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The following products will require 10% or greater PCR content as of January 1, 2024 in the state of New Jersey: - Rigid Plastic Containers - Plastic Beverage Containers - Plastic Carryout Bags - Plastic Trash Bags

An inexpensive, environmentally friendly technique for lithium recycling could help ensure we have enough of the valuable metal to power the clean energy future — if it works as well in the real world as it does in the lab. The challenge: Transitioning to electric vehicles (EVs) is a key part of combating climate change, and because lithium-ion batteries can store a lot of energy for their size, they’re our best option (so far) for powering them. The lithium needed to create those batteries is a finite resource, though, and mining it is environmentally destructive. Demand for lithium extends beyond...

**SNIP** The lithium car battery issue is twofold. First, there is clear concern around the level of virgin raw material mining needed for their manufacture. This reliance on metals and minerals as the foundation of this technology presents significant environmental and social issues. However, there are now increased efforts to reduce this through the development of new technologies. **SNIP** Most electric vehicles run on lithium-ion batteries. Each cell of a lithium battery generates electricity when its lithium ions move from one side (the anode) through an electrolyte to the other side (the cathode). The lithium in the anode is cheap...

I was going through some "first time heard" videos (NOT through youtube, but through 'FreeTube' (uses Youtube links).. and found this. Wouldn't have posted, but I noticed his TRUMP posters in the background :D

Researchers in Japan have created a concrete replacement out of food scraps — and the new compound can be both edible and sweet-smelling... His earlier research resulted in a technique for combining recycled concrete powder and wood waste to form an improved material through heat pressing. That sparked interest in using other waste products. “A similar approach can be applied to not only wood, but also to vegetables and fruit, and that is what we did,” he said... “It is said that one-third of food is wasted in the whole world.”

Consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble faces pressure from environmentalists to clean up its act. More than 150 groups are pushing the maker of Charmin toiler paper and Bounty paper towels to use recycled materials in its products. Currently, neither of those products uses recycled paper, and about one-third of it is sourced from Canada's boreal forest — a large swath of virgin forest that rings the Arctic Circle and acts as a critical check on climate change. "It's just unacceptable that a company like P&G is making toilet paper, a product that is used for seconds and flushed, from...

London (CNN) - McDonald's has reportedly admitted that its new paper straws, rolled out last year to help "protect the environment," can't be recycled - unlike the plastic versions they replaced. **SNIP** But the fast food giant acknowledged on Monday that the new versions are too thick to be processed by its recyclers. "While the materials are recyclable, their current thickness makes it difficult for them to be processed by our waste solution providers, who also help us recycle our paper cups," a McDonald's spokesman told the UK's Press Association news agency.

After years in recycling hospice, Payson pulled the plug on its long-suffering recycling program — at least for now. **SNIP** So far, efforts to recycle have mostly just made trash service for the town more expensive. **SNIP** Worse yet — the recycling materials inside the bins often ends up in the landfill because they get “contaminated,” and crews bring everything to the dump instead, said DeSchaaf. “If you’re recycling pizza boxes with other boxes, they are contaminating everything. The sauce or cheese gets in the bin and it (the recycling) is contaminated. Then it all ends up in the landfill,”...

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — The halt on China’s imports of wastepaper and plastic that has disrupted U.S. recycling programs has also spurred investment in American plants that process recyclables.U.S. paper mills are expanding capacity to take advantage of a glut of cheap scrap. Some facilities that previously exported plastic or metal to China have retooled so they can process it themselves. And in a twist, the investors include Chinese companies that are still interested in having access to wastepaper or flattened bottles as raw material for manufacturing. “It’s a very good moment for recycling in the United States,” said Neil...

How can the state of California collect deposit fees on plastic bottles of .05 cents per bottle and .10 cents per quart of oil and never pay out on it? If anyone else collected a deposit that was never paid they would find themselves in a world of trouble.

Last Earth Day, I published a column in the Washington Post on common recycling myths. I received so many comments and emails in response, often asking additional questions, that I wanted to follow up with a new list here at National Geographic. The recycling industry is changing rapidly, as are advancements in materials science and product design. The field has an increasingly global footprint and is affected by complex forces, from oil prices to national policies and consumer preferences. As investor Rob Kaplan of Circulate Capital recently told National Geographic, “There's no silver bullet to stop plastic pollution. We're not...

Earlier this week, a pilot whale died after being found with 17 pounds of plastic bags in its stomach. The horrific incident was our latest reminder that plastic bags contribute to the scourge of marine litter. By sheer coincidence, it came on the heels of a major U.N. report pointing to plastic bag levies or bans as key strategies to help reduce that litter. Many seem to be listening. But as the war against plastic bags intensifies, it’s worth taking a step back and asking: How much better are the alternatives? (Goes on to mathematically question whether banning bags helps...

This is hardly a new story, but every so often, the liberal media shine a light on it: how some of the junk that is supposedly "recycled" is actually thrown in the trash. In recent months, in fact, thousands of tons of material left curbside for recycling in dozens of American cities and towns – including several in Oregon – have gone to landfills. Recycling is uneconomical, in part because small impurities in materials to be recycled can make such materials useless. "There are some states and some markets where mixed paper is at a negative value," said Brent Bell,...

Oregon is serious about recycling. Its residents are accustomed to dutifully separating milk cartons, yogurt containers, cereal boxes and kombucha bottles from their trash to divert them from the landfill. But this year, because of a far-reaching rule change in China, some of the recyclables are ending up in the local dump anyway. (snip) Theresa Byrne, who lives in Salem, Ore., said the city took too long to inform residents that most plastics and egg and milk cartons were now considered garbage. “I was angry,” she said. “I believe in recycling.” (snip) In particular, exports of scrap plastic to China,...

“The website says they send us biodegradable silverware,” said Biggs. “No. I stopped all of that because they compost slower than the food, so it doesn’t work well with our system.” One day after following the custodians, he realized they were simply pulling all of the bags from the three-bin system on their rounds and dumping them inside another bag that went into the landfill trash compactor...“Over my time here, I’ve gone to the trouble of doing my civic duty and collected hundreds if not thousands of recyclable items off the streets of Columbia,” Wills said. “To think that all...

[snip] With so many different materials now in play, how are you supposed to know what needs to be thrown into a landfill and what can be reused? Luckily, while humans might not be the best at practicing the Three R’s (reduce, reuse, and recycle, of course), another “R” is here to save us. It’s a robot, and it’s been affectionately named Clarke. Developed by AMP Robotics, this robot makes use of artificial intelligence to recognize and sort various food and beverage containers.

Good Grief. To what extent will government overreach its authority? The new imprimaturs of a central Florida utility have become scary indeed! What right does a government entity have to prowl through the garbage of individual, innocent homeowners without a warrant? What mystery public union sector employees will "examine the contents of customers' recycling bins?" Taking the ‘Save Our Planet’ mantra to an entirely new level, an over-eager garbage pickup initiative soon plans to do the following to an estimated 22,400 waste customers who are trapped in a one size fits all city negotiated contract with a single waste collection...

The best thing that we do to used-plastic bottles is trashing them. A very few among us might have thought of reusing it say, to fill drinking water or to store oil or something. It’s already late for us to take action. Each day millions of bottles are littered around and most of them end up contaminating precious water bodies. 0:05 Funnel 0:24 Spoon 0:46 Squeeze bottle (w/ fine tip nozzle) 1:31 Cup w/ handle 2:05 Shrink wrap picture cup 2:33 Orange juicer 3:29 Hose nozzle 4:16 Rotary tool guard 5:06 Gutter down spout, hinged 5:47 Toothbrush holder 6:47 Camera...

To be a freegan is to be a person who avoids exchanging money for food and other items — you recycle what is still good instead. To accomplish this, however, one has to be creative, maybe even nocturnal. “After the markets close, the shopkeepers put food on the sidewalk,” explains Aliza Eliazarov, who discovered this world of freeganism while on a newspaper assignment about dumpster diving. “Most of the food doesn’t even make it into the trash because people are there waiting for it.” Eliazarov, who has a degree in environmental engineering and an interest in conservation and preservation, signed...

A team of Japanese scientists has found a species of bacteria that eats the type of plastic found in most disposable water bottles. The discovery, published Thursday in the journal Science, could lead to new methods to manage the more than 50 million tons of this particular type of plastic produced globally each year. The plastic found in water bottles is known as polyethylene terephalate, or PET. It is also found in polyester clothing, frozen-dinner trays and blister packaging. "If you walk down the aisle in Walmart you're seeing a lot of PET," said Tracy Mincer, who studies plastics in...