A new process can convert a wide variety of vegetable and animal fats and oils — ranging from lard to waste cooking oil — into a key ingredient for making plastics that currently comes from petroleum, scientists say. Their report on the first-of-its-kind process appears in the journal ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering.

Our sustainable future: A greener, more sustainable source of ingredients for widely used plastics

Taking inspiration from trees, scientists have developed a battery made from a sliver of wood coated with tin that shows promise for becoming a tiny, long-lasting, efficient and environmentally friendly energy source. Their report on the device — 1,000 times thinner than a sheet of paper — appears in the journal Nano Letters.

Share Our sustainable future: A greener, more sustainable source of ingredients for widely used plastics

Sign up to save your podcasts

Our sustainable future: A greener, more sustainable source of ingredients for widely used plastics

Our sustainable future: A greener, more sustainable source of ingredients for widely used plastics