Read Our Degradable Plastic Blog News Update

Green Day New Album Preview - Is It Any Good?

Share

 

Green Day is an American punk rock trio formed in 1987.^[1] The band has consisted of lead vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist and backing vocalist Mike Dirnt, and drummer Tré Cool for the majority of its existence. The band is credited as one of the three main bands, along with The Offspring and Rancid, which set the punk revival in motion.

Green Day was originally part of the punk scene at 924 Gilman Street in Berkeley, California. The band's early releases for independent record label Lookout! Records earned it a grassroots fanbase.^[2] Nevertheless, its major label debut Dookie (1994) became a breakout success and eventually sold over 10 million copies in the U.S. and 15 million worldwide.^[3] As a result, Green Day was widely credited, alongside fellow California punk bands The Offspring and Rancid, with reviving mainstream interest in and popularizing punk rock in the United States.^[4][5] Green Day's three follow-up albums, Insomniac, Nimrod and Warning did not achieve the massive success of Dookie, but they were still successful, reaching double platinum, double platinum, and gold status respectively.^[6] Green Day's 2004 rock opera American Idiot reignited the band's popularity with a younger generation, selling five million copies in the U.S.^[7] The band's eighth studio album, 21st Century Breakdown, was released on May 15, 2009.

Green Day has sold over 65 million records worldwide and 24.5 million in the US alone.^[8][9] They have won four Grammy Awards; Best Alternative Album for Dookie, Best Rock Album for American Idiot, Record of the Year for "Boulevard of Broken Dreams", and Best Rock Album for the second time for 21st Century Breakdown.

A Cutting-Edge Architect's Eco-Friendly Home

Share

 

Green building (also known as green construction or sustainable building) is the practice of creating structures and using processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle: from siting to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and deconstruction. This practice expands and complements the classical building design concerns of economy, utility, durability, and comfort.^[1]

Although new technologies are constantly being developed to complement current practices in creating greener structures, the common objective is that green buildings are designed to reduce the overall impact of the built environment on human health and the natural environment by:

• Efficiently using energy, water, and other resources

• Protecting occupant health and improving employee productivity

• Reducing waste, pollution and environmental degradation^[1]

A similar concept is natural building, which is usually on a smaller scale and tends to focus on the use of natural materials that are available locally.^[2] Other related topics include sustainable design and green architecture.

d2w Valencia - Fabrica de Plasticos PICDA (d2w in Peru)

Share

 

The degradation process is initiated at the time the polyethylene or polypropylene is extruded by the inclusion of a small amount of a special additive. This additive works to break down the carbon-carbon bonds in the plastic leading to a lowering of the molecular weight and eventually to a loss of strength and other properties. Stabilisers work to ensure that a sufficiently long useful life is provided for each specific application. For example, a refuse sack might require a useful life of say 18 months before beginning to lose its strength whereas a bread bag might only require a few weeks.

Significantly, the d₂w^™ range does not need a biologically active environment to start degrading - this will happen even if the plastic is left in the open air! This is very important if we are to address the serious litter problems caused by waste plastic. For this reason in particular, d₂w^™ 'totally degradable' plastic is superior to 'bio-degradable' which requires the plastic to be in a biologically active environment (for example, by being buried in the ground) before the degradation process is initiated.