Hazardous Waste News

April 30, 2025

Top Headlines

'Wood You Believe It?' Engineers Fortify Wood With Eco-Friendly Nano-Iron

Apr. 28, 2025 — With more than 181.5 billion tons of wood produced globally each year, a new method could revolutionize how we build sustainably. By infusing red oak with ferrihydrite using a simple, low-cost process, researchers strengthened the wood at the ...

Oil Cleanup Agents Do Not Impede Natural Biodegradation

Apr. 22, 2025 — Biodegradation is an important natural process during oil spill cleanup. A new study revealed that using spill treating agents does not negatively impact naturally occurring ...

Harmful Microplastics Infiltrating Drinking Water

Apr. 21, 2025 — Despite advances in wastewater treatment, tiny plastic particles called microplastics are still slipping through, posing potential health and environmental hazards, according to new ...

Making Desalination More Eco-Friendly: New Membranes Could Help Eliminate Brine Waste

Apr. 15, 2025 — Desalination plants, a major and growing source of freshwater in dry regions, could produce less harmful waste using electricity and new ...

Latest Headlines

updated 4:20pm EDT

Global EV Adoption Fails to Cut CO2

Apr. 10, 2025 — The transition to electric vehicles won't reduce carbon emissions unless countries clean up their electricity ...

New Method for Detecting Nanoplastics in Body Fluids

Apr. 14, 2025 — Microplastics and the much smaller nanoplastics enter the human body in various ways, for example through food or the air we breathe. A large proportion is excreted, but a certain amount remains in ...

Bio-Oils for Greener Industrial Applications

Apr. 9, 2025 — New technology could enable more sustainable and cheaper production of bio-oils to replace petroleum-based products in electronic, construction and automotive applications. The technology, known as ...

Potable Water Happy Byproduct of Low-Cost Green Hydrogen Technology

Apr. 9, 2025 — Engineers have hit the trifecta of sustainability technology: A group has developed a low-cost method to produce carbon-free 'green' hydrogen via solar-powered electrolysis of seawater. A happy ...

Tree Rings Track Atmospheric Mercury Cheaply

Apr. 9, 2025 — Wild fig tree rings offer a cheap method for tracking toxic atmospheric mercury, a byproduct of gold mining in the Global South, according to a new ...

Electrochemical Method Supports Nitrogen Circular Economy

Apr. 3, 2025 — Imagine a world where industrial waste isn't just reduced, it's turned into something useful. This kind of circular economy is already in the works for carbon. Now, researchers in energy, ...

Researchers Recycle Wind Turbine Blade Materials to Make Improved Plastics

Apr. 3, 2025 — A new method to recycle wind turbine blades without using harsh chemicals resulted in the recovery of high-strength glass fibers and resins that allowed researchers to re-purpose the materials to ...

Electrochemical Process Separates Valuable Industrial Chemicals from Animal Waste

Apr. 2, 2025 — A collaboration between chemical engineers and animal scientists has created a system for recovering valuable industrial chemicals from animal waste, ...

Surprising Number of Environmental Pollutants in Hedgehogs

Apr. 1, 2025 — Lead, pesticides, brominated flame retardants, plastic additives, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and heavy metals. This is what researchers found when they collected dead hedgehogs to investigate ...

Scientists Pioneer Method to Tackle 'Forever Chemicals'

Mar. 31, 2025 — Researchers have developed an innovative solution to a pressing environmental challenge: removing and destroying per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), commonly called 'forever chemicals.' A new ...

Man's Best Friend May Be Nature's Worst Enemy, Study on Pet Dogs Suggests

Apr. 10, 2025 — New research into the overlooked environmental impact of pet dogs has found far-reaching negative effects on wildlife, ecosystems and ...

Multi-Virus Wastewater Surveillance Shows Promise at Smaller, Site-Specific Scales

Apr. 9, 2025 — In a new study, wastewater surveillance for multiple pathogens at five different sites identified local trends that were not captured in larger surveillance programs, and some sites used the data to ...

Biodegradable Fake Fingernails Make Manicures More Sustainable

Apr. 2, 2025 — A new kind of press-on nails come in all shapes and colors -- and when you're done with them, you can melt them down and reuse the materials to make your next ...

New Approach Makes One Type of Clean Fuel Production 66% More Efficient

Mar. 28, 2025 — Researchers have uncovered a more efficient way to turn carbon dioxide into methanol, a type of alcohol that can serve as a cleaner alternative ...

A Cleaner Future for Tires: Scientists Pioneer Chemical Process to Repurpose Rubber Waste

Mar. 26, 2025 — Every year, millions of tires end up in landfills, creating an environmental crisis with far-reaching consequences. In the United States alone, over 274 million tires were scrapped in 2021, with ...

Cleaning Microplastics

Mar. 26, 2025 — Proof-of-concept work uses unique, safe particles to remove microplastics in a single ...

Effect of Sulfur Composition on Tin Sulfide for Improving Solar Cell Performance

Mar. 25, 2025 — Researchers investigated different compositions of tin sulfides to find the ideal material for devices that harness solar ...

3D Nanotech Blankets Offer New Path to Clean Drinking Water

Mar. 24, 2025 — Researchers have developed a new material that, by harnessing the power of sunlight, can clear water of dangerous ...

Recycled Cements Drive Down Emissions Without Slacking on Strength

Mar. 20, 2025 — Engineers have developed an approach for recycling cement waste into a sustainable, low-carbon alternative that is comparable in performance to the industry ...

Quantum Light Source for Eco-Friendly Production of Biogas

Mar. 18, 2025 — Biomass can be converted into valuable gases. But in order to control this process, the amount of water vapor has to be measured. This is notoriously hard, because other components of the gas can ...

How Industrial Waste Gases Could Replace Fossil Fuels in Everyday Consumer Products

Mar. 13, 2025 — Industrial waste gases, long seen as a major contributor to climate change, could soon be captured and repurposed into everyday household products such as shampoo, detergent, and even ...

Scientists Develop Solar-Powered Method to Convert Sewage Sludge Into Green Hydrogen and Animal Feed

Mar. 12, 2025 — Scientists have developed an innovative solar-powered method to transform sewage sludge -- a by-product of wastewater treatment -- into green hydrogen for clean energy and single-cell protein for ...

Cheap and Environmentally Friendly -- The Next Generation LEDs May Soon Be Here

Mar. 11, 2025 — Cost, technical performance and environmental impact -- these are the three most important aspects for a new type of LED technology to have a broad commercial impact on ...

Plastic Recycling Gets a Breath of Fresh Air

Mar. 11, 2025 — Current methods to recycle plastics often use expensive catalysts, harsh conditions and produce toxic byproducts. New process converts PET plastic into monomer building blocks, which can be recycled ...

Highly Radioactive Nuclear Waste: How to Keep It from Oblivion

Mar. 6, 2025 — Sweden's radioactive nuclear waste will be stored in a sealed bedrock repository for 100,000 years. It will be hazardous for a very long time. So how can we ensure that humanity does not forget ...

Concrete Evidence: Japanese Buildings Absorb 14% of Cement Production's Carbon Footprint

Mar. 5, 2025 — Concrete structures in Japan capture and store about 14% of the CO2 emissions released during cement production, according to a new study. Their findings provide crucial insights for offsetting CO2 ...

Turning Waste Organic Compound Into Useful Pharmaceuticals and Energy Using a Technique Inspired by Photosynthesis

Feb. 27, 2025 — A team has shown that artificial photosynthesis is feasible using organic materials. Using the technique, they successfully synthesized useful organic compounds, including pharmaceutical materials, ...

Influencer Marketing Can Help Tourism Industry Mitigate Waste, Pollution

Feb. 26, 2025 — Social media influencers who are passionate about environmental causes can help the tourism industry inspire tourists to engage in pro-environmental behavior to help mitigate waste and pollution, ...

Environmental Impact of Unexploded Ordnance in the Baltic Sea

Feb. 26, 2025 — The south-western Baltic Sea has about 3,000 kilograms of dissolved toxic chemicals released from unexploded ordnance, according to a new study. The substances were detected in almost all water ...

New Insights Into Efficient Water Splitting

Feb. 25, 2025 — A new study has revealed key factors limiting the efficiency of photoelectrochemical water splitting using a titanium dioxide photoanode for clean hydrogen production. Researchers combined ...