehicles for disease.

RELATED: microplastics in plastic orthodontics aligners 

Microplastics — plastic fragments under 5 mm — now blanket every part of the planet. They are in plastic aligners used in orthodontics, and are in the air we breath. More than 125 trillion pieces drift through the ocean, with more found in rivers, soils, animals, and even the human body.

But scientists tell Green Prophet that the danger isn’t just the plastic itself: it’s the Plastisphere, the microbial biofilm that forms on each particle.

A team led by Dr. Emily Stevenson (Plymouth Marine Laboratory & University of Exeter) sent us a new study saying that they found that microplastics in real environmental conditions, from hospital wastewater to coastal waters, carry pathogens and antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) bacteria at every stage of their journey.

Their study, Sewers to Seas, tested five substrates — bio-beads, nurdles, polystyrene, wood, and glass — placed along a waterway flowing from high-pollution zones toward the sea. After two months, metagenomic analysis revealed: Pathogens and AMR bacteria were found on all plastics, at all sites.

What they found as data

• Polystyrene and nurdles posed the highest AMR risk, likely due to their ability to absorb antibiotics and promote biofilm growth.
• Over 100 unique AMR gene sequences were found on microplastic biofilms — far more than on natural materials like wood.
• Some pathogens became more abundant downstream, riding microplastics from sewage outflows toward beaches.
• Environmental conditions strongly shaped bacterial communities and AMR prevalence.
• Microplastics near aquaculture sites may pose biosecurity risks for shellfish and filter feeders.

Each microplastic particle can act as a miniature, mobile petri dish, transporting superbugs from hospital wastewater to swimming beaches and seafood beds.

“This study highlights the pathogenic and AMR risk posed by microplastics littering our oceans and coasts,” said Dr. Stevenson. “We strongly recommend volunteers wear gloves during beach cleanups and wash hands afterward.”

Prof. Pennie Lindeque added that microplastics “act as carriers for antimicrobial-resistant bacteria, enhancing their survival and spread… each particle becomes a tiny vehicle capable of transporting pathogens from sewage works to beaches, swimming areas and shellfish-growing sites.”

Senior Lecturer Dr. Aimee Murray concluded: “Microplastics aren’t just an environmental issue — they may be spreading antimicrobial resistance.”

The big picture

As microplastics continue to accumulate globally, researchers warn the Plastisphere could worsen the spread of superbugs. The study calls for: better waste management, stronger monitoring of microplastic pathways, urgent reductions in plastic discharge and an integrated strategies across wastewater, healthcare, and marine policy.

The post Microplastics Are Becoming Superbug Highways — New Study Warns Beachgoers to Wear Gloves appeared first on Green Prophet.

Recent studies in the US show that most plastics are never recycled. The numbers probably fare worse for other countries in the world. In a significant step forward for sustainable materials science, a new American study has unveiled a breakthrough in the enzymatic recycling of PET — the world’s most common plastic, used in everything from water bottles to food packaging and clothing fibers.

The process, developed by a coalition of U.S. and U.K. researchers, offers a cleaner, cheaper, and more circular approach to handling plastic waste, potentially tipping the balance in favor of large-scale, eco-friendly recycling. The work was led by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), in collaboration with researchers from the University of Massachusetts Lowell and the University of Portsmouth in England.

The findings, published in Nature Chemical Engineering, focus on enzymatic depolymerization of PET — a technique that breaks plastic down into its building blocks, allowing it to be remade into new products. Historically, the process has been too expensive and chemically intensive to scale. But this new study that adds a new molecule as an enzyme to break down plastic offers a dramatic shift.

By switching out one key chemical — sodium hydroxide — for ammonium hydroxide, the researchers unlocked a self-regenerating loop that dramatically slashes both emissions and cost.

“Sometimes the answer is as simple as rethinking a single molecule,” said Professor Andrew Pickford, Director of the Centre for Enzyme Innovation at the University of Portsmouth. “With ammonium hydroxide, we created a process that nearly eliminates the need for fresh acid and base chemicals.”

The switch to ammonium hydroxide allowed for the formation of diammonium terephthalate, which can be broken down through thermolysis — a heat-based reaction — to regenerate ammonia and produce pure terephthalic acid, one of the core ingredients in PET. The base can then be reused, over and over again.

The impact of this adjustment is notable:

• Chemical use drops by more than 99%
• Operating costs fall by 74%
• Energy use drops by 65%
• Carbon emissions are cut nearly in half

Critically, the minimum selling price for recycled PET using this method is estimated at $1.51/kg — well below the $1.87/kg cost of virgin PET, making this one of the first economically viable enzymatic PET recycling systems to date.

The research also tackled pre-treatment steps to improve plastic breakdown. Techniques like extrusion and rapid quenching allowed for full depolymerization in 50 hours. Recovery of ethylene glycol, another PET building block, was improved through a process known as fed-batch concentration.

Dr. Gregg Beckham of NREL, co-lead of the study, said that these combined innovations mark a turning point.

“Enzymatic recycling has long shown promise for mixed and hard-to-recycle PET waste streams, but it hasn’t been practical — until now. By integrating innovations across chemistry, biology, and process engineering, we’ve demonstrated a scalable and cost-effective solution.”

The broader implications are significant. Unlike mechanical recycling, which is limited by contamination and material degradation, enzymatic recycling could handle a wide range of PET waste — including colored plastics, polyester fabrics, and thermoformed containers — that currently end up in landfill or incinerators.

Professor John McGeehan, another key contributor now based at NREL, said the focus is now on moving from lab-scale to real-world application: “It’s about closing the loop — not just in the chemical sense, but in the lifecycle of the material.”

PET (polyethylene terephthalate) is used in over 50 million tonnes of plastic products annually. Yet less than one-third is recycled. The vast majority is downcycled, burned, or buried — contributing to greenhouse gas emissions and global microplastic pollution. Changing that trajectory has become a priority for environmental scientists, regulators, and industry leaders alike.

This new process doesn’t solve plastic pollution on its own. But it does offer a crucial tool: a method of turning used plastic back into high-quality new material, without relying on fossil fuels.

While enzymatic recycling offers hope for managing existing plastic waste, scientists and environmental advocates agree it must be paired with the development of bio-based plastics—materials made from renewable biological sources like corn starch, sugarcane, or algae. Unlike conventional plastics derived from fossil fuels, bio-based alternatives can dramatically reduce carbon emissions at the production stage and are often compatible with closed-loop recycling.

Leaders in this bioplastics space include NatureWorks (known for its Ingeo PLA plastic made from corn), TotalEnergies Corbion (a joint venture producing bio-based PLA), Novamont (an Italian firm specializing in compostable bioplastics), Danimer Scientific (working on PHA-based plastics from canola oil), and BASF (which offers certified compostable bio-based polymers under the ecovio brand). Developing these alternatives alongside advanced recycling could create a more circular, low-impact future for plastic use.

The post Scientists Crack the Code for Low-Cost, Low-Carbon Plastic Recycling appeared first on Green Prophet.

A silent chemical assault is underway. A new nationwide study has revealed that children in the United States — especially toddlers aged two to four — are regularly exposed to dozens of industrial chemicals during their most vulnerable developmental years. Many of these chemicals are not even on the radar of public health monitoring systems.

The study, published in Environmental Science & Technology, tested urine samples from 201 young children as part of the NIH-supported Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program. Researchers screened for 111 chemicals commonly found in household items, plastics, food packaging, cosmetics, and furniture.

Related: why glass is emitting more microplastics than plastic bottles

What they found is deeply unsettling: 96 chemicals were detected in at least five children. 48 were found in more than half. 34 were found in over 90% of the children — including 9 not tracked in national health databases like NHANES.

“These are not rare or accidental exposures,” said Deborah H. Bennett, the study’s lead author and professor of public health at UC Davis. “This is a daily, invisible flood of chemicals entering the bodies of children at a stage when their brains and immune systems are still forming.”

The Toxic Alphabet of Modern Childhood

Phthalates and phthalate alternatives – Found in toys, food wrap, vinyl flooring, and shampoo

Parabens – Used in creams, cosmetics, and even medications

Bisphenols (BPA, BPS) – Found in plastic containers, canned food linings, and receipts

Benzophenones – Common in sunscreens and cosmetics

Pesticide residues, flame retardants, and combustion byproducts – Lurking in food, furniture, and air

Children are especially vulnerable. Their smaller bodies mean higher exposures per kilogram, and behaviors like crawling, mouthing toys, and touching floors mean they are constantly in contact with contaminated surfaces. In some cases, the children’s chemical loads were higher than their mothers’ levels during pregnancy, pointing to postnatal environmental sources — the home, the daycare, the playground.

Related: the problems of Dollar Store plastic

The data also revealed disturbing patterns: Chemical exposures were highest among younger toddlers and racial/ethnic minorities, reflecting systemic environmental injustice. While some older chemicals like triclosan and certain phthalates are decreasing (likely due to public pressure and reformulations), new unregulated substitutes like DINCH and emerging pesticides are on the rise.

Swapping out banned chemicals for understudied alternatives is what scientists call “regrettable substitution.” It’s regulation on a delay — and children are paying the price.

What Can Parents Do to Reduce the Toxic Burden?

While we can’t control every exposure, there are concrete steps caregivers can take:

Avoid plastics labeled #3, #6, and #7, which may contain bisphenols and phthalates

Buy “paraben-free” and “fragrance-free” personal care products. Buy or make your own food wraps from fabric scraps and beeswax. Package lunches and food in steel, not plastic containers.

Ventilate homes, dust with a damp cloth, and consider buying air cleaners with HEPA filters

Wash hands before meals, especially after outdoor play or contact with plastic items

Limit pesticide exposure — wash produce well and consider organic options when possible

A Call for Chemical Accountability

Ultimately, this is not just a parenting issue. It’s a policy failure. Most of the 40,000+ chemicals used in consumer products in the U.S. are poorly regulated, with minimal long-term health data.

As Green Prophet has reported before, environmental chemicals are linked to declining fertility, disrupted hormones, obesity, and neurodevelopmental disorders — all of which are now rising in childhood populations.

“This study should sound the alarm,” said Jiwon Oh, postdoctoral scholar and co-author of the study. “We urgently need better biomonitoring, stronger chemical safety laws, and corporate transparency. Our children shouldn’t be the test subjects for industrial shortcuts.”

This is a pivotal moment. Conscious parents and policymakers alike have the opportunity — and the obligation — to push for a healthier future. Because these chemicals aren’t just in the air or water — they’re in our children. And that makes this not just a science story, but a moral one.

The post Toxins in tiny bodies: American children are carrying invisible chemical burden appeared first on Green Prophet.

Plastic is everywhere — from the oceans to the bloodstream. Now, new research presented at the NUTRITION 2025 conference in Orlando suggests that the tiniest plastic fragments—nanoplastics—could be silently harming your liver and disrupting your metabolism. Plastics are part of the food we eat, the animals and plants we eat, the water we drink and are emitted from plastic teeth aligners and bubble gum.

In a new animal study, scientists at the University of California, Davis, found that ingesting polystyrene nanoplastics (commonly found in food packaging) led to glucose intolerance, liver damage, and gut barrier disruption in mice. These alarming results echo concerns raised in earlier Green Prophet reporting on microplastic pollution in sea salt, seafood, and even the placentas of unborn babies.

“We already know microplastics have invaded every corner of the food chain,” said Amy Parkhurst, the study’s lead author and a Clinical and Translational Science Center fellow. “But now we’re seeing how those particles can impact basic bodily functions—like regulating blood sugar.”

Nanoplastics are the breakdown products of everyday plastics—smaller than 100 nanometers. They’re invisible to the naked eye, but not to our bodies. Previous research cited by Green Prophet estimated that an average person may consume 40,000 to 50,000 plastic particles per year—others put the number closer to 10 million particles annually.

The UC Davis study focused on male mice, fed a normal diet alongside a daily oral dose of polystyrene nanoparticles mimicking human exposure. The mice developed signs of systemic glucose intolerance, a red flag for type 2 diabetes. They also showed elevated levels of alanine aminotransferase, a marker for liver injury.

Perhaps more worrying: the study found increased gut permeability, which allowed endotoxins to leak into the bloodstream—creating a toxic loop that may contribute to chronic liver dysfunction.

This new evidence builds on prior warnings that our plastic obsession could come with a steep biological price. From endocrine disruption to cognitive decline, microplastics have been linked to a spectrum of emerging health risks.

This latest study adds a metabolic twist—suggesting that nanoplastics could directly interfere with how our bodies process sugar, potentially increasing risks of obesity and diabetes.

Parkhurst and her colleagues are now working with UC Davis’s Dr. Elizabeth Neumann to map the tissue-level effects of nanoplastics using mass spectrometry imaging. Their goal? To understand where nanoplastics end up in the body—and how they alter metabolism at the molecular level.

“We need more science before setting policy,” said Parkhurst. “But the early warning signs are there.”

That warning should matter to policymakers, consumers, and health advocates alike. As science catches up with the scale of plastic pollution, the push for bans on single-use plastics and improved biodegradable alternatives is gaining urgency.

Next time you reach for a plastic-wrapped snack or sip from a disposable cup, remember: the real cost may not show up on the price tag, but in your liver enzymes or your glucose test.

The post Microplastics in Your Food Links Nanoplastics to Liver Damage and Glucose Imbalance appeared first on Green Prophet.

Nylon’s dirty little secret? It sticks around. From fishing nets to yoga pants, nylon takes decades to degrade—especially in oceans—choking marine life and clogging ecosystems. But a Korean research team has just pulled off a sustainability moonshot: a new polyester-amide (PEA) plastic that acts like nylon, but disappears like magic—breaking down 92% in real ocean water within a year.

Developed by a powerhouse team from KRICT, Inha University, and Sogang University, the new PEA is built for the real world: flexible, strong, heat-resistant, and ready for mass production. You can iron it at 150°C, use it to lift 10 kg, and make everything from fishing nets to food wrap—and then let it quietly decompose when it’s done.

Related: This plastic packaging is made from corn

What makes this different from the “biodegradable” hype you’ve heard before? Most so-called green plastics fall apart too soon or not at all. PLA, for example, barely degrades in marine water (0.1%). The new PEA? 92.1%. That’s not a typo.

And it’s not just smart science—it’s smart supply chain. The polymer is made using castor oil (a non-edible crop) and recycled nylon waste, slashing carbon emissions to about one-third that of virgin nylon 6. No toxic solvents required, and it can be cooked up in standard polyester factories with just minor tweaks.

The results were published in the March 2025 issue of Advanced Materials and are already turning heads. Expect industrial adoption within two years.

“This material does what no other biodegradable plastic could,” said Dr. Sungbae Park, co-lead on the project. “It’s tough, it’s scalable, and it knows when to vanish.”

Finally, a plastic that knows when to leave the party.

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Those who climb indoors are doing something for their health. But climbing shoes contain chemicals of concern that can enter the lungs of climbers through the abrasion of the soles. In a recent study, researchers from the University of Vienna and EPFL Lausanne have shown for the first time that high concentrations of potentially harmful chemicals from climbing shoe soles can be found in the air of bouldering gyms, in some cases higher than on a busy street. The results have been published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology Air.

A climbing hall is filled with a variety of smells: sweat, chalk dust – and a hint of rubber. A research group led by environmental scientist Thilo Hofmann at the University of Vienna has now discovered that rubber abrasion from climbing shoes can enter the lungs of athletes. The shoes contain rubber compounds similar to those used in car tires – including additives suspected of being harmful to humans and the environment.

“The soles of climbing shoes are high performance products, just like car tires”, explains Anya Sherman, first author of the study and an environmental scientist at the Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science (CeMESS) at the University of Vienna. Additives are specific chemicals that make these materials more resilient and durable; they are essential for their function.

Sherman enjoys climbing herself – as a balance to her work in the lab and on the computer. At a conference, she met Thibault Masset from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), who researches similar topics and also enjoys climbing. The two researchers and equal first authors of the study came up with the idea of testing the rubber from their own climbing shoes using the same scientific methods they use to analyze car tires. “We were familiar with the black residue on the holds in climbing gyms, the abrasion from the soles of our shoes. Climbers wipe it off to get a better grip, and it gets kicked up into the air”, adds Sherman.

Equipped with an impinger, a particle-measuring device that mimics the human respiratory tract, Sherman, in collaboration with Professor Lea Ann Daily’s research group, collected air samples in five bouldering gyms in Vienna. The impinger draws in air at a rate of 60 liters per minute and separates particles in the same way as they would enter the human lungs. Other dust samples for the study were collected in collaboration with the EPFL Lausanne from bouldering gyms in France, Spain and Switzerland.

“Air pollution in the bouldering gyms was higher than we expected”, says corresponding author Thilo Hofmann. What was striking was that the concentration of rubber additives was particularly high where many people were climbing in a confined space. Hofmann concludes: “The levels we measured are among the highest ever documented worldwide, comparable to multi-lane roads in megacities.”

In 30 pairs of shoes tested, the team found some of the same pollutants as in car tires: among the 15 rubber additives found was 6PPD, a rubber stabilizer whose transformation product has been linked to salmon kills in rivers.

What this means for human health is still unclear. But Hofmann stresses: “These substances do not belong in the air we breathe. It makes sense to act before we know all the details about the risks, especially with regard to sensitive groups such as children.”

Sherman also points out that the operators of the studied bouldering gyms were very cooperative and showed a high level of interest in improving the air quality in their gyms. “This constructive cooperation should lead to the creation of the healthiest possible climbing hall environment, for example through better ventilation, cleaning, avoiding peak times and designing climbing shoes with fewer additives.”

“It is essential to switch to sole materials with fewer harmful substances,” says Hofmann. He says manufacturers are currently not sufficiently aware of the problem. The rubber they buy for their soles contains a cocktail of undesirable chemicals. More research is needed to understand how these substances affect the human body. Anya Sherman remains motivated: “I will continue to climb, and I am confident that our research will contribute to better conditions in climbing gyms.”

Thilo Hofmann is Professor of Environmental Geosciences at the Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science and co-director of the Environment and Climate Research Hub at the University of Vienna. This network brings together researchers from a wide range of disciplines to produce excellent scientific knowledge that can provide solutions to pressing problems such as climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental pollution.

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