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Poster Sessions

Catalytic Strategies for Efficient Chemical Recycling of Waste Plastics

Plastic waste accumulation is a major environmental issue threatening land, freshwater, and marine ecosystems. Traditional recycling methods have proven insufficient in addressing this growing problem due to their inability to enable circularity for synthetic polymers. Chemical recycling and upcycling of waste plastics offer a promising alternative, enabling the conversion of waste plastics into molecular intermediates suitable for remanufacture into new products. This promising process involves the use of heterogeneous catalysts to lower the activation energy required for the depolymerization of plastics under moderate reaction conditions. However, several barriers hinder the implementation of these processes, such as the high-cost of catalytic systems and low selectivity towards narrow distributions of high-value products. This project examines the efficacy of ruthenium nanoparticles supported on carbon (Ru/C), a rare and expensive metal, in enhancing plastic waste depolymerization. Depolymerization of polyethylene, a common plastic, using Ru/C as a catalyst produces many valuable products and a significant amount of methane, an unwanted greenhouse gas. The investigation explores how variations in reaction time, pressure, and temperature influence product selectivity. The experiments involved using ~70 mg of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) as the substrate and ~10 mg of the catalyst in a 10 mL Parr batch under controlled conditions at 10 bar of H₂, at 265°C over a duration of 3-24 hours. The products were analyzed through gas chromatography and mass spectrometry. The data were compared to a previous reaction using 25 mg of Ru/C, and 700 mg of substrate for 3.5 hours at 250°C and 20 bar of H₂. The results indicate lower temperature and reduced time can reduce the catalyst's activity. This lowers methane production while maintaining a higher selectivity towards liquid products. Identifying optimal conditions for individual catalysts is crucial for maximizing the efficiency of the plastic waste upcycling process. Although much work remains, the findings outlined here represent a step towards advancing heterogeneous catalytic systems for plastic depolymerization.

Construction of Zero-Waste Garments for a Basic Sewing Class

In a lower-level basic sewing class students sew two zero-waste garments to tackle the textile waste problem in the classroom: an apron and a pair of shorts. These projects aimed to introduce students to sustainable strategies in the apparel industry while they are learning to sew. The class provided an ideal setting for a hands-on, experiential approach to creating solutions to urgent industry problems. The fashion/textile industry is one of the most polluting in the world, generating tremendous amounts of pre-consumer and post-consumer waste. Waste accumulates in developing nations, perpetuating racial and environmental inequalities through waste colonialism. The apparel industry needs to consider waste in the product’s design stage, given that approximately 25% of textiles are discarded in the manufacturing process. Furthermore, synthetic fibers from fossil fuels account for 69% of all textiles used, taking hundreds of years to biodegrade and generating 35% of global microplastic pollution in the oceans. These projects incorporate new, sustainable approaches to apparel manufacturing while providing solutions to real industry problems. Besides garment construction and application of a variety of sewing techniques, students learned: (a) to minimize fabric waste through zero-waste design; (b) to use more sustainable materials such as organic cotton and recycled fabric (from natural materials); and (c) to decrease the environmental impact of a product at the end-of-life stage through biodegradability.

Cultivating Communities through University Natural Areas

The Office of Sustainability at the University of Oregon spearheaded the creation of their first Natural Areas Program in 2024. Using their three-pronged mission of Restoration, Engagement and Research hear about lessons learned through the story of building community and capacity quickly to make positive change on the UO's natural areas.

Developing a Sustainable Open Education Resource (OER) on Social Justice

This poster will review the process of developing a sustainable higher education focused OER on social justice and diversity through community engagement and best publication practices. The poster will review the stages of development of the OER , accessing funding for development, turning the OER into online modules so they are sustainably accessible, and the publication process. By creating a double peer reviewed OER on social justice, we are offering an equitable resource for higher education students to access.

Student-Funded and Run: Organizing a Campus Sustainability Fund Committee for Long-Lasting Impact

The Campus Sustainability Fund is structured to maximize student voice and influence, within our organization and the UW Seattle Campus. Learn about how the UW-Seattle Campus Sustainability Fund has organized their student-run Committee.

The Committee is approached as a model for collaborative governance and participatory democracy. Serving as the governance body for the CSF, the Committee determines funding allocations for grant applications, shapes the CSF's long-term strategy, and participates in an annual participatory budgeting process. The 8 voting members are appointed from six different campus partners (the Ethnic Cultural Center, graduate and undergraduate student governments, Office of Minority Affairs and Diversity's Student Advisory Board, Wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ - Intellectual House, the Environmental Stewardship Committee, and Sustainability Department). Over their 14-year history, the CSF Committee has voted to adjust its composition to better promote diversity in thought and experience within the group entrusted with stewarding these student funds. With a mix of undergraduate and graduate students across degree programs, varying introductions to sustainability, and visions for what sustainability could be, the Committee promotes accountability to the diverse needs of the UW Seattle student body. Further, it seeks to signal who is welcome in the sustainability movement and broaden the meaning of what "sustainability" entails. Learn specifics of how Committee members are recruited, compensated, and serve; maintaining student engagement; the process for grant review that promotes justice-centered solutions; usage of subcommittees; modelling participatory budgeting with student funds; and how to create an adaptive system that lasts long-term.

"As trustees of student money, we have chosen to make the CSF accountable to the student body at every level -- from the all-student Student Activities Fees committee that can choose to establish the CSF, to the all-student CSF committee that will allocate the funds, to the student priorities that will guide the allocation."
- The Campus Sustainability Fund Working Group, 11 February 2010