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Jean Macrae

Associate Professor of Environmental Engineering, University of Maine
Chapter Member: Maine SSN
Areas of Expertise:

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About Jean

MacRae's research focuses on pollution prevention and control, with a focus on biological treatment and transformation of pollutants. MacRae is interested in making our material and food systems more sustainable by recovering usable materials from "waste" and making the best use of resources we extract from the environment. MacRae is part of the Materials Management and PFAS teams in the Mitchell Center for Sustainability Solutions.

Contributions | No Jargon Podcast | In the News | Publications

Contributions

Protecting Waterways and Our Food Supply from “Forever Chemicals”

  • Brieanne Berry
  • Cindy Isenhour
Key Findings Brief,

Publications

"Adsorption of Organic Pollutants by Microplastics: Overview of a Dissonant Literature" (with Eliza Costigana , Ashton Collins , M. Dilara Hatinoglua , Kartik Bhagat, François Perreault, and Onur Apul). Journal of Hazardous Materials Advances 6 (2022).

Summarizes and critically reviews the literature on the adsorption of organic compounds (OCs), which are already in our aquatic systems, onto microplastic surfaces. Reviews a database of 91 articles, 68 of which are used in an adsorption analysis for 178 OCs via 770 isotherms.

"Composition and Contamination of Source Separated Food Waste From Different Sources and Regulatory Environments" (with Cindy Isenhour, Astha Thakali, and Travis Blackmer). Journal of Environmental Management 314, no. 15 (2022).

Explains composition and contamination of Source Separated Food Waste from Different Sources and Regulatory Environments.  Discovers that requiring source separation of food did NOT result in more significant contamination. Metal concentrations in food waste were low, but PFAS were detectable in 60% of samples and antibiotic resistance genes were detectable in almost all of them. Created By

"Toxicants, Entanglement, and Mitigation in New England’s Emerging Circular Economy for Food Waste" (with Cindy Isenhour, Michael Haedicke, Brieanne Berry, Travis Blackmer, and Skyler Horton). Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences 12 (2022): 341–353.

Describes some of the complexities of solid waste management in rural areas - and the bind managers get into when materials they are trying to recover are contaminated.