All articles tagged with #recycling
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.
German researchers from Fraunhofer institutes have developed Papure, a laser-based process that seals paper packaging without glue or plastic by irradiating paper with a CO laser to convert lignin, cellulose, and other components into fusible cleavage products that act as a natural adhesive. The system analyzes paper chemistry to identify sealable types, then tunes laser intensity and seam design; in tests, a 2 cm seal is strong enough to support 44 pounds, and a lab-scale unit is being built to reach about 10 packages per minute by September.
Researchers engineered E. coli to convert PET-derived terephthalic acid into levodopa, a Parkinson’s drug, via a two-step metabolic pathway in a lab proof-of-concept using sequential bacterial strains; not yet scalable, but it demonstrates a potential plastic-to-pharma recycling route and eco-friendly drug production, building on earlier work turning PET into other medicines. Published in Nature Sustainability with EPSRC funding.
Beth Gardiner’s Plastic Inc. argues that oil and gas companies turned to plastics to cushion shrinking fuel profits, using marketing and lobbying to normalize disposability and recycling as a fix, while highlighting health and environmental harms and urging extended producer responsibility so manufacturers bear disposal costs.
A U.S. District Judge in the Eastern District of Texas ruled that ExxonMobil can pursue a defamation suit against California Attorney General Rob Bonta over his remarks about plastic recycling, including the claim that only 5% of plastic is recycled and that Exxon lied. The judge rejected Bonta’s official-immunity defense for a campaign email sent to Texas residents, allowing the suit to move forward against him, while dismissing the environmental groups’ claims.
New findings backed by WestRock for the American Forest & Paper Association show greasy pizza boxes are recyclable; grease is typically only 1–2% by weight and does not significantly affect recycled cardboard, with cheese and tape best removed. Local guidelines vary, so check your area and consider advocating for updated rules; to maximize recycling, split the box or use a liner to reduce grease exposure.