Recycling and Waste News

May 28, 2024

Top Headlines

Improved Refrigeration Could Save Nearly Half of the 1.3 Billion Tons of Food Wasted Each Year Globally

May 28, 2024 — A new study concludes that nearly half of the food waste, about 620 million metric tons, could be eliminated by fully refrigerated food supply chains worldwide. At the same time, fully refrigerated ...

Study Suggests 'Biodegradable' Teabags Don't Readily Deteriorate in the Environment and Can Adversely Affect Terrestrial Species

May 28, 2024 — New research looked at commonly available teabags made using three different compositions of polylactic acid (PLA), which is derived from sources such as corn starch or sugar cane. The teabags were ...

Sewage Overflows Linked to Increase in Gastrointestinal Illnesses

May 22, 2024 — A new study has found that residents living in the downstream communities that border the Merrimack River are at a substantially increased risk of developing acute gastrointestinal illnesses (AGI) in the four days following large-volume combined ...

Chemist Developing Method to Recycle More Plastics

May 22, 2024 — To improve recycling rates a professor is working on new ways to separate and recycle mixed ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:00pm EDT

Rising Temperatures Will Significantly Reduce Streamflow in the Upper Colorado River Basin as Groundwater Levels Fall

May 23, 2024 — The Colorado River makes life possible in many Western cities and supports agriculture that sustains people throughout the country. Most of the ...

New Polystyrene Recycling Process Could Be World's First to Be Both Economical and Energy-Efficient

May 22, 2024 — Engineers have modeled a new way to recycle polystyrene that could become the first viable way of making the material ...

Developing Novel Methods to Detect Antibiotics in Vegetables and Earthworms

May 23, 2024 — Researchers have managed to analyze, simultaneously, several families of antibiotics in vegetables and earthworms. Sampling carried out in various locations has yielded data on the existence of ...

Iron Could Be Key to Less Expensive, Greener Lithium-Ion Batteries, Research Finds

May 23, 2024 — Chemistry researchers are hoping to spark a green battery revolution by showing that iron instead of cobalt and nickel can be used as a cathode ...

'Fossilizing' Cracks in Infrastructure Creates Sealing That Can Even Survive Earthquakes

May 22, 2024 — In a new study, a team of researchers used research on fossilizing techniques to create a new method for sealing cracks and fractures in rocks and ...

Cement Recycling Method Could Help Solve One of the World's Biggest Climate Challenges

May 22, 2024 — Researchers have developed a method to produce very low emission concrete at scale -- an innovation that could be transformative in the transition to ...

Can We Revolutionize the Chemical Industry and Create a Circular Economy? Yes, With the Help of Catalysts

May 17, 2024 — A new commentary paper puts forth a transformative solution to the unsustainable reliance on fossil resources by the chemical industry: catalysis to ...

Next-Generation Sustainable Electronics Are Doped With Air

May 15, 2024 — Semiconductors are the foundation of all modern electronics. Now, researchers have developed a new method where organic semiconductors can become more conductive with the help of air as a dopant. The ...

Wind Farms Can Offset Their Emissions Within Two Years

May 16, 2024 — After spinning for under two years, a wind farm can offset the carbon emissions generated across its entire 30-year lifespan, when compared to thermal power ...

Making Batteries Takes a Lot of Lithium: Some Could Come from Gas Well Wastewater

May 15, 2024 — A new analysis suggests that if it could be extracted with complete efficiency, lithium from the wastewater of Marcellus shale gas wells could supply ...

Now We Know, What Gets Roots to Grow: Can Help in Future Droughts

May 15, 2024 — A biological mechanism familiar to people who fast helps plant roots grow strong. The discovery provides an answer to a long-unanswered question and a deeper understanding of the 'mouths' ...

Green Concrete Recycling Twice the Coal Ash Is Built to Last

May 15, 2024 — New modelling reveals that low-carbon concrete can recycle double the amount of coal ash compared to current standards, halve the amount of cement required and perform exceptionally well over ...

Avocado Pruning Residues Used to Produce More Sustainable Food Packaging

May 14, 2024 — A prototype of a more durable material increases the biodegradability of food packaging, partially replacing its bioplastic with cellulose fibers extracted from the branches and leaves of the avocado ...

Pore Pressure Diffusion Led to Microseismicity at Illinois Basin Carbon Sequestration Site

May 8, 2024 — Pore pressure diffusion generated by carbon dioxide injected underground at a carbon storage site in the Illinois Basin is the likely cause of hundreds of microearthquakes that took place at the site ...

Swarms of Miniature Robots Clean Up Microplastics and Microbes, Simultaneously

May 8, 2024 — When old food packaging, discarded children's toys and other mismanaged plastic waste break down into microplastics, they become even harder to clean up from oceans and waterways. These tiny ...

Path to Easier Recycling of Solar Modules

May 2, 2024 — The use of femtosecond lasers to form glass-to-glass welds for solar modules would make the panels easier to recycle, according to a proof-of-concept ...

EPA Underestimates Methane Emissions from Landfills, Urban Areas

May 1, 2024 — The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is underestimating methane emissions from landfills, urban areas and U.S. states, according to a new study. The researchers combined 2019 satellite ...

Roadmap to Close the Carbon Cycle

May 1, 2024 — Reaching net-zero carbon emissions goals requires finding transformative paths to manage carbon in difficult-to-electrify economic ...

Methane Emissions from Landfill Could Be Turned Into Sustainable Jet Fuel in Plasma Chemistry Leap

Apr. 30, 2024 — Researchers have developed a chemical process using plasma that could create sustainable jet fuel from methane gas emitted from landfills, potentially creating a low-carbon aviation ...

A Virus Could Help Save Billions of Gallons of Wastewater Produced by Fracking

Apr. 30, 2024 — An estimated 168 billion gallons of wastewater -- or produced water -- is generated annually by the Permian Basin fracking industry, according to a 2022 report. The major waste stream has proved both ...

Recovering Phosphorus from Sewage Sludge Ash

Apr. 26, 2024 — Chemical and heat treatment of sewage sludge can recover phosphorus in a process that could help address the problem of diminishing supplies of phosphorus ...

Scientists Replace Fishmeal in Aquaculture With Microbial Protein Derived from Soybean Processing Wastewater

Apr. 25, 2024 — Scientists have successfully replaced half of the fishmeal protein in the diets of farmed Asian seabass with a 'single cell protein' cultivated from microbes in soybean processing ...

Nanofibers Rid Water of Hazardous Dyes

Apr. 24, 2024 — A special nanostructure has been developed to filter a widespread class of harmful dyes from water. A crucial component is a material that is considered waste: used cellulose, for example in the form ...

Critical Minerals Recovery from Electronic Waste

Apr. 23, 2024 — A nontoxic separation process recovers critical minerals from electronic scrap ...

Global Study Reveals Health Impacts of Airborne Trace Elements

Apr. 17, 2024 — Researchers investigated global particulate matter, revealing health risks from trace ...

Scientists Develop Framework to Measure Plastic Emissions and Bolster U.N. Efforts to Reduce Pollution

Apr. 16, 2024 — Scientists have developed a framework for measuring plastic emissions akin to the global standard for measuring greenhouse gas emissions. The approach boosts identification of the biggest ...

Trash to Treasure -- Researchers Turn Metal Waste Into Catalyst for Hydrogen

Apr. 16, 2024 — Scientists have found a way to transform metal waste into a highly efficient catalyst to make hydrogen from water, a discovery that could make hydrogen production more ...

Hidden Threat: Global Underground Infrastructure Vulnerable to Sea-Level Rise

Apr. 15, 2024 — As sea levels rise, coastal groundwater is lifted closer to the ground surface while also becoming saltier and more corrosive. A recent study compiled research from experts worldwide showing that in ...

Switch to Green Wastewater Infrastructure Could Reduce Emissions and Provide Huge Savings According to New Research

Apr. 15, 2024 — Researchers have shown that a transition to green wastewater-treatment approaches in the U.S. that leverages the potential of carbon-financing could save a staggering $15.6 billion and just under 30 ...

Researchers Study Effects of Solvation and Ion Valency on Metallopolymers

Apr. 12, 2024 — Researchers analyzed the effects of solvation and ion valency on metallopolymers, with implications for critical materials recovery and recycling, and environmental ...