Reuse

The disposable nature of modern gadgetry is leading to a worrying e-waste problem. To highlight the issue, Envision Racing and artist Liam Hopkins teamed up to create a Formula E Gen3 racecar built from discarded phones, laptops, vapes and other tech.

An intriguing new glue can basically be switched on and off on demand. The adhesive sticks together when hit with one wavelength of light, and breaks apart with another, allowing it to be removed and reused easily – potentially, even underwater.

For its sixth concept vehicle, the ecomotive team at the Eindhoven University of Technology will build Luca – a sporty compact EV that's built using a bio-based composite that includes plastic waste reclaimed from the ocean.

The UK's Matthew Perks has been running a YouTube channel for about five years, where he walks viewers through the ins and outs of making their own gadgets. For his latest project, he's rescued some broken televisions and computer monitors and turned them into artificial daylight panel lighting.

The promise of reusable sticky things, from Post-it Notes to Blu Tack, has never quite been fulfilled. They're just never quite as sticky the second time around, or the third. But now, a team of engineers thinks it has an answer, inspired by one of nature's great stickers, the humble, slimy snail.

Space flight requires quite a lot of single-use machinery, and that gets expensive and wasteful. Now ESA has outlined its reusable Space Rider capsule, which would carry scientific equipment to the edge of space and back several times over.

The drinking straw seems pretty simple and unassuming, but it’s contributing to one of the most pressing environmental problems today. To help cut back on that, a start-up in Singapore is getting ready to launch the Chew, a reusable straw with a “chewable” rubber tip and a spin-dry mechanism.

If java consumers want to reduce waste, they can bring their own reusable cup to the coffee shop. Australian startup Huskee is taking things a step further, however. Its reusable cups are actually made from unwanted coffee bean husks.​

The walls and roof of William McDonough's ICEhouse​ were assembled in just a few days and the whole structure in just 9 days. And where conventional houses​ typically create a lot of waste​ at the end of their lives​, this home was designed to eliminate waste and for its materials to be reusable.

Chemists at the University of California, Riverside have created rewritable paper that can be printed on and erased many times before it needs to be discarded, offering a proposed alternative to current rampant paper consumption and real hope for achieving the promised "paperless office."

Lots of us make sacrifices for the environment, but few of us would consider supporting the cause by moving into a dumpster. Dr. Jeff Wilson of Huston-Tillotson University, however, is doing just that.