New Atlas

Good Thinking Audio available

Next-gen milk carton designed to help reduce food waste

Ben Coxworth May 16, 2019

Although many people throw milk away once it reaches its "best before" date, the fact is that the milk will still likely be good for several more days. In order to eliminate such waste, scientists at Cornell University are designing a "smart" carton.

Plans call for the carton to incorporate an app-readable QR code and sensor

Environment

New process converts unrecyclable glass into saleable product

Ben Coxworth February 22, 2019

Although glass IS recyclable, the recycling process is generally limited to large pieces that can be easily sorted by color. Because it's not worth the effort to sort smaller fragments, they tend to simply be discarded. A new process, however, can convert them into a useful substance.

The recycling process can be used on mixed glass fragments of various colors

Marine Audio available

World's first solar-electric pump-out boat cleanly and quietly deals with recreational boating waste

Paul Ridden February 11, 2019

Recreational boaters looking to offload waste from sewage tanks can make a pit stop at pump-out stations on the marina, but there are also boats that can take away stored sewage. And the vessel recently delivered to Branford, Connecticut, is somewhat cleaner than most.

The solar-electric pump-out boat was developed by the East Shore District Health Department and Yale University's ...

Good Thinking

Seven brilliant inventions from the world's biggest student design show

Nick Lavars November 18, 2018

With 150 projects from the world’s leading design schools on show, the Global Grad Show in Dubai is an annual celebration of all the creativity student design has to offer. New Atlas was on the ground at this year’s edition to sniff out the brightest ideas.

Zhang Liye from China’s Huazhong University of Science and Technology designed Acorn, an entirely biodegradeable base ...

Materials

Scientists build bricks with human urine

Nick Lavars October 25, 2018

The ways modern science has harnessed the waste products of the human body for good may surprise. Now a team from the University of Cape Town has developed what it says is the world’s first biological brick made with human urine, with the strength able to be tweaked to serve a range of needs.

This technology leading to bricks made with human urine has the potential to produce more than ...

Environment Audio available

Ocean Cleanup system installed and ready for work at the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Nick Lavars October 17, 2018

It has been a long journey for the Ocean Cleanup Project, but after years of development and a 1,300-plus-mile trip through the open water, its first system is now installed at the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the single biggest accumulation of ocean plastics in the world.

The Ocean Cleanup Project has installed its first system in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Environment

McDonald's looks to address plastic straw problem

Darren Quick June 20, 2018

Single-use plastic straws are a massive environmental problem, with increasing calls to ban the ubiquitous plastic drinking tubes. At least one major source of the problem has heard these calls, with McDonald's committing to find more environmentally-friendly alternatives.

McDonald's has announced its intention to test alternatives to plastic straws in several markets

Materials

Coal plant waste helps build environmentally-friendly, cementless concrete

Michael Irving June 18, 2018

To make concrete more environmentally friendly, the industry has been adding by-products from coal-fired power plants, but doing so had its own problems. Now, Rice researchers have developed a new composite binder that requires no cement, and reduce waste from power plants at the same time.

A scanning electron microscope image of fly ash particles, which have been used to make an ...

Environment

Waste steel could keep E. coli out of rivers

Ben Coxworth May 24, 2018

When rain water runs down city streets and into storm sewers, it can be carrying a lot of filth with it – filth such as E. coli bacteria, which may end up in rivers. There could be an inexpensive and efficient new way of ridding the water of that bacteria, however, using chips of waste steel.

Waterborne E. coli bacteria may be no match for tiny steel chips

Environment

Researchers turn low-level nuclear waste into glass

David Szondy May 16, 2018

PNNL has vitrified low-level radioactive waste taken from a tank at the decommissioned Hanford Site nuclear production complex in Washington state for the first time in a continuous process. The waste was turned into durable glass that immobilizes the radioactive and chemical compounds inside.

Scientists melt radioactive waste into glass in a test platform at PNNL designed to mimic a ...