Hazardous Waste News

January 24, 2025

Top Headlines

Bacteria Found to Eat Forever Chemicals -- And Even Some of Their Toxic Byproducts

Jan. 23, 2025 — A team has identified a strain of bacteria that can break down and transform at least three types of PFAS, and, perhaps even more crucially, some of the toxic byproducts of the bond-breaking ...

We Can Make Fertilizer More Efficiently Under the Surface of the Earth

Jan. 21, 2025 — Instead of relying on energy-hungry reactors to generate high temperatures and pressure, researchers are looking underground at Earth's natural heat and forces to cook up ammonia for fertilizer. In a proof-of-concept study, researchers generated ...

Robots Should Be Repurposed Rather Than Recycled to Combat Rising Scale of E-Waste, Scientists Warn

Jan. 16, 2025 — The robotics industry should be creating robots that could be reprogrammed and repurposed for other tasks once its life span is completed, researchers have ...

Biochar Reduces the Risks of DDT-Contaminated Soil

Jan. 16, 2025 — DDT soil pollution is still a major problem in many parts of the world. Researchers have developed a new method to manage ecological risks from the toxin by binding it with biochar. When they mixed biochar into contaminated soil at a former tree ...

Latest Headlines

updated 6:20pm EST

Researchers Unveil 'Surprising' Breakthrough in Carbon Nanotube Recycling, Paving Way for Sustainable Materials

Jan. 13, 2025 — In a significant step toward creating a sustainable and circular economy, researchers have demonstrated that carbon nanotube (CNT) fibers can be ...

Thawing Permafrost Threatens Up to Three Million People in Arctic Regions

Jan. 16, 2025 — In an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary study, an international team examined the social risks for Arctic regions associated with thawing permafrost. They identified five key risks related to ...

Direct Discharge Electrical Pulses for Carbon Fiber Recycling

Jan. 14, 2025 — Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (CFRPs) are used in the aerospace, automotive, and sports equipment industries. However, their recycling remains a major problem. In a recent study, researchers ...

From Microplastics to Macro-Impact: Plastic Recycling Challenges

Jan. 13, 2025 — The use of plastic has skyrocketed over the past decade. Recent statistics reveal that in 2021, each person in the European Union (EU) generated an average of 36 kg of plastic packaging ...

States Struggle to Curb Food Waste Despite Policies

Jan. 9, 2025 — Current state policies aren't enough to curb food waste. Study shows states are falling short of the reduction goals set by the U.S. Environmental Protection ...

Storing Carbon in Buildings Could Help Address Climate Change

Jan. 9, 2025 — Construction materials such as concrete and plastic have the potential to lock away billions of tons of carbon dioxide, according to a new study by civil engineers and earth systems scientists. The ...

Trash to Treasure: Leveraging Industrial Waste to Store Energy

Jan. 7, 2025 — As more products begin to depend on battery-based energy storage systems, shifting away from metal-based solutions will be critical to facilitating the green energy transition. Now, a team has ...

Method Can Detect Harmful Salts Forming in Nuclear Waste Melters

Jan. 7, 2025 — A new way to identify salts in nuclear waste melters could help improve clean-up technology, including at the Hanford Site, one of the largest, most complex nuclear waste clean-up sites in the world. ...

Big Leap Forward for Environmentally Friendly 'E-Textiles' Technology

Jan. 2, 2025 — A research team has shown wearable electronic textiles (e-textiles) can be both sustainable and ...

Chemists Create Eco-Friendly Method to Make Chlorine-Based Materials for Drugs and Chemicals

Jan. 2, 2025 — Chlorine plays an essential part in daily life, from keeping pools clean to preserving food. Now, a team of chemists developed a more environmentally ...

New Method Turns E-Waste to Gold

Jan. 2, 2025 — A research team has developed a method for extracting gold from electronics waste, then using the recovered precious metal as a catalyst for converting carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas, to ...

Construction Materials and Household Items Are a Part of a Long-Term Carbon Sink Called the 'Technosphere'

Dec. 20, 2024 — We know a lot about how much fossil-derived carbon is emitted to the atmosphere but less about how much is stored in human-made products. Ecological economists estimate that each year, humans add ...

Step Forward in Generating Solar-Powered Hydrogen

Dec. 17, 2024 — Another advance has been made by experts in nano-scale chemistry to propel further development of sustainable and efficient generation of hydrogen from water using solar power. Experts have now ...

Researchers Explore Carbon Capture in Fish Farms to Address Climate Change

Dec. 17, 2024 — Scientists are exploring a new model for carbon capture in low-oxygen aquatic environments, such as fisheries, that will help address rising global temperatures and could potentially be ...

Researchers Reveal Key Factors Behind Japan's Plastic Waste Removal Rates in Rivers

Dec. 12, 2024 — Plastic pollution is a growing problem in Japan, prompting cleanup efforts to recover plastic litter from water bodies. However, research on recovery rates from different river basins remains ...

Recycling Human, Animal Excreta Reduces Need for Fertilizers

Dec. 11, 2024 — Recycling all the human and livestock feces and urine on the planet would contribute substantially to meeting the nutrient supply for all crops worldwide, thereby reducing the need to mine ...

A Greener, Cleaner Way to Extract Cobalt from 'Junk' Materials

Dec. 10, 2024 — As the demand for lithium-ion batteries escalates with the proliferation of mobile phone, electric vehicles and even pacemakers, key components in these powerhouses, like cobalt, face significant ...

Research Shows Feasting Fungi Could Revolutionize Carbon-Fiber Recycling

Dec. 10, 2024 — A new biotechnological process shows how to break down and remove the matrix from carbon fiber reinforced polymers so that recovered carbon fiber plies exhibit mechanical properties comparable to ...

Neem Seed Extract Improves Effectiveness of Pesticide

Dec. 6, 2024 — A research group has developed an innovative pesticide delivery system called nanopesticides. These tiny technologies could change how we use ...

From Chip Shop to Pit Stop -- Scientists Make Old Cooking Oil Biofuel as Efficient as Diesel

Dec. 6, 2024 — A new way to produce fuels made from leftover fat can create biofuel as effective as diesel and 1000-times more efficiently than current methods a new study has ...

How Non-Toxic and Efficient Solar Cells Can Be Produced

Dec. 4, 2024 — Large-scale production of organic solar cells with high efficiency and minimal environmental impact. In the study, the researchers studied molecule shape and interaction in organic solar ...

Can Plastic-Eating Bugs Help With Our Microplastic Problem?

Dec. 3, 2024 — Previous research found that insects can ingest and absorb pure, unrefined microplastics -- but only under unrealistic, food-scarce situations. Zoologists have now tested mealworms in a more ...

New Research Provides an Improved Understanding of Earthquake Hazards in the Permian Basin

Dec. 2, 2024 — A new collection of published papers offers the most detailed and comprehensive breakdown yet of how water injected into the Permian Basin during oil and gas operations is changing subsurface ...

Clay Minerals: Researchers Observe for the First Time How Sediment Particles Align During Deposition

Dec. 2, 2024 — Clay minerals are a major constituent of the earth's surface and are mainly found in the sediments of lakes, rivers and oceans. The properties of clay and claystone crucially depend on how the ...

Oil Spill Still Contaminating Sensitive Mauritius Mangroves Three Years On, Study Finds

Nov. 26, 2024 — Three years after bulk carrier MV Wakashio ran aground on a coral reef off Mauritius, spilling 1000 tonnes of a new type of marine fuel oil, research has confirmed the oil is still present in an ...

Using Sunlight to Recycle Black Plastics

Nov. 25, 2024 — Not all plastics are equal -- some types and colors are easier to recycle than others. For instance, black foam and black coffee lids, which are often made of polystyrene, usually end up in landfills ...

Environmental Impacts of Plastics: Moving Beyond the Perspective on Waste

Nov. 21, 2024 — The fact that plastics pollute the environment and generate problems has been well-researched in many areas. However, there is little information on the impacts of plastics on climate and ...

Tapping Excess Heat from a Camp Stove for Charging Power

Nov. 20, 2024 — New research may make it possible to keep electronic devices powered with another piece of equipment you're likely to bring with you while exploring the great outdoors: camping stoves. The work ...

Study Calls for City Fashion-Waste Shakeup

Nov. 20, 2024 — With most donated clothes exported or thrown away, experts are calling for a shakeup of how we deal with the growing fashion waste ...

Perovskite Research Boosts Solar Cell Efficiency and Product Life

Nov. 19, 2024 — An international team has identified a strategy to improve both the performance and stability for solar cells made out of the 'miracle material' perovskite by mitigating a previously hidden ...