In a 2021 report funded by the Recycling Development Center, research professor Karl Englund and a civil and environmental engineering team at Washington State University outlined existing chemical and thermal recycling options for plastic — such as heat-intensive solutions like pyrolysis and gasification, or catalyst-based solutions like glycolysis — and assessed their viability to operate in the Pacific Northwest.

“The guys in the plastics world are busting their butt to make this happen,” Englund says. “Do we all need to do more? Yeah. But at least we’re taking steps in the right … » More …

A two‑year, $2.6 million U.S. Department of Energy grant will support a team of researchers in designing and building carbon-negative homes to combat climate change in the growing residential construction sector.

“Society needs the built environment. It’s one of those things moving forward that we can’t reduce creating more of, so we need to find a way to do it cleanly,” said Adam Phillips, assistant professor of civil engineering and a co‑principal investigator on the project.  [Read more…]

A method to convert a commonly thrown-away plastic to a resin used in 3D-printing could allow for making better use of plastic waste. A team of Washington State University researchers developed a simple and efficient way to convert polylactic acid (PLA), a bio-based plastic used in products such as filament, plastic silverware and food packaging to a high-quality resin.

“We found a way to immediately turn this into something that’s stronger and better, and we hope that will provide people the incentive to upcycle this stuff instead of just … » More …

The WSU Extension Forestry team was honored this summer by the Western Extension Director’s Association for their educational efforts preserving the health and safety of Washington’s private forests.

Team members Andrew Perleberg, Kevin Zobrist, Sean Alexander, Patrick Shults, Rebekah Zimmerer, Grace Garrison, Todd Murray, Vikram Yadama, and Karl Englund received WEDA’s Excellence in Programming award as part of the association’s joint annual meeting, June 29, 2022 in Concord, Calif. [Read more…]

Post-doctoral research associate Yu-Chung Chang and his team won $50,000 to explore chemical recycling on May 10 at Cougar Cage, hoping to reduce plastic waste in landfills and oceans.

Cougar Cage is an event, like “Shark Tank,” where researchers pitch their project to a panel of judges, who determine if it will benefit the environment and humanity. Researchers also explain how funding can further propel their project, Chang said. [Read more…]