9/18/25 – Intro to environmental engineering

The Circular Economy: Rethinking Product Design for a Sustainable Future

Have you ever wondered what happens to your old smartphone when you upgrade to the latest model? Most products we use daily follow a linear path: extraction of raw materials, manufacturing, use, and disposal. But this “take, make, dispose” model faces serious limitations as resources become scarcer and waste accumulates. The circular economy offers an alternative approach, though it’s worth examining both its promise and its practical challenges.

Understanding the Circular Economy

The circular economy isn’t actually a new concept, despite how it’s often presented. Many traditional societies have long practiced circular principles out of necessity. What’s newer is applying these principles systematically to modern industrial design and manufacturing.

At its core, the circular economy aims to keep materials and products in use for as long as possible through strategies like designing for durability, enabling repair and reuse, and facilitating recycling. However, we should be skeptical of claims that waste can be completely “eliminated.” Even in the most efficient circular systems, some materials degrade with each cycle, and energy is always lost in the process due to basic laws of physics.

The Role of Product Design

Product design decisions fundamentally shape how circular a product can be. Designers influence material selection, assembly methods, and end-of-life possibilities. Circular design principles include creating durable products that resist wear and tear, developing modular items with easily replaceable parts, and selecting materials that can be effectively recycled or safely biodegrade.

Consider smartphones as an example. While some companies now offer devices with replaceable batteries and repairable components, many flagship phones remain difficult to repair and use proprietary screws and adhesives that make disassembly challenging. This reveals a tension between circular design ideals and other priorities like waterproofing, aesthetics, and planned obsolescence strategies.

Real-World Applications and Limitations

Several industries are experimenting with circular approaches. In fashion, brands are creating garments from recycled materials and establishing take-back programs. However, textile recycling often produces lower-quality fibers, and many “recycled” garments still contain significant amounts of virgin materials. The furniture industry offers modular designs that can be reconfigured, though these products often cost more upfront and may not appeal to all consumers.

Electronics sustainability presents particular challenges. While some companies promote repairable devices, the rapid pace of technological advancement often makes older components obsolete before they wear out physically. This highlights a fundamental tension in circular economy thinking: how do we balance durability with innovation and consumer desire for new features?

Economic and Practical Considerations

One assumption that people have is that circular economy principles are automatically more economical. In many cases, designing for circularity increases upfront costs, and recycling processes can be energy-intensive and expensive. For circular approaches to succeed at scale, they often require policy support, changed consumer behaviors, and sometimes acceptance of trade-offs in convenience or performance.

Additionally, the circular economy still relies heavily on continued consumption. Simply making products more recyclable doesn’t address questions about whether we need all the products we currently make and buy. True sustainability might require not just circular design, but also reduced consumption overall.

Your Role in the Transition

As future consumers, workers, and citizens, high school students can contribute to circular economy goals by making informed purchasing decisions, supporting businesses with genuine circular practices, and understanding the complexities involved. This means looking beyond marketing claims to examine whether companies are truly implementing circular principles or simply using “green” language to sell conventional products.

The circular economy offers valuable principles for reducing waste and resource consumption, but it’s not a silver bullet for all environmental challenges. Success will require honest assessment of trade-offs, continued innovation, and recognition that truly sustainable systems may sometimes require us to consume less, not just consume differently.

10/21/25 – Green Gadgets in Environmental Engineering

Compostable Tech: The Next Generation of Gadgets

Ever stopped to consider what happens to your old phone case or broken earbuds after you are done with them? Most tech accessories, like countless other products, follow a linear “use and discard” path. In most cases, they end up in landfills for centuries. As our appetite for new devices grows, so does the mountain of e-waste. More than 50 million tons are tossed annually. As pressing as this problem sounds, new compostable materials are challenging our assumptions and changing what is possible for the next generation of electronics.

Why E-Waste Matters

The longevity of electronics is not just about how long you spend using them. It is about how long their materials persist. Plastics and metals in gadgets do not break down for hundreds, sometimes thousands of years. That cracked phone case you tossed could easily outlast your descendants. The scale and durability of tech waste raise urgent questions about sustainability in modern product design.

Material Innovations: Blurring the Line Between Gadget and Garden

Recent advances show how creative materials science can help bring “use, love, and safely disappear” closer to reality.

Bioplastics:
Made from plants such as corn and sugarcane, bioplastics are popping up in phone cases, packaging, and even earbuds. Their ability to break down faster than petroleum plastics offers an important step forward; but keep in mind, not all bioplastics are created equal.

Mushroom Mycelium:
Used in packaging, insulation, and even wearables, the root-like structure of fungi offers nutrients to the soil when composted, instead of adding pollution.

Paper-Based Circuit Boards:
Designers are experimenting with recycled paper or cardboard for circuit boards. This simplifies end-of-life recycling and reduces mining for metals, but it is not without performance trade-offs.

Real-World Examples: Progress and Prototypes

• Pela Phone Cases: Flax and plant-based cases you can compost at home.
• EcoBuds Earphones: Prototypes made from cornstarch plastics by student inventors.
• Mushroom Packaging: Companies like Dell and IKEA have piloted compostable packaging for electronics.
• Paper Speakers: Innovations in sound tech using recycled paper and cardboard.
• At a recent California science fair, a team unveiled a solar calculator with a wheat straw bioplastic shell. Others debuted computer mice fashioned from dried mushrooms and rice husks.

Barriers and Realities

Skepticism is useful here. Not every tech component can go in the compost bin; batteries, chips, and certain coatings still resist breakdown. Compostable materials may pose durability or cost challenges. Despite rapid innovation, genuine solutions are complex and demand continued refinement.

Your Role in Compostable Tech’s Future

Students and young innovators hold real power to shape greener solutions. Here are ways you can participate:

• Seek eco-friendly brands: Next time you buy tech gear, look for compostable or biodegradable labels.
• Experiment with DIY: Try creating gadgets from compostable materials for class projects or science fairs. Share your results to encourage others.
• Spread awareness: Use social media, blog posts, or school clubs to highlight sustainable tech and inspire peers.

Looking Forward

Every breakthrough brings new questions. As consumers, inventors, and citizens, your critical perspective matters. Examine claims, test ideas, and recognize that sustainability is a shared journey, not just a destination. What could you invent with mushrooms, plants, or recycled paper? Share your experiments and insights to help build a more circular and compostable future.

11/22/25 – Materials Science in Sustainable Design

Bioplastics: Designing the Future, One Plant at a Time

Ever stopped to consider whether your next water bottle could be made from corn? Most plastics, like countless other materials we use daily, follow a predictable path from petroleum extraction to centuries-long persistence in landfills. As global plastic production exceeds 400 million tons annually, with less than 10% effectively recycled, the environmental toll grows increasingly stark. Yet bioplastics—materials derived from plants rather than fossil fuels—are challenging our assumptions about what sustainable materials can achieve and where they fall short.

Why Traditional Plastics Persist

The durability that makes petroleum-based plastics useful also makes them problematic. These materials resist degradation for centuries, accumulating in ecosystems and food chains. The scale of plastic pollution raises fundamental questions about material choices in modern product design and whether plant-based alternatives offer genuine solutions or merely shift problems elsewhere.

Understanding Bioplastics: Categories and Capabilities

Bioplastics encompass a diverse range of materials with varying properties and end-of-life scenarios. Understanding these distinctions is critical for evaluating their actual environmental impact.

PLA (Polylactic Acid): Derived from corn or sugarcane fermentation, PLA dominates 3D printing, food packaging, and disposable utensils. However, it requires industrial composting facilities at 140°F+ to break down—conditions rarely found in home compost bins or natural environments.

PHA (Polyhydroxyalkanoates): Produced by bacteria consuming plant sugars, PHAs offer marine biodegradability and versatility in packaging and medical applications. Their high production costs and limited scale remain significant barriers.

Starch-Based Plastics: Often blended with traditional plastics for cost reduction, these materials may only partially biodegrade, leaving microplastic residues.

Current Applications: Progress and Limitations

Packaging Sector

• Major corporations like Coca-Cola and PepsiCo pilot plant-based bottles, though most contain only 30% bio-based content mixed with traditional PET.
• “Compostable” food containers proliferate at events, yet most require industrial facilities unavailable in many regions.
• Snack wrappers claiming biodegradability often need specific conditions rarely met in real-world disposal.

Fashion and Accessories

• Footwear experiments with bio-based soles show promise but struggle with durability requirements.
• Bioplastic buttons and frames appear in eco-conscious brands, though production volumes remain minimal.
• Performance gaps in strength and flexibility limit widespread adoption.

Technology Products

• Pela’s flax-based phone cases offer home compostability—if properly managed.
• Student-designed bioplastic electronics housings demonstrate innovation but face scalability challenges.
• Critical components like circuits and batteries remain incompatible with biodegradable materials.

Educational Materials

• PLA-based school supplies enter classrooms, though disposal infrastructure rarely exists in schools.
• 3D printing with PLA filament enables sustainable prototyping in STEM programs.

Critical Considerations: Examining the Trade-offs

The bioplastics narrative requires careful scrutiny. Consider these often-overlooked realities:

Agricultural Impact: Corn and sugarcane cultivation for plastics competes with food production, requires intensive farming practices, and may increase pesticide use. A shift to bioplastics at scale could strain agricultural systems already facing climate pressures.

Composting Infrastructure: Most bioplastics need industrial composting—facilities that exist in fewer than 200 U.S. cities. Materials labeled “compostable” often end up in landfills, where oxygen-poor conditions prevent proper breakdown.

Carbon Footprint Complexities: While plant-based materials sequester carbon during growth, processing, transportation, and agricultural inputs can offset these benefits. Lifecycle analyses show mixed results compared to efficient petroleum plastic recycling.

Consumer Confusion: Terms like “biodegradable,” “compostable,” and “bio-based” lack standardized definitions, leading to improper disposal and contamination of recycling streams.

Student Innovation: Real-World Experimentation

Recent student projects reveal both potential and limitations:

• High schoolers created cornstarch-based materials in chemistry labs, discovering brittleness issues within weeks.
• A Brown University capstone developed mushroom-based packaging, achieving strength but struggling with moisture resistance.
• Science fair entries using agricultural waste for bioplastics highlighted regional material availability challenges.

Practical Engagement Opportunities

Students can contribute meaningfully while maintaining realistic expectations:

• Investigate locally: Research whether your community has industrial composting facilities before choosing “compostable” products.
• Experiment critically: Test homemade bioplastics for durability, water resistance, and actual decomposition rates. Document failures alongside successes.
• Question claims: Analyze product labels and company sustainability reports for specific disposal requirements and bio-based content percentages.
• Consider systems: Explore how bioplastics fit within circular economy principles—or where they fall short.

Looking Forward

Bioplastics don’t represent a problem but rather a complex tool requiring thoughtful application. Their development highlights crucial questions: Can agricultural systems sustainably support material production? Will infrastructure evolve to handle these materials properly? How do we balance immediate environmental needs with long-term systemic changes?

Critical evaluation, continued innovation, and honest assessment of limitations will determine whether plant-based plastics become genuine solutions or well-intentioned distractions from deeper sustainability challenges.

What aspects of the bioplastics promise deserve skepticism, and where might strategic application make a real difference?

12/21/25 – Are AI Data Centers Hurting the Planet? Here’s How Engineers Are Fighting Back

Have you ever used ChatGPT, gotten recommendations on Netflix, or played a game with super-smart bots? All of these work thanks to artificial intelligence (AI), but did you know the powerful computers behind AI can have a big impact on the environment?

What’s an AI Data Center?

Imagine a giant building packed with rows and rows of computers, all working together to process data from across the world. That’s a data center. When AI is involved, these computers work inefficiently, which means they use a lot of electricity.

Four Major Environmental Impacts

1. Huge Energy Use:
   Training advanced AI models is similar to running thousands of computers all day and night. This draws as much power as a small city in some cases.
2. Carbon Emissions:
   If the electricity comes from fossil fuels (like coal or gas), every search, chat, or suggestion adds greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.
3. Water Waste:
   Data centers get hot, so they use lots of water for cooling; sometimes millions of gallons per year.
4. E-Waste:
   As AI needs faster and better hardware, old computer parts get tossed, adding to electronic waste.

Engineers to the Rescue: Sustainable Solutions

Here’s how clever engineering is making things better:

• Smarter Cooling:
  Switching from traditional air conditioners to liquid cooling, or even reusing waste heat to warm offices or greenhouses.
• Green Energy:
  Some data centers are powered by solar or wind, or buy clean energy from nearby renewable power plants.
• AI for Efficiency:
  Ironically, AI can reduce its own impact by optimizing how servers run, using less power and water.
• Creative Recycling:
  Designing equipment that’s easier to upgrade or recycle, and reusing old parts instead of sending them straight to the landfill.
• Better Locations:
  Building in cooler places (like the far north) cuts down on extra cooling, or placing centers near renewable power sources.