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Two new recycling technologies turn waste into resources
We’re filling our landfills and our oceans with trash. Why? Because we haven’t made a commitment to turning waste into resources. The COVID-19 pandemic has only made a serious problem even worse....
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What not to recycle: 46 things never to put out at the curb
U.S. Marine Corps photo by Marianne Weaver Aspirational recycling, or wishful recycling, describes people who don’t know what not to recycle. It’s a problem. At the very least, it increases the cost of...
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Recycling clothing: promise and problems in textile recycling
Photo by Bicanski on Pixnio People are buying more clothes than ever before but not keeping them as long. Too much of it winds up in landfills. Thrift stores receive more donations than they can sell....
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Plastic recycling: when did it start and why doesn’t it work?
Recycling as we know it today has only been around for about 40 years. Plastic recycling got started even later. It has never worked very well. A look at plastic recycling history shows that it never...
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Can plastic-eating bacteria in cows’ stomachs help plastic recycling?
National Resource Conservation Service via Flickr Everything in nature is interconnected. But who would have thought cows’ stomachs would have anything to do with plastic recycling? Cows and plastic...
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Beyond water bottles and milk jugs: what other plastics get recycled?
Processing plastics for recycling The plastics recycling industry works with both post-consumer and post-industrial plastic waste. Too little plastic gets recycled, so the industry needs to grow. But...
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New EPR laws for packaging: should producers pay for recycling?
Steven Depolo via mywaste The concept of extended producer responsibility (EPR) shifts the some of the financial burden of waste management from local governments to producers. Only recently have EPR...
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Organics recycling: what it is and how to do it right
A Portland, Oregon resident adds kitchen food scraps to yard debris in a roll cart as part of the community’s source separated organics (SSO) program / Photo by Tim Jewett – City of Portland Bureau of...
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Recycling rare earth metals: 4 new solutions for an old problem
Rare earth oxides. Clockwise from top center: praseodymium, cerium, lanthanum, neodymium, samarium, and gadolinium / US Agricultural Research service via Wikimedia Commons Inefficient, expensive, and...
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New solutions for the problem of lithium-ion battery recycling
Lithium-ion car battery / Wikimedia Commons Consumer electronics use batteries with lithium cobalt oxide cathodes. Electric vehicle batteries need a more complex blend of lithium, cobalt, nickel, and...
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Dow’s new sustainability partnerships for plastic recycling
A mountain of Styrofoam / Some rights reserved by David Gilford The world produces mountains of new plastic every year. Much of it gets discarded after a single use. Very little gets recycled. Some...
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Is it possible to fix plastics recycling problems?
Plastic line, PET bunker, High Point, North Carolina. Someone else has already removed HDPE and sorted it by colored or uncolored. My photo The pandemic exposed problems in plastics recycling that...
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Plastic roads: environmental boon or menace?
Plastic road in India Asphalt accounts for the surface of more than 90% of American roads. Recently, and worldwide, some of that asphalt contains plastic. If adding waste plastic to asphalt pavement...
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The plastic bag recycling process: why the system is broken
You can’t put plastic bags out to the curb for recycling. The plastic bag recycling process starts when you take your bags and other films to a store. You know that, of course. You probably also know...
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Why you should be recycling scrap metal
v2osk via Unplash Contributed by Ellie Gabel While you might already recycle glass bottles and cardboard boxes, you may not consider scrap metal recycling. Even though taking it to a recycling...
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The recycling process: how a materials recovery facility works
Overview of a materials recovery facility. Wikimedia Commons Once you haul your recyclables out to the curb, what happens to them? A lot of the recycling process depends on your municipality’s...
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Aspirational recycling: what can’t be recycled
MRF tipping floor in Bowling Green, Ohio / my photo Americans recycle badly. We commit two equal and opposite mistakes: not recycling at all or putting the wrong things in our recycling. Trying to...
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How to make compost at home: from garbage to garden
Compost pile in a plastic bin / Wikimedia Commons Do you garden? Then you need compost. You can either buy bags of it at a store or make compost at home, which saves both money and valuable landfill...
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What can we do with dead batteries?
Have you stopped to think that the calls to recycle more don’t mention battery recycling? You can’t just put dead batteries out with the bottles, cans, and wastepaper. I used to think it was illegal...
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Do you make these 7 common recycling mistakes?
Bales of recycled plastic ready for sale / Lisa Yarost via Flickr You want to be a conscientious recycler. Unfortunately, many people, maybe including you, find recycling rules complicated. After all,...
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