All articles tagged with #recycling
AI at Biffa Polymers in Redcar uses optical and infrared imaging and image analysis to identify plastic types—even when bottles are crushed— speeding the recycling of HDPE milk bottles into food-grade pellets for new packaging; the plant has processed over 10 billion bottles in almost 20 years and relies on about 200 workers for quality and safety, with AI speeding throughput and enabling a two-week turnaround back into fridges.
Solar power on the Moon could support a million residents, but water is the bottleneck: with optimistic water supplies and high recycling, a 1-million-person Moon city might last a bit over 100 years; given current estimates of far less lunar water, that timescale collapses to only a few years for a large city, while smaller settlements could endure for centuries. Solutions include improved recycling, reduced water use (e.g., vertical farming), importing water, or locating more water beneath the surface.
Americans dumped 12.1 million tons of furniture in 2018 (EPA data), with 80% landfilled, 19.5% burned for energy, and only about 0.3% recycled. The core reason is that modern sofas are multi-material, glued builds with durable polyurethane foam that are costly to disassemble, making the labor and disposal costs exceed the value of recovered materials. Sorting and hauling small streams is expensive, so burial is cheaper. Mattresses are a notable exception due to state programs; France’s eco-fee model shows higher recovery when policy funds dismantling and sorting. The piece argues that without redesign or policy changes, furniture recycling will remain a tiny fraction of waste and landfilling will dominate.
More than 300 tonnes of waste were cleared from North Kensington in an overnight operation by about 200 staff and 30 waste vehicles as the Notting Hill Carnival’s 60th anniversary celebrations concluded, with the aim of reopening roads for residents. Around two million people attended, and about 30% of the waste is expected to be recycled, while cleaning and street-washing work continues across the carnival area through the week.
A federal judge ruled that Oregon's Plastic Pollution and Recycling Modernization Act does not violate the commerce clause, upholding the statewide recycling system that charges producers fees based on packaging and lifting a temporary injunction, allowing the state to continue expanding recycling services.
Marie Perrin, 28, developed a selective, single-step method to extract europium from waste such as broken lamps, reducing chemical waste and energy use versus traditional ore-based methods. She started the startup Reecover to scale the process and has earned a place on the European Patent Office’s Young Inventors list, signaling potential to disrupt the global rare earths supply chain.
Hackaday spotlights Junkbin.io, Steve Cap’s community-driven catalog that documents salvageable electronic components found on discarded devices, helping hobbyists locate specific parts and reuse them, turning e-waste into a shared, repair-oriented resource.
A national trade group has sued Colorado to block its plan for free statewide curbside recycling, challenging the program’s governance by the Circular Action Alliance and its fee structure as unconstitutional and lacking transparency. The Producer Responsibility Program would be funded by packaging companies and aims to expand recycling to more than 700,000 homes and businesses by 2035, with initial fees due June 1 and rollout expected later this year or in early 2027.
DIY Perks demonstrates turning recycled laptops and an old iMac into a capable, affordable PC by salvaging a motherboard with 32GB RAM soldered on, embedded RTX graphics, a power-on workaround via a keyboard ribbon, and even extracting the iMac’s display by delaminating cracked glass for a high-quality screen.
A study published in PNAS describes an alkaline thermal treatment (ATT) that converts mixed plastic waste into high-purity hydrogen at lower temperatures with negligible direct CO2 emissions, potentially tackling both plastic pollution and clean-energy needs. Lab tests on PET, PE, and PP show hydrogen yields comparable to pyrolysis/gasification, with a need for pre-treatment of some plastics. While promising, researchers caution that scalability, economic viability, and full life-cycle environmental impact still require further research, along with handling contaminated plastics and recycling the sodium hydroxide.
California’s SB 54 would shift responsibility for packaging waste to manufacturers and push for packaging that can be reused, recycled, or composted. CalRecycle projects households could pay roughly $57–$190 more per year, while critics warn dairy and other producers may face higher costs and safety hurdles; the law is facing multiple lawsuits and begins first-phase implementation next month.
A survey of 4,000 Americans finds that most people store their old devices in drawers (about 39%), with only around 10% recycled or resold and 9% discarded. Data-security worries and simply not knowing where to recycle drive this hoarding, but clearer guidance, easier recycling/resale options, and nudges could nudge people toward giving devices a second life (examples include Best Buy for recycling and services like Back Market and Gazelle for resale).
A NSF-backed study of 4,000 Americans finds that the most common fate for finished devices is storage in a drawer (about 39%), not recycling or resale; data-security fears and not knowing where to recycle drive hoarding. The research shows recycling and reselling are feasible options, emphasizes wiping data and removing accounts before disposal, and highlights information nudges to help people give old electronics a second life.
UK waste firms are turning to robotics and AI to cope with hazardous, high-turnover work and staff shortages (turnover around 40%). At Sharp Group's Rainham plant, a humanoid robot called Alpha is being trained to pick and sort rubbish using VR data and AI vision. Other companies such as TeknTrash/AMP and GlacierAI are marketing AI-powered sorting and air-jet guidance. Industry experts say automation is increasingly necessary and should upskill workers to maintain and oversee robots, though concerns persist about job losses and working conditions.
Raleigh fire crews responded to a large outdoor fire at a recycling plant off Garner Road around 2 a.m., prompting a road closure from Newcombe Road to Chris Street while investigators look into the cause.