Citrus Waste

Lead scientists Asst. Prof. Dalton Tay (left) and Prof. Madhavi Srinivasan

Environment

Orange peels used to extract valuable metals from spent batteries

Just because a lithium-ion battery no longer holds a charge doesn't mean it no longer holds any value. It still contains useful metals, which can now be reclaimed via a more eco-friendly technique – the key ingredient is orange peel waste.

On the right is the lush forest that was loaded with orange peel waste and on the left is the untreated land

Environment

The story of how discarded orange peels turbocharged a Costa Rican forest

Sixteen years after a controversial biodegradation plan allowed 1,000 truckloads of orange peels to be unloaded onto a barren, deforested area of Costa Rican land, researchers have found a lush, overgrown forest with richer soil and more tree species than the adjacent land that was untreated.

Daniel Yar Hamidi CEO of Inicia, left, and professor Mohammad Taherzadeh with samples of their "green" product.

Environment

Four ways to turn an orange peel green

While studying the possibilities of waste recycling, researchers at a Swedish university have come up with an unlikely suspect for an alternative fuel source - the orange.