Recycling

Many objects are made of black plastic, which has so far proven to be very hard to recycle. US scientists have devised a new method of recycling black polystyrene, however, using sunlight and an ingredient that's already present in the plastic.

Imagine your local nuclear plant is a zero-emissions cozy community center. Oklo’s Aurora microreactor could make this vision a reality – delivering clean power to remote areas with a "fire-and-forget" reactor that runs 20 years without refueling.

The Ocean Cleanup (TOC) project has announced the timeline and cost it would take to get the Great Pacific Garbage Patch cleaned up once and for all, using existing technology – 10 years and 7.5 billion US dollars. And it could be even cheaper.

Glass-fragment waste typically just ends up in landfills, but perhaps that doesn't always have to be the case. A study shows that ground glass particles can be mixed with soil to produce a plant growth medium that's actually better than soil alone.

Back in 2021, researchers came up with a recipe for greener concrete that had building waste and CO2 among its ingredients. Now the same team has used rubble from a demolished school and the greenhouse gas to produce bricks to build new structures.

Using a proprietary chemical process pioneered by Canadian firm Excir, England's The Royal Mint has begun mining old circuit boards from electronic devices for gold and converting what's harvested into attractive, if pricey, jewelry.

Lithium is a finite resource, and the more we lock inside rechargeable batteries, the less we have to use. A new speedy method to free the element from such sources could be a game changer in terms of the material's availability.

Black plastics pose an ID problem for sorting machines at recycling facilities, as the sensors can't see them. Canon has developed a system that users lasers and tracking tech to identify and sort plastic trash on the conveyor belt, no matter its color.

We don't usually want our furniture to be flammable, but this stool actually encourages it. Made from potatoes and sawdust, it's designed to be thrown in a fireplace for warmth once it reaches the end of its usefulness.

Torqeedo, a major innovator of all-electric boat motors, is trying to further improve its clean track record. It's deep in the works on a new version of its iconic bright-orange propeller that's crafted from 100% recycled plastic.

Bricks made of discarded glass and recycling-waste ash have been shown to insulate better than regular bricks, while also requiring less energy to produce. And of course, they additionally use materials which would otherwise end up in landfills.

Scientists have developed a new "ink" that allows objects to be 3D-printed out of wood. The material could reduce the amount of wood that gets wasted in the manufacturing of various products, plus it could utilize existing wood waste.