Recycling and Waste News

June 3, 2025

Top Headlines

Researchers Develop Recyclable, Healable Electronics

June 2, 2025 — Electronics often get thrown away after use because recycling them requires extensive work for little payoff. Researchers have now found a way to change the ...

Waste to Foundation: Transforming Construction Waste Into High-Performance Material

May 29, 2025 — In a major advancement for sustainable construction, scientists have created a cement-free soil solidifier from industrial waste. By combining Siding Cut Powder and activated by Earth Silica, an ...

EV Battery Recycling Key to Future Lithium Supplies

May 29, 2025 — Lightweight, powerful lithium-ion batteries are crucial for the transition to electric vehicles, and global demand for lithium is set to grow rapidly over the next 25 years. A new analysis looks at how new mining operations and battery recycling ...

Cryo-Em Freezes the Funk: How Scientists Visualized a Pungent Protein

May 27, 2025 — Most people have witnessed -- or rather smelled -- when a protein enzyme called sulfite reductase works its magic. This enzyme catalyzes the chemical reduction of sulfite to hydrogen sulfide. Hydrogen sulfide is the rotten egg smell that can occur ...

Latest Headlines

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New Catalyst Boosts Efficiency of CO2 Conversion

May 14, 2025 — Researchers have developed an encapsulated cobalt-nickel alloy that significantly improves the efficiency and durability of high-temperature CO2 conversion, a promising technology for carbon ...

Climate Change Is Turning Coastal Lagoons Into 'Salty Soup'

May 14, 2025 — The impacts of human activity and climate change are coalescing to make coastal lagoons saltier, changing the microbial life they support and the function they play in their ecosystems, according to ...

Microplastics in Texas Bays Are Being Swept out to Sea

May 14, 2025 — When researchers went searching for microplastics in sediments pulled from the bottom of Matagorda Bay and its surrounding inlets, they didn't find much. Most of their samples contained only tens to ...

Metals and Hormone-Disrupting Substances Pose Real Threat to Sustainable Agriculture and Water Management in Europe

May 9, 2025 — Metals and hormone-disrupting substances such as estrogens present a genuine risk to the sustainability of agriculture and water management in ...

Urine, Not Water for Efficient Production of Green Hydrogen

May 9, 2025 — Researchers have developed two unique energy-efficient and cost-effective systems that use urea found in urine and wastewater to generate hydrogen. The unique systems reveal new pathways to ...

New Roadmap Advances Catalytic Solutions to Destroy 'Forever Chemicals'

May 7, 2025 — Researchers have outlined a bold new roadmap for harnessing heterogeneous catalysis to destroy per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), the so-called 'forever chemicals' that have contaminated ...

Feat of 'Dung-Gineering' Turns Cow Manure Into One of World's Most Used Materials

May 7, 2025 — A new technique to extract tiny cellulose strands from cow dung and turn them into manufacturing-grade cellulose, currently used to make everything ...

Is Virtual-Only Couture the New Clothing Craze?

May 7, 2025 — As fast fashion continues to fill wardrobes and landfills at a staggering pace, new research suggests that the future of fashion might lie not in fabric, but in ...

Breakthrough in Fuel Cell Recycling Turns 'Forever Chemicals' Into Renewable Resources

May 6, 2025 — A new technique that uses soundwaves to separate materials for recycling could help prevent potentially harmful chemicals leaching into the ...

Scientists Discover a New Way to Convert Corn Waste Into Low-Cost Sugar for Biofuel

May 6, 2025 — Scientists have found a new way to produce sugar from corn stalks and other crop waste, potentially opening a new pathway to sustainable ...

Rare Earth Element Extraction Bolstered by New Research

Apr. 30, 2025 — A more efficient and environmentally friendly approach to extracting rare earth elements that power everything from electric vehicle batteries to smartphones could increase domestic supply and ...

'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 ...

A New Recycling Process for Silicones Could Greatly Reduce the Sector's Environmental Impacts

Apr. 24, 2025 — A study describes a new method of recycling silicone waste (caulk, sealants, gels, adhesives, cosmetics, etc.). It has the potential to significantly reduce the sector's environmental impacts. ...

Micro-Nano-Plastics Found in Artery-Clogging Plaque in the Neck

Apr. 23, 2025 — A small study found that fatty buildup in the blood vessels of the neck (carotid arteries) may contain 50 times or more micronanoplastics -- minuscule bits of plastic -- compared to arteries free of ...

Trash Talk: As Plastic Use Soars, Researchers Examine Biodegradable Solutions

Apr. 22, 2025 — Researchers document a multi-faceted global snapshot of the environmental aspects and trends surrounding single-use plastics in a review article. The researchers state that the largest area of ...

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 ...

Researchers Warn of a Threat to Water Safety from Wildfires

Apr. 17, 2025 — The consequences of wildfires in or near urban areas go beyond the damage to buildings and ecosystems, to the threat of contamination of drinking water according to water quality and treatment ...

Microbes in Brooklyn Superfund Site Teach Lessons on Fighting Industrial Pollution

Apr. 16, 2025 — Using advanced DNA sequence analysis, a research team has discovered that tiny organisms in Brooklyn's highly contaminated Gowanus Canal have developed a comprehensive collection of ...

Corn Leads to Improved Performance in Lithium-Sulfur Batteries

Apr. 15, 2025 — Researchers have demonstrated a way to use corn protein to improve the performance of lithium-sulfur batteries, a finding that holds promise for expanding the use of the high-energy, lighter-weight ...

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 ...

Deep-Sea Mining Risks Leads Study to Urge Shift to Circular Solutions

Apr. 14, 2025 — Deep sea mining operations are expected to increase the negative impact on environmental indicators by up to 13 per cent, a change categorized as having 'great' significance, relative to ...

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 ...

Coral Reefs Exude Myriad Chemicals, Fueling Dynamic Microbial Recycling of Nutrients

Apr. 9, 2025 — New research revealed the remarkable chemical diversity of substances exuded by coral reefs and demonstrated that thousands of different chemicals derived from tropical corals and seaweeds are ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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, representing a major step towards circularity and ...