Influence of Weathering on the Degradation of Cellulose Acetate Microplastics Obtained from Used Cigarette Butts (original) (raw)
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Cigarette butts, which are usually thrown on the ground or into ordinary bins, have been recognized as toxic residues since may contain cigarette contaminants and chemicals produced during combustion. Therefore, contaminants in cigarette butts can be leached by rain into surface water and thereby contaminate the environment. In Brazil, according to the National Policy on Solid Waste, all residues must be disposed of in an environmentally friendly manner. Although cigarette butts are not mentioned in the law, due to their characteristics, they may be classified as hazardous waste. At the University of Brasilia, a cellulose pulp production process from cigarette butts has been developed employing alkaline pulping. This process is presented as an alternative to environmentally friendly final disposal of this residue. During the process, a dark liquor is generated, which was found to contain lignin, carbonyls, metals, nicotine and specific tobacco nitrosamines. The dark liquor was treated by acidification to promote lignin precipitation, coagulation with chitosan and Al 2 (SO 4) 3 to remove metals and organic compounds and ozonized to oxidize resistant chemicals. The dark liquor presented a high chemical oxygen demand (COD; 29,986 mg/L), which was partially removed by precipitation (20%), chitosan coagulation (66%) and ozonation (45.8%). As the remaining COD was still high, we proposed reusing the clarified effluent in alkaline pulping, which seemed to be the easiest and most efficient procedure with the lowest cost.
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Cigarette butts (CBs) are the most commonly littered waste material in the world. It is estimated that over 5.7 trillion cigarettes are consumed worldwide each year. Consequently, millions of tonnes of highly toxic waste are contaminating the environment. CBs are composed of cellulose acetate filters—a polymer with poor biodegradability—and which, depending upon the environmental conditions, can take many years to decompose. In this study, fired clay bricks were manufactured with 0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, and 2% CBs by mass and tested against control bricks with 0% CBs. The results revealed a decrease in compressive strength from 48.6 MPa for 0% CB content bricks to 30.8 MPa for 1% CB content bricks, and a decrease in dry density with the increase in CB content, from 2114 kg/m3 for the control bricks to 1983 kg/m3 and 1969 kg/m3 for 1% and 2% CB content bricks. The highest value of water absorption appeared for 2% CB content bricks, which reached an absorption rate of 13.1% compared to 9% for...
Cellulose Acetate Recovery from Cigarette Butts
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Cigarette butts are one of the most common types of litter all around the world. This waste when disposed of in the environment pose a major threat to living organisms and ecosystem health. Cigarette butts are mainly made of cellulose acetate (2.45 substitution) that biodegrades slowly and can take up to 18 months to break down under normal litter conditions. Cellulose acetate is a valuable polymer that can be used for a great variety of applications. In this communication, we present the results from an ongoing study addressed to value cigarette butt waste based on the recovery of the cellulose acetate by a methodology that includes several solid-liquid extractions and a chemical precipitation. For that purpose three samples of cigarette butts were prepared and they were extracted with 5% (w/v) NaCl aqueous solution, 5% (w/v) NaAc aqueous solution or 0,02% (w/v) H2SO4 aqueous solution. After that, they were further extracted with absolute ethanol and diethyl ether. The cleaned butt...
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Jurnal Sains Materi Indonesia
AUTOCLAVE-ASSISTED DEACETYLATION: A RAPID METHOD TO RECYCLINGCIGARETTE BUTTS INTO CELLULOSE. Cellulose acetate (CA)-based materials, like cigarette butts (CBs), become one of the most com-mon types of litter in the world. The toxic substances that are contained make this waste carry a hazardous risk for the environment and living organisms. Herein we report a rapid method for recycling cigarettes butts into more environmen-tally material. Cellulose was fabricated by deacetylation of cigarette butts with NaOH solution at various times 15, 30, 45, and 60 minutes in autoclave. Cellulose was optimized by a degree of deacetylation (DD%) and was further charac-terized by FTIR, SEM, TGA, and DSC analysis. The DD% and FTIR results confirmed the complete conversion of cellu-lose acetate from cigarette butts to cellulose within 15 minutes. Cellulose morphology under SEM showed the surface became rougher and textured after autoclave treatment. The results of autoclave-assisted deacetylation ar...
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While the impacts of cigarette smoking on human health are widely known, a less recognized impact of tobacco product use and disposal is environmental pollution. This review discusses the current literature related to cigarette and e-cigarette contamination in the context of environmental sources and impacts, with a focus on the documented influences on biota, ranging from bacteria to mammals. Cigarette butts and electronic cigarette components can leach contaminants into soil, water, and air. Cellulose acetate cigarette filters comprising the butts are minimally degradable and are a source of bulk plastic and microplastic pollution, especially in aquatic ecosystems where they tend to accumulate. Cigarette combustion and aerosol production during e-cigarette use result in air contamination from sidestream, exhaled, and thirdhand pathways. The chemical byproducts of tobacco product use contaminate wastewater effluents, landfill leachates, and urban storm drains. The widespread detect...
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Although several sample preparation methods for analyzing microplastics (MPs) in environmental matrices have been implemented in recent years, important uncertainties and criticalities in the approaches adopted still persist. Preliminary purification of samples, based on oxidative digestion, is an important phase to isolate microplastics from the environmental matrix; it should guarantee both efficacy and minimal damage to the particles. In this context, our study aims to evaluate Fenton’s reaction digestion pre-treatment used to isolate and extract microplastics from environmental matrices. We evaluated the particle recovery efficiency and the impact of the oxidation method on the integrity of the MPs subjected to digestion considering different particles’ polymeric composition, size, and morphology. For this purpose, two laboratory experiments were set up: the first one to evaluate the efficacy of various digestion protocols in the MPs extraction from a complex matrix, and the sec...
STUDY OF THE CORRELATION BETWEEN VOLATILE SOLIDS AND CHEMICAL OXYGEN DEMAND AS INDICATORS OF THE TIME OF DEGRADATION OF CIGARETTE BITUCAS IN THE ENVIRONMENT (Atena Editora), 2022
Municipal solid wastes are one of the responsible of the soil and water degradation at the environment, among these wastes, the cigarette butt’s appears. The cigarette butt’s are classified as dangerous solid microwastes and corresponds about 25 to 50% of the collected trash at roads and streets. The butt’s are of hard degradation, due possible of the cellulose acetate (CA) presence, a recalcitrant polymer present in about 95% cigarette filters. So, it’s necessary the physico-chemicals parameters monitoratoration with the intent of describe the conditions of the degradation phenomena processess. Therefore, in that case, the research inserts itself aiming to correlate the volatile solids (VS) content with the chemical oxygen demand (COD), to stablish it as cigarette butt’s degradation time indicators at the environment. For the methodological proceeds, cigarette butt’s samples were collected randomly at Campina Grande city, from Paraíba state. The physico-chemical monitoring from the VS and COD parameters was made, of which were used the gravimetric and closed reflux, in a digester block, respectively. After that, the data were tabulated and computed in a statistical software with the intent to verify the correlation existence between these parameters. As result, a positive linear correlation (r = 0,9764) and a probability p = 0,000 with 5% of meaningfulness was observed, showing that the VS decay shape along the time it’s also followed by the COD, showing the possibility establishing those parameters as degradation time for the cigarette butt’s indicators.
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