Recycling and Waste News

December 28, 2024

Top Headlines

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 ...

Study Uses Remote Sensing to Monitor Plastic Debris in Rivers and Lakes

Dec. 19, 2024 — A new study shows how remote sensing can help monitor and remove plastic debris from freshwater environments like the Mississippi ...

Microplastics in the Air May Be Leading to Lung and Colon Cancers

Dec. 18, 2024 — Tires and degrading garbage shed tiny pieces of plastic into the air, creating a form of air pollution that researchers suspect may be causing respiratory and other ...

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 ...

Latest Headlines

updated 4:49pm EST

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Bye-Bye Microplastics: New Plastic Is Recyclable and Fully Ocean-Degradable

Nov. 21, 2024 — Researchers have developed a new durable plastic that won't pollute our oceans. The new material is as strong as conventional plastics and biodegradable, but what makes it special is that it breaks ...

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 ...

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 ...

Making the Most of Switzerland's Wood

Dec. 16, 2024 — Sustainable, renewable and good for the climate: Wood is the material of the future. But how much of it do we actually have and how do we make best use of it? Researchers have now analyzed the ...

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 ...

Research Highlights the Pressures Human Activities Place on Tropical Marine Ecosystems

Nov. 20, 2024 — The tropical coastlines of Southeast Asia are home to some of the most important and biodiverse marine ecosystems on the planet. But as well as being essential to communities along these coastlines, ...

Research Aims to Roll Back Contamination Caused by Toxic Tires

Nov. 20, 2024 — A new study demonstrates a way to diminish the impact that tires have on the environment when they can no longer be used on vehicles. The process upgrades 6PPD -- a useful but environmentally harmful ...

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 ...

New Method of Generating Eco-Friendly Energy

Nov. 19, 2024 — Researchers have developed a new method of growing organic crystals that can be used for energy-harvesting ...

Study Tracks PFAS, Microplastics Through Landfills and Wastewater Treatment Plants

Nov. 19, 2024 — Scientists find that most of the microplastics and the 'forever chemicals' known as PFAS cycle through landfills and wastewater treatment plants and end up back in the ...

Modeling and Analysis Reveals Technological, Environmental Challenges to Increasing Water Recovery from Desalination

Nov. 18, 2024 — Using zero liquid discharge to increase water recovery from desalination is an emerging method to combat water scarcity, but is expensive, energy-intensive and comes with environmental risks. ...

New Study Investigates Insecticide Contamination in Minnesota's Water

Nov. 18, 2024 — A new study found that specific insecticides, called neonicotinoids, were found at high concentrations in some ground and surface water sources that could affect drinking ...

Plastic Bag Bans Have Lingering Impacts, Even After Repeals

Nov. 18, 2024 — A new study found that policies to curtail the use of single-use plastic bags in grocery stores and other retail outlets in Austin and Dallas, Texas, resulted in people buying more plastic bags, a ...

Recycling Batteries With Citric Acid

Nov. 15, 2024 — A simple, highly efficient, inexpensive, and environmentally friendly process could provide a viable pathway for the sustainable recycling of depleted lithium-ion batteries (LIBs): No chemicals ...

Four Global Policies Could Eliminate More Than 90% of Plastic Waste and 30% of Linked Carbon Emissions by 2050

Nov. 14, 2024 — A new study determines that just four policies can reduce mismanaged plastic waste -- plastic that isn't recycled or properly disposed of and ends up as pollution -- by 91% and plastic-related ...

Plugged Wells and Reduced Injection Lower Induced Earthquake Rates in Oklahoma, Study Finds

Nov. 13, 2024 — Wastewater injection resulting from oil and gas production in Oklahoma caused a dramatic rise in seismic activity in the state between 2009 and 2015. But regulatory efforts to backfill some injection ...

Machine Learning Predicts Highest-Risk Groundwater Sites to Improve Water Quality Monitoring

Nov. 12, 2024 — An interdisciplinary team of researchers has developed a machine learning framework that uses limited water quality samples to predict which inorganic pollutants are likely to be present in a ...

Fighting Microplastics for a Cleaner Future

Nov. 11, 2024 — Creating sustainable chemicals and developing better waste management will contribute to better sustainability. This research is part of figuring out how to make green hydrogen available for waste ...

Carbon Recycling Instead of Plastic Trash

Nov. 11, 2024 — Plastics are inescapable in our daily lives. The vast amounts of plastic garbage heaped in landfills and in the environment, however, are as problematic as the plastics are useful. A research team ...

Inland Delaware Watersheds Impaired by Human Waste

Nov. 11, 2024 — A new study suggests that human waste, both treated and untreated, is responsible for the waterway impairment in Delaware ...

Greener and Cleaner: Yeast-Green Algae Mix Improves Water Treatment

Nov. 8, 2024 — Researchers have discovered that the combination of green algae and yeast enhances the efficiency of wastewater ...

Up to 30% of the Power Used to Train AI Is Wasted: Here's How to Fix It

Nov. 7, 2024 — A less wasteful way to train large language models, such as the GPT series, finishes in the same amount of time for up to 30% less energy, according to a ...

Sewage Surveillance Proves Powerful in Combating Antimicrobial Resistance

Nov. 6, 2024 — Sewage surveillance is emerging as a powerful tool in the fight against antimicrobial resistance with the potential to protect vulnerable communities more ...