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+18 +1
Most plastic will never be recycled – and the manufacturers couldn’t care less
Oil and gas companies make far more money churning out new plastic than reusing old. Meanwhile, the public gets the blame, writes Arwa Mahdawi
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+17 +1
How to recycle your old phone, laptop, TV and batteries for free
Gadgets can pile up over the years -- new ones come out, old ones break. You probably have a drawer full of old batteries and cables, and some old phones, laptops and desktops lying around. Perhaps you keep them for nostalgic reasons (I admit I hung onto my first Nokia block phone to "show my kids one day"), or because you thought you might be able to use them again down the line.
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+18 +1
How Big Oil Misled The Public Into Believing Plastic Would Be Recycled
An NPR and PBS Frontline investigation reveals how the oil and gas industry used the promise of recycling to sell more plastic, even when they knew it would never work on a large scale.
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+17 +1
Pringles try to wake from 'recycling nightmare'
Kellogg's redesigns the snackfood container that was dubbed the "number one villain" for recycling.
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+15 +1
How Big Oil Misled The Public Into Believing Plastic Would Be Recycled
Laura Leebrick, a manager at Rogue Disposal & Recycling in southern Oregon, is standing on the end of its landfill watching an avalanche of plastic trash pour out of a semitrailer: containers, bags, packaging, strawberry containers, yogurt cups.
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+15 +1
Beat Plastic Pollution
With the discovery of plastic about 150 years ago the new prospects opened up to create a variety of synthetic products which replaced glass and metals. Since the invention of Bakelite in 1907, the commercial use of plastic has increased. The plastic products are cheap, versatile, lightweight and easy to make and are used in several industries such as in packaging, construction, healthcare etc.
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+21 +1
New polymer easily captures gold extracted from e-waste
One thing holding back e-waste recycling is the actual recycling process itself. We need cheaper, safer, cleaner, or more effective methods of separating and recovering the valuable elements from electronics before we can make the whole endeavor more attractive and profitable. Some current methods use large amounts of energy to melt components down, but chemistry could provide some tempting alternatives.
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+8 +1
The end of plastic? New plant-based bottles will degrade in a year
Carlsberg and Coca-Cola back pioneering project to make ‘all-plant’ drinks bottles
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+13 +1
Pompeii ruins show that the Romans invented recycling
Excavations reveal that rubbish left outside the city walls wasn’t just dumped. It was being collected, sorted and resold
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+18 +1
'Horrible hybrids': the plastic products that give recyclers nightmares
From singing birthday cards to baby food pouches, a growing trend of mixing materials is making recycling even harder
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+24 +1
These Four Startups Are Redefining Sustainability
Startups around the world are tackling some of the planet’s most pressing problems.
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+20 +1
No Time To Waste
Nearly every product can be made recyclable if the motivation is there, explains Terracycle’s Tom Szaky.
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+4 +1
‘A huge step forward.’ Mutant enzyme could vastly improve recycling of plastic bottles
Advance could prevent one of the world’s most common plastics from ending up in the landfill
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+14 +1
‘A huge step forward.’ Mutant enzyme could vastly improve recycling of plastic bottles
Recycling isn’t as guilt-free as it seems. Only about 30% of the plastic that goes into soda bottles gets turned into new plastic, and it often ends up as a lower strength version. Now, researchers report they’ve engineered an enzyme that can convert 90% of that same plastic back to its pristine starting materials. Work is underway to scale up the technology and open a demonstration plant next year.
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+18 +1
Scientists create mutant enzyme that recycles plastic bottles in hours
Bacterial enzyme originally found in compost can be used to make high-quality new bottles
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+37 +1
Coke and Pepsi Are Getting Sued for Lying About Recycling
“At this rate, plastic is set to outweigh fish in the ocean by 2050,” the complaint reads.
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+19 +1
Coke and Pepsi sued for creating a plastic pollution ‘nuisance’
Coke, Pepsi, Nestle and other large companies are being sued by a California environmental group for creating a plastic pollution “nuisance” and misleading consumers about the recyclability of plastic. The suit, filed in San Mateo county superior court on Wednesday, argues that companies that sell plastic bottles and bags that end up polluting the ocean should be held accountable for damaging the environment.
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+16 +1
Wood waste makes recycled concrete stronger than ever
Production of the cement used in concrete is a huge source of CO2 emissions, so the more that we can recycle existing concrete, the better. That's where a new study comes in, which indicates that discarded concrete becomes even stronger than it was before, when wood waste is added to it.
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+3 +1
Are plastic containers safe for our food?
The industry says its containers are safe but some experts point to a lack of data and warn that plastic and heat aren’t a good mix
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+2 +1
The mattress landfill crisis: how the race to bring us better beds led to a recycling nightmare
As the sleep economy grows, companies vie to sell us new mattresses, offering 100-day returns. This has helped create an impossible waste mountain – and a wild west of rogue recyclers...
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