Plastic Mardi Gras Beads Just End up in Landfill, So Coalition Swaps in Seed Beads and Jambalaya Spice Packets ??

A morning after Mardi Gras – credit, Grounds Krewe supplied Flung plastic beads, coins, and other trinkets can seem like treasures in the heat of a Mardi Gras moment, but if you’ve ever seen the streets of New Orleans the morning after, you’d recognize only trash. That’s why a coalition of government agencies and nonprofits … Read more

Thrift Shop Buried Under ‘Rags’ Gets Helping Hand from Designer Who Wants to Reduce Landfill Waste

Victoria Ford – credit Derian House Childrens Hospice An English thrift shop that found itself buried under mountains of old donated clothes has gotten a helping hand from a talented designer. Recent fashion and design graduate Victoria Ford approached the shop and offered to transform some of its unwanted rags into bespoke pieces for sale … Read more

‘Mushroom Mining’ Could Be Cheap Way to Recover Rare Earth Minerals from Industrial Waste

Brandy Vailes via Unsplash Decades of underinvestment in mining and refining across Europe and North America has landed the manufacturing sector in a problem, which a group of scientists believe can be helped by mushrooms rather than excavators. One must have been living under a rock not to have recently read the terms “critical minerals” … Read more

Study Shows Vaporizing E-Waste Makes it Easy to Recover Precious Metals at 13-Times Lower Costs

– credit Alexandre Debiève By instantaneously heating electronics to 3,000°C via an electrical current, scientists have found a way to extract decent grades of precious metals without creating hazardous waste. According to their analysis, relying on e-waste for a precious metals supply could be 13-times cheaper than mining them from the ground. However, previous methods … Read more

AI’s Latest Trick Is Pulling Valuable Commodities Out of Our Trash

Amp Robotics released As prices of recycled paper, plastic, and aluminum increase, waste management firms are seeing an unexpected return on investment from their installations of AI-powered robotic trash sorters. Certainly with any robotic system, the ROI is expected to come from labor saving, but due to a variety of factors such as tariffs on … Read more

Inspired by Asthma Attack, New Delhi Teens Recycle 2 Million Pounds of Waste Across 14 Indian Cities

Brothers in India recycled a million kg of trash in 14 cities – OneStepGreener’s YouTube channel Youth comes with gifts: one of them is the inability to recognize when you should be intimidated. When two teenagers in New Delhi wanted to do something to improve the city’s waste collection, age and experience would have told … Read more

Hospital Technician Lends His X-Ray Machine to Help Woman Find Lost Heirloom Rings

– credit, Kelly Jans Unity Point Health The radiology department at an Iowa hospital recently teamed up with the waste management team to put the ‘care’ in healthcare, and left a patient in tears with gratitude. At Grundy County Memorial Hospital, Susan Sinnwell had arrived for a routine medical procedure. Preparing for a couple of … Read more

Engineer Powers Entire Home Using 500 Discarded Vapes–Documented in Fascinating Viral Video

Chris Doel with his home battery – credit, Anita Maric / SWNS A man has built a rechargeable battery pack big enough to power his whole home using just the batteries from discarded vapes. British engineer Chris Doel thinks it’s “absolutely insane” that people use disposable vaping pens, as they come with a lithium-ion battery … Read more

Plant-Based 3D-Printed Surfboards ‘Sensational’ to Ride While Halting Microplastic Pollution

credit – Swellcycle Hunters and poachers have historically made some of the best conservationists—they know the animals, they know their environment. In that vein, who better to advocate for protecting the ocean than those who have felt its power and seen its beauty over and over and over again? Surfers are lining up to try … Read more

Romania Hits 94% Recycling After Launching Largest Return Plan in the World

A recycling depot operated by RetuRO, Romania’s plastic return system organizer – credit Eduard Voicu / RetuRO If you had to guess where in the EU you would find the most sophisticated and effective recycling system for beverage containers, how long before you’d say Romania? Beating out Scandinavia, Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands, the Romanian … Read more