Sustainable reclamation of synthetic materials as automotive parts replacement: effects of environmental response on natural fiber vulnerabilities

Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2024 Mar;31(12):18396-18411. doi: 10.1007/s11356-024-32436-5. Epub 2024 Feb 16.

Abstract

Sustaining the resilience of the environment against climate change volatilities is fast becoming a herculean task considering the vulnerabilities of the ecosystem and disruption of the global value chain. Environmental crisis emanating from improper containment of synthetic materials is a major impediment facing the world today, and the situation could get worse if urgent measures are not devised to mitigate the quantity of waste synthetic materials that find its ways to the environment. These wastes are released in the form of toxins, posing danger to the environments, causing biodiversity loss and the degradation of already battered-climate. In this paper, the authors apprise existing containment measures of synthetic waste materials taking a preliminary and on-the-spot assessment of their impacts and effectiveness of their application leading to their operation. The prospect of waste glass fiber in automotive part replacement is given utmost interest in this paper, in which, a significant quantity of glass fiber could be used as part of automotive materials to reduce their overbearing environmental carnage. By this approach, the emerging automotive parts may have their strength and durability enhanced against impact and corrosion. Mindful of the non-biodegradable properties of glass fibers, the paper captures how effective these fibers could be used as automotive parts against the traditional materials. This paper also reflects on the response of the natural fiber in terms of their sustainability, as natural forest faces severe extinction occasioned by anthropogenic activities.

Keywords: Biodiversity; Climate change; Environments; Glass fiber; Reclamation options.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Biodiversity
  • Ecosystem*
  • Forests*