Recycling and Waste News

May 16, 2024

Top Headlines

Next-Generation Sustainable Electronics Are Doped With Air

May 15, 2024 — Semiconductors are the foundation of all modern electronics. Now, researchers have developed a new method where organic semiconductors can become more conductive with the help of air as a dopant. The study is a significant step towards future cheap ...

Wind Farms Can Offset Their Emissions Within Two Years

May 16, 2024 — After spinning for under two years, a wind farm can offset the carbon emissions generated across its entire 30-year lifespan, when compared to thermal power ...

Making Batteries Takes a Lot of Lithium: Some Could Come from Gas Well Wastewater

May 15, 2024 — A new analysis suggests that if it could be extracted with complete efficiency, lithium from the wastewater of Marcellus shale gas wells could supply up to 40% of the country's ...

Now We Know, What Gets Roots to Grow: Can Help in Future Droughts

May 15, 2024 — A biological mechanism familiar to people who fast helps plant roots grow strong. The discovery provides an answer to a long-unanswered question and a deeper understanding of the 'mouths' of plants that can help to develop climate-resilient ...

Latest Headlines

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Green Concrete Recycling Twice the Coal Ash Is Built to Last

May 15, 2024 — New modelling reveals that low-carbon concrete can recycle double the amount of coal ash compared to current standards, halve the amount of cement required and perform exceptionally well over ...

Pore Pressure Diffusion Led to Microseismicity at Illinois Basin Carbon Sequestration Site

May 8, 2024 — Pore pressure diffusion generated by carbon dioxide injected underground at a carbon storage site in the Illinois Basin is the likely cause of ...

Swarms of Miniature Robots Clean Up Microplastics and Microbes, Simultaneously

May 8, 2024 — When old food packaging, discarded children's toys and other mismanaged plastic waste break down into microplastics, they become even harder to clean ...

Path to Easier Recycling of Solar Modules

May 2, 2024 — The use of femtosecond lasers to form glass-to-glass welds for solar modules would make the panels easier to recycle, according to a proof-of-concept ...

EPA Underestimates Methane Emissions from Landfills, Urban Areas

May 1, 2024 — The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is underestimating methane emissions from landfills, urban areas and U.S. states, according to a new study. The researchers combined 2019 satellite ...

Roadmap to Close the Carbon Cycle

May 1, 2024 — Reaching net-zero carbon emissions goals requires finding transformative paths to manage carbon in difficult-to-electrify economic ...

Methane Emissions from Landfill Could Be Turned Into Sustainable Jet Fuel in Plasma Chemistry Leap

Apr. 30, 2024 — Researchers have developed a chemical process using plasma that could create sustainable jet fuel from methane gas emitted from landfills, ...

A Virus Could Help Save Billions of Gallons of Wastewater Produced by Fracking

Apr. 30, 2024 — An estimated 168 billion gallons of wastewater -- or produced water -- is generated annually by the Permian Basin fracking industry, according to a ...

Recovering Phosphorus from Sewage Sludge Ash

Apr. 26, 2024 — Chemical and heat treatment of sewage sludge can recover phosphorus in a process that could help address the problem of diminishing supplies of phosphorus ...

Scientists Replace Fishmeal in Aquaculture With Microbial Protein Derived from Soybean Processing Wastewater

Apr. 25, 2024 — Scientists have successfully replaced half of the fishmeal protein in the diets of farmed Asian seabass with a 'single cell protein' cultivated from ...

Nanofibers Rid Water of Hazardous Dyes

Apr. 24, 2024 — A special nanostructure has been developed to filter a widespread class of harmful dyes from water. A crucial component is a material that is considered waste: used cellulose, for example in the form ...

Critical Minerals Recovery from Electronic Waste

Apr. 23, 2024 — A nontoxic separation process recovers critical minerals from electronic scrap ...

Global Study Reveals Health Impacts of Airborne Trace Elements

Apr. 17, 2024 — Researchers investigated global particulate matter, revealing health risks from trace ...

Scientists Develop Framework to Measure Plastic Emissions and Bolster U.N. Efforts to Reduce Pollution

Apr. 16, 2024 — Scientists have developed a framework for measuring plastic emissions akin to the global standard for measuring greenhouse gas emissions. The approach boosts identification of the biggest ...

Trash to Treasure -- Researchers Turn Metal Waste Into Catalyst for Hydrogen

Apr. 16, 2024 — Scientists have found a way to transform metal waste into a highly efficient catalyst to make hydrogen from water, a discovery that could make hydrogen production more ...

Hidden Threat: Global Underground Infrastructure Vulnerable to Sea-Level Rise

Apr. 15, 2024 — As sea levels rise, coastal groundwater is lifted closer to the ground surface while also becoming saltier and more corrosive. A recent study compiled research from experts worldwide showing that in ...

Switch to Green Wastewater Infrastructure Could Reduce Emissions and Provide Huge Savings According to New Research

Apr. 15, 2024 — Researchers have shown that a transition to green wastewater-treatment approaches in the U.S. that leverages the potential of carbon-financing could save a staggering $15.6 billion and just under 30 ...

Researchers Study Effects of Solvation and Ion Valency on Metallopolymers

Apr. 12, 2024 — Researchers analyzed the effects of solvation and ion valency on metallopolymers, with implications for critical materials recovery and recycling, and environmental ...

Hybrid Intelligence Can Reconcile Biodiversity and Agriculture

Apr. 11, 2024 — So far, biodiversity and agricultural productivity could not be reconciled because the socio-ecological system of agriculture is highly complex, and the interactions between humans and the ...

Method to Extract Useful Proteins from Beer-Brewing Leftovers

Apr. 11, 2024 — Researchers have created a method that extracts over 80 percent of the available protein in grain leftovers from brewing beer, commonly known as brewers' spent ...

Using CO2 and Biomass, Researchers Find Path to More Environmentally Friendly Recyclable Plastics

Apr. 10, 2024 — Researchers have created a potential alternative to traditional petroleum-based plastic that is made from carbon dioxide (CO2) and lignin, a component of wood that is a low-cost byproduct of paper ...

Tiny Plastic Particles Are Found Everywhere

Apr. 9, 2024 — Microplastic particles can be found in the most remote ocean regions on earth. In Antarctica, pollution levels are even higher than previously ...

Using Pulp and Paper Waste to Scrub Carbon from Emissions

Apr. 8, 2024 — Researchers have come up with an innovative approach to improve the energy efficiency of carbon conversion, using waste material from pulp and paper production. The technique they've pioneered ...

eDNA Methods Give a Real-Time Look at Coral Reef Health

Apr. 5, 2024 — The study underscores the crucial role of microbes in maintaining coral reef health, akin to the human gut microbiome. Hurricanes and disease outbreaks affect coral reef water microbial communities, ...

Ocean Floor a 'Reservoir' of Plastic Pollution

Apr. 4, 2024 — New science has taken a deep dive into plastic waste, providing the first estimate of how much ends up on the sea ...

'Tug of War' Tactic Enhances Chemical Separations for Critical Materials

Apr. 3, 2024 — Lanthanide elements are important for clean energy and other applications. To use them, industry must separate mixed lanthanide sources into individual elements using costly, time-consuming, and ...

Giant Phage Holds Promise as Treatment for Lung Infections

Apr. 3, 2024 — Researchers have discovered a new bacterial killer that can target common lung infection caused by Burkholderia bacteria that has exciting potential for biotechnological ...

Plant-Based Plastic Releases Nine Times Less Microplastics Than Conventional Plastic

Apr. 3, 2024 — A newly developed plant-based plastic material releases nine times less microplastics than conventional plastic when exposed to sunlight and seawater, a new study has ...

Testing Environmental Water to Monitor COVID-19 Spread in Unsheltered Encampments

Apr. 3, 2024 — To better understand COVID-19's spread during the pandemic, public health officials expanded wastewater surveillance. These efforts track SARS-CoV-2 levels and health risks among most people, ...

Open Waste Burning Linked to Air Pollution in Northwestern Greenland

Mar. 28, 2024 — A case study on the effects of open waste burning on air quality in Northwestern Greenland calls attention to the importance of no-one-left-behind sustainable air quality monitoring in the Arctic ...