Recycling

It's an unfortunate fact that many "cold chain" items such as food or medicine are shipped in single-use Styrofoam packaging, which is non-biodegradable and difficult to recycle. Such is not the case with a new material, however, which is made from discarded paper.

As useful as plastics are in our everyday life, they’re difficult to recycle, with most ending up in landfill or the environment. Now, researchers in Japan have used a novel catalyst to recycle a common plastic into useful products like fuel and wax.

A team has developed a process that turns waste plastic into an adhesive that's more valuable. The goal was to find ways to "upcycle" plastics by putting them to new uses while preserving the properties that made them attractive in the first place.

Because different polymers have different qualities, multiple types will often be layered together in products such as food packaging. And while such multilayer plastics are currently non-recyclable, a new technique may change that.

A new breakthrough could boost the eco-credentials of an environmentally friendly form of lithium battery even further, by restoring it to its original condition once it is spent using just a fraction of the energy of current approaches.

Using a compost heap is a great way of putting food waste to use, but that waste can take several weeks or longer to become compost – in the meantime, it may stink or attract pests. The indoor Kalea device, on the other hand, is claimed to produce compost in just two days.

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.

Electronic waste can be difficult to repurpose, as it often consists of two or more mixed materials. Now, however, Australian scientists have developed a method of converting so-called e-waste into a protective coating for steel.

A new study mapping the movement of plastic waste has projected that 1.3 billion tonnes of it will be dumped on land and in the oceans by 2040, unless some significant steps are taken to address the trend.

Driven by the huge burden they place on the environment, scientists are continually looking for new ways to manufacture plastic materials that make them easier to recycle, and MIT researchers are now claiming a significant breakthrough in this area.

A versatile new kind of polymer can be used on its own like regular rubber, or mixed with filler materials including used PVC and carbon fiber to create brand new composites, which can in turn be recycled in an almost endless loop.

Imagine getting a flat tire, and just smearing on a chemical that makes the rubber meld seamlessly back together. That’s the kind of breakthrough researchers are now reporting, with a new material made of waste products and easily recyclable itself.