Disposable diapers are a huge source of global waste, largely because they're difficult to recycle. A new process, however, could salvage the "superabsorber" polymer utilized in the liners of those diapers.
The company takes in batteries (from cars, laptops, phones, tablets, and other electronics) that are at the end of their useful life, then breaks them down and extracts metals like nickel, copper, cobalt, and lithium.
A team of scientists has developed a system that uses carbon dioxide, CO2, to produce biodegradable plastics, or bioplastics, that could replace the nondegradable plastics used today.
It has been one year since Prince Edward Island in Canada banned single-use plastic bags, and the results are impressive. It used to collect 15-16 million plastic bags annually for disposal, but all those have now disappeared.
Plastic bricks made via a recycling process developed by a Colombian social enterprise are being used to help tackle a huge shortfall of classrooms in the West African nation of Ivory Coast.
Plants all over the developed world take advantage of this salvageable energy to subsidize their operations. One UK-based treatment plant, for example, gets 50 percent of its power using poop.
Norway’s radical recycling program is providing unbelievable results: up to 97 percent of the plastic bottles are now recycled. Norwegian government reward companies that are environmentally friendly.
The City of Los Angeles announced a bold plan to recycled 100 percent of the 260 million gallons of wastewater currently being discharged to the Pacific Ocean through the Hyperion Treatment Plant.
A new environmentally-friendly shopping model was recently launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. This shopping model, called Loop, aims to replace throwaway containers with reusable ones.
Scientists from Singapore have converted polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles into a highly insulating and absorbent material called aerogel.
A Zero Waste Lab was just opened in Greece that directly recycles plastic into outdoor furniture. Closing the plastic waste loop with direct recycling is one of the more compelling selling points of 3D printing.
A quarter century ago people called it “Garbage Island.” Today it has one of the world’s most efficient recycling programs, claiming 55 percent of trash collected from households being recycled.
The mall is located about 60 miles outside Stockholm in the town of Eskilstuna. There are 14 stores, a restaurant (see below), an exhibition area and an educational program so that Swedes can learn how to recycle even more.
BioCellection startup decided to tackle the problem on the molecular level. Instead of shredding plastic trash, it chemically converts it into raw materials that can be used to make new products.
Finland has set a goal to make the country a global circular economy leader by 2025, by adopting the world’s first road map to a circular economy in 2016.
