Plastic pollution is one of the major environmental concerns affecting marine ecosystems, with an estimated 4.8–12.7 million tons of plastic entering the oceans each year (Wang et al. in Adv Sci, 2021). Among the many sources of plastic debris, aquaculture contributes through the widespread use of conventional plastic materials. In offshore fish farming, hundreds of plastic cable ties are routinely used to repair damaged nets. Despite careful handling, many of these ties are inevitably lost at sea, where they may persist for decades, contribute to microplastic generation, or even be ingested by fish.

EPIC (un marE PrIvo di plastiCa) is a strategic project funded by the European Union under the Italy-France Interreg Maritime program. It promotes circular economy actions and innovative solutions to improve resource efficiency and reuse in a transnational context, aiming to generate positive community impacts, foster institutional synergy, and support sector-specific legislation. The project also seeks to advance ecological transition by addressing the issue of macroplastics in marine and coastal environments through shared strategies.

This study explores the potential of the bio-based chlorinated ester Essebiochlor HV45 as a sustainable secondary plasticizer for poly (vinyl chloride) (PVC) formulations, benchmarking its performance against the conventional chlorinated paraffin Essechlor CP52. Compatibility and plasticizing efficiency were evaluated using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), migration tests, and mechanical property analysis. The findings reveal that Essebiochlor HV45 demonstrates superior compatibility with PVC, evidenced by a lower substitution factor (SF) and reduced plasticizer migration, resulting in improved stability and flexibility. Mechanical testing highlighted a lower elastic modulus and greater performance stability after aging for formulations with Essebiochlor HV45. Fire behavior assessments showed that, while Essebiochlor HV45 displayed slightly reduced flame resistance compared to CP52, both formulations achieved the highest UL94 V0 classification, confirming excellent fire-retardant properties. Thermal stability analyses indicated that Essebiochlor HV45 begins decomposing at a lower temperature (220 degrees C compared to 275 degrees C for CP52), posing a limitation for applications requiring high-temperature resistance. Despite these thermal constraints, Essebiochlor HV45 emerges as a promising, eco-friendly alternative to chlorinated paraffins, offering enhanced plasticizing efficiency and compatibility. With targeted improvements in thermal stability and flame resistance, it holds significant potential for advancing sustainable PVC formulations in demanding applications.

Resin pellets, which are highly prone to environmental dispersion, can absorb pollutants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) once they enter marine environments. Principal aim of the study was to statistically confirm the correlation between pollutant content and the yellowing parameter - indicative of chemical aging of pellets - behind the use of pellets as a cost-effective alternative for chemical pollution assessment in the marine environment. In parallel, we first tested the use of the LIBS (Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy technique to detect the presence of metals on the surface of pellets. We conducted Italy's first national survey of resin pellets through a citizen science initiative. A total of 2270 pellets were collected from 73 beaches across 13 Italian regions and analyzed based on morphological characteristics, including discolouration, fouling presence, and porosity. From selected subsamples we extracted four PAH and six PCB congeners and examined the surface heavy metal content using LIBS technique. Pollutant concentration values were found to be correlated with the discoloration parameter of yellowing, further validating the use of resin pellets as an effective proxy for environmental pollution in place of traditional methods like mussels or others environmental matrix, as first proposed in the International Pellets Watch (IPW) framework.

COVID-19 pandemic has led to an unprecedented global demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) such as gloves and face masks. While these items have been crucial in curbing the spread of viruses, their disposal poses significant environmental challenges. This study aims to provide insights on the effects resulting from exposure in seawater and beach sand on PPE, when accidentally disposed. For that purpose, three types of gloves (nitrile, latex and vinyl) and face masks (FFP2, surgical and generic) were 18 months exposed. The samples were then collected and analysed by Attenuated Total Reflectance infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy analyses to evaluate the aging/degradation state of the PPEs' surface, while Pyrolysis Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (Py-GC-MS) was conducted to elucidate potential degradation of the polymer structures. Finally, Direct Analysis in Real-Time coupled with Mass Spectrometry (DART-MS) was employed, to assess their chemical composition and potential leaching behavior. ATR-FTIR and Py-GC-MS analyses revealed that polymer aging (oxidation) occurred in surgical masks exposed to seawater. In contrast, nitrile gloves aged in sand exhibited a loss of the characteristic nitrile absorption band. DART-MS further revealed that both masks and gloves exhibited limited degradation. Nevertheless, some noteworthy patterns emerged. Metal chlorides present in gloves were completely released, while phthalates were prone to oxidation when aged in beach sand. Regarding face masks, similar trends were discovered, again showing more pronounced chemical aging behavior in sand-aged samples. In conclusion, this study highlights that a multidisciplinary analytical approach is required to understand the impact of plastics towards the marine ecosystem.

In the last decades, the improving and the progresses achieved following the principles of circular economy have unveiled virtuous approaches towards environmental challenges regarding the industrial processes. Agri-food waste constitutes a promising starting material for the design of innovative products with a marked improvement of the cradle-to-grave dynamics. In this scenario, the recovery of cutin from tomato peels waste represents an effective example of circular economy.In this work the feasibility of the discontinuous melt-blending of cutin with poly(lactic acid) (PLA), was evaluated in order to obtain an innovative green material. Different blends of PLA and cutin have been characterized by using a multi-technique approach (FT-IR, DSC, TGA, SEM, rheological study, water vapor permeability) to achieve information on the nature and properties of these new materials. An important decrease of the final torque of the melt blends was observed, together with a decrease of the melt viscosity. Further increase in the cutin content in the blends was associated to a change in the viscosity of the melt. The addition of cutin to the PLA matrix caused a variation in the water vapor permeability, in accordance with the hydrophobic nature of the cutin.The obtained results attested that some degradation phenomena occurred along the process; however, the processability of these new blends is not impaired. The potential applications of these materials will mainly concern the agricultural sector and the production of low environmental impact degradable products.

Background/Objectives: Chronic skin wounds (CSWs) are a worldwide healthcare problem with relevant impacts on both patients and healthcare systems. In this context, innovative treatments are needed to improve tissue repair and patient recovery and quality of life. Cord blood platelet lysate (CB-PL) holds great promise in CSW treatment thanks to its high growth factors and signal molecule content. In this work, thermo-sensitive hydrogels based on an amphiphilic poly(ether urethane) (PEU) were developed as CB-PL carriers for CSW treatment. Methods: A Poloxamer 407®-based PEU was solubilized in aqueous medium (10 and 15% w/v) and added with CB-PL at a final concentration of 20% v/v. Hydrogels were characterized for their gelation potential, rheological properties, and swelling/dissolution behavior in a watery environment. CB-PL release was also tested, and the bioactivity of released CB-PL was evaluated through cell viability, proliferation, and migration assays. Results: PEU aqueous solutions with concentrations in the range 10–15% w/v exhibited quick (within a few minutes) sol-to-gel transition at around 30–37 °C and rheological properties modulated by the PEU concentration. Moreover, CB-PL loading within the gels did not affect the overall gel properties. Stability in aqueous media was dependent on the PEU concentration, and payload release was completed between 7 and 14 days depending on the polymer content. The CB-PL-loaded hydrogels also showed biocompatibility and released CB-PL induced keratinocyte migration and proliferation, with scratch wound recovery similar to the positive control (i.e., CB-PL alone). Conclusions: The developed hydrogels represent promising tools for CSW treatment, with tunable gelation properties and residence time and the ability to encapsulate and deliver active biomolecules with sustained and controlled kinetics.

Experimental studies in recent years highlight the presence of an increasingly high quantity of microplastics worldwide. The “resin pellets” represent a significant share among the first generation microplastics in the millimeter range (from 1 to 5 mm). They disperse in the environment, even unintentionally, during transport, storage and processing and recent studies show that their content varies from 3

The ability of microplastics (MPs) to interact with environmental pollutants is currently of great concern due to the increasing use of plastic. Agricultural soils are sinks for multipollutants and the safety of biodegradable MPs in field conditions is questioned. However, still few studies have investigated the interactive effects between MPs and metals on the soil-plant system with agricultural soil and testing crops for human consumption. In this work, we tested the effect on soil and plant parameters of two common MPs, non-degradable plastic low-density polyethylene and biodegradable polymer polylactic acid at two different sizes (<250 μm and 250-300 μm) in association with arsenic (As). Lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) was used as a model plant in a small-scale experiment lasting 60 days. Microplastics and As explained 12 % and 47 % of total variance, respectively, while their interaction explained 21 %, suggesting a higher toxic impact of As than MPs. Plant growth was promoted by MPs alone, especially when biodegradable MPs were added (+22 %). However, MPs did not affect nutrient concentrations in roots and leaves. The effect of MPs on enzyme activities was variable depending on the time of exposure (with larger effects immediately after exposure), the type and size of the MPs. On the contrary, the co-application of MP and As, although it did not change the amount of bioavailable As in soil in the short and medium term, it resulted in a significant decrease in lettuce biomass (-19 %) and root nutrient concentrations, especially when polylactic acid was applied. Generally, MPs in association with As determined the plant-soil toxicity. This work provides insights into the risk of copollution of MPs and As in agricultural soil and its phytotoxic effect for agricultural crops. However, the mechanisms of the joint effect of MP and As on plant toxicity need further investigation, especially under field conditions and in long-term experiments.

Poly(lactide) (PLA) and poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)-based hydrogels were prepared by mixing phosphate buffer saline (PBS, pH 7.4) solutions of four-arm (PEG-PLA)2-R-(PLA-PEG)2 enantiomerically pure copolymers having the opposite chirality of the poly(lactide) blocks. Dynamic Light Scattering, rheology measurements, and fluorescence spectroscopy suggested that, depending on the nature of the linker R, the gelation process followed rather different mechanisms. In all cases, mixing of equimolar amounts of the enantiomeric copolymers led to micellar aggregates with a stereocomplexed PLA core and a hydrophilic PEG corona. Yet, when R was an aliphatic heptamethylene unit, temperature-dependent reversible gelation was mainly induced by entanglements of PEG chains at concentrations higher than 5 wt.%. When R was a linker containing cationic amine groups, thermo-irreversible hydrogels were promptly generated at concentrations higher than 20 wt.%. In the latter case, stereocomplexation of the PLA blocks randomly distributed in micellar aggregates is proposed as the major determinant of the gelation process.

The agrifood industry shows one of the widest ranges of possible end products from crops, such as fruits, legumes, cereals, and tubers. The raw material is generally collected and processed industrially, producing a significant amount of organic waste. The overall picture is made more complex by the wide variety of nature and composition, and by the difficulty identifying the possible uses of the wastes coming from the processing industry. Such wastes are often disposed of in landfills or treated in waste-to-energy plants depending on the area where they are produced. The circular economy approach has suggested numerous possible generic strategies to improve waste management, involving the exploitation of waste to obtain new value-added products. The use of fibers from legume waste from the canning industry in the bioplastics production sector is a promising and relatively little explored line, particularly for the fibers of beans and green beans. With this in mind, in this article, green bean and borlotti bean fibers obtained from the treatment of wastes were used as reinforcing material for polycaprolactone (PCL)-based biocomposites by melt blending. Analyses were carried out about the morphological, spectroscopic, thermal, and mechanical properties of the starting and the obtained materials.

We describe the process of the development of a citizen science platform on Ocean Literacy designed and implemented during the lockdown period of 2020. As restrictions due to the COVID-19 health emergency did not allow researchers to organise public events and field data collection activities related to Ocean Literacy, we decided to take advantage of this situation by building an online platform to bring Ocean Literacy issues directly into citizens' homes. The massive use of digital tools by all civic communities during this time has allowed us to implement this idea and make it effective. The pandemic control measures then provided a unique opportunity to focus citizen attention on the collection of household data and information and to highlight the more or less direct connections between citizens' lifestyles and the eco-marine system. Short questionnaires were used to ascertain and highlight citizens' household behaviours and daily attitudes during the lockdown towards water use, seafood consumption and plastic material use and disposal. Data and information were also proposed, collected and analyzed in terms of: general environmental awareness of the respondents, perception regarding their purchasing choices during this particular period, as well as any changes in lifestyles and habits during the lockdown with respect to previous periods. The collected data allow us to improve our knowledge on some aspects of people domestic habits as well as their perception vs. real knowledge about the proposed environmental issues. We also realized that it is increasingly crucial for scientists to directly and extensively involve people and schools in educational and outreach activities and events as a good practice of science-society interaction. But to achieve good results we also need to develop appropriate communication tools and effective involvement strategies to promote their widespread participation in citizen science projects.

In this paper, we present two novel experimental setups specifically designed to perform in situ long-term monitoring of the aging behaviour of commercial plastic granules (HDPE, PP, PLA and PBAT). The results of the first six months of a three year monitoring campaign are presented. The two experimental setups consist of: (i) special cages positioned close to the sea floor at a depth of about 10 m, and (ii) a box containing sand exposed to atmospheric agents to simulate the surface of a beach. Starting from March 2020, plastic granules were put into the cages and plunged in seawater and in a sandboxe. Chemical spectroscopic and thermal analyses (GPC, SEM, FTIR-ATR, DSC, TGA) were performed on the granules before and after exposure to natural elements for six months, in order to identify the physical-chemical modifications occurring in marine environmental conditions (both in seawater and in sandy coastal conditions). Changes in colour, surface morphology, chemical composition, thermal properties, molecular weight and polydispersity, showed the different influences of the environmental conditions. Photooxidative reaction pathways were prevalent in the sandbox. Abrasive phenomena acted specially in the sea environment. PLA and PBAT did not show significant degradation after six months, making the possible reduction of marine pollution due to this process negligible.

Polyvinyl butyral (PVB) is an amorphous polymer employed in many technological applications. In order to highlight the relationships between macroscopic properties and dynamics at a microscopic level, motions of the main-chain and of the propyl side-chains were investigated between Tg − 288 °C and Tg + 55 °C, with Tg indicating the glass transition temperature. To this aim, a combination of solid state Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) methods was applied to two purposely synthesized PVB isotopomers: one fully protonated and the other perdeuterated on the side-chains. 1H time domain NMR and 1H field cycling NMR relaxometry experiments, performed across and above Tg, revealed that the dynamics of the main-chain corresponds to the α-relaxation associated to the glass transition, which was previously characterized by dielectric spectroscopy. A faster secondary relaxation was observed for the first time and ascribed to side-chains. The geometry and rate of motions of the different groups in the side-chains were characterized below Tg by 2H NMR spectroscopy.

Films made of poly(vinyl butyral) (PVB) and antimony-doped tin oxide (ATO) nanoparticles (NPs), both uncoated and surface-modified with an alkoxysilane, were prepared by solution casting at filler volume fractions ranging from 0.08% to 4.5%. The films were characterized by standard techniques including transmission electron microscopy, thermogravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). In the polymeric matrix, the primary NPs (diameter ~10 nm) aggregate exhibiting different morphologies depending on the presence of the surface coating. Coated ATO NPs form spherical particles (with a diameter of 300–500 nm), whereas more elongated fractal structures (with a thickness of ~250 nm and length of tens of micrometers) are formed by uncoated NPs. The fraction of the polymer interacting with the NPs is always negligible. In agreement with this finding, DSC data did not reveal any rigid interface and 1H time domain nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and fast field-cycling NMR did not show significant differences in polymer dynamics among the different samples. The ultraviolet-visible-near infrared (UV-Vis-NIR) transmittance of the films decreased compared to pure PVB, especially in the NIR range. The solar direct transmittance and the light transmittance were extracted from the spectra according to CEN EN 410/2011 in order to test the performance of our films as plastic layers in laminated glass for glazing.