ISS Sustainability Challenge Winners Seek To Combat Plastic Pollution

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One of the benefits of space research is its ability to contribute to sustainability efforts on Earth, and last week the International Space Station (ISS) took a major step in supporting that mission. Two of the Sustainability Challenge: Beyond Plastics competition winners were announced as part of the 11th annual ISS Research and Development Conference last week. Winning projects will have the opportunity to launch their research on the space station itself, using the unique microgravity environment to advance scientific efforts to reduce plastic waste here on Earth.

The challenge invited proposals focused on solving the ongoing global plastic waste issue. Winning the challenge is desirable not only because the honor comes with funding from ISS partner Estée Lauder but also because the ISS laboratory offers researchers access to the space-based environment in a way that few labs can. Challenge winners can develop, test or mature products and processes in orbit. The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, Inc., which manages the ISS National Lab, selected projects aimed to reduce the volume of plastic waste introduced into the environment, identify methods of plastic production beyond petrochemicals, and reduce the need to produce plastic in the first place.

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Green technology in space is a booming industry, and the ISS National Laboratory announced that the two winning projects are both focused on reducing the plastic waste stream in innovative ways. The first, led by Dr. Stephen Meckler of the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), seeks to study the microgravity synthesis of aerogel copolymers. The second, from Dr. Katrina Knauer and