{"683796":{"#nid":"683796","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Seashells Inspire a Better Way to Recycle Plastic","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EResearchers from Georgia Tech have created a material inspired by seashells to help improve the process of recycling plastics and make the resulting material more reliable.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe structures they created greatly reduced the variability of mechanical properties typically found in recycled plastic. Their product also maintained the performance of the original plastic materials.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe researchers said their bio-inspired design could help cut manufacturing costs of virgin packaging materials by nearly 50% and offer potential savings of hundreds of millions of dollars. And, because less than 10% of the 350 million tons of plastics produced each year is effectively recycled, the Georgia Tech approach could keep more plastic out of landfills.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAerospace engineering assistant professor\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/ae.gatech.edu\/directory\/person\/christos-e-athanasiou\u0022\u003EChristos Athanasiou\u003C\/a\u003E led the study,\u0026nbsp;which was published\u0026nbsp;in the journal \u003Cem\u003EProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)\u003C\/em\u003E.\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/coe.gatech.edu\/news\/2025\/08\/seashells-inspire-better-way-recycle-plastic\u0022\u003ERead the Q\u0026amp;A of the findings, and see a video of the testing, on the College of Engineering website.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Using nature\u2019s approach to robust structures, aerospace engineering\u2019s Christos Athanasiou has created a process that makes normally unpredictable recycled plastic reliable and strong."}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EResearchers from Georgia Tech have created a material inspired by seashells to help improve the process of recycling plastics and make the resulting material more reliable.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe structures they created greatly reduced the variability of mechanical properties typically found in recycled plastic. Their product also maintained the performance of the original plastic materials.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Researchers from Georgia Tech have created a material inspired by seashells to help improve the process of recycling plastics and make the resulting material more reliable. "}],"uid":"27560","created_gmt":"2025-08-13 15:28:57","changed_gmt":"2025-08-13 15:32:44","author":"Jason Maderer","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2025-08-13T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2025-08-13T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"677684":{"id":"677684","type":"image","title":"Seashells","body":null,"created":"1755099060","gmt_created":"2025-08-13 15:31:00","changed":"1755099060","gmt_changed":"2025-08-13 15:31:00","alt":"three seashells","file":{"fid":"261616","name":"seashells.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2025\/08\/13\/seashells.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2025\/08\/13\/seashells.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":873902,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2025\/08\/13\/seashells.jpg?itok=7ReIf599"}}},"media_ids":["677684"],"groups":[{"id":"1237","name":"College of Engineering"}],"categories":[{"id":"136","name":"Aerospace"}],"keywords":[{"id":"188776","name":"go-research"},{"id":"187915","name":"go-researchnews"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39531","name":"Energy and Sustainable Infrastructure"}],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71881","name":"Science and Technology"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EJason Maderer\u003Cbr\u003ECollege of Engineering\u003Cbr\u003Emaderer@gatech.edu\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["maderer@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}