Claims about wind turbines and solar panels filling landfills are circulating again, often framed as a rediscovered flaw in clean energy that somehow offsets its benefits. The argument is familiar. Wind turbine blades are large, solar panels contain glass and metals, and at the end of their lives these materials … [continued]
Zwickau vehicle plant to become Volkswagen AG’s centre of excellence for the circular economy From 2030, up to 15,000 vehicles are to be disassembled and recycled annually The Free State of Saxony is funding the project with around eleven million euros The results of the 2024 collective agreement will be … [continued]
Meet Taylor Uekert, the Gymnast-Turned-Nanoengineer Who Harnesses Molecular Machines To Remake Plastics, Chemicals, and More By Caitlin McDermott-Murphy, NLR Three days after 9-year-old Taylor Uekert moved to the foothills outside San Diego, her parents woke her and her brother in the middle of the night. “Get up and get to the car,” … [continued]
Dealing with the health and environmental risks from recycling lead used in batteries is something most car makers want nothing to do with.
Part of the chain of renewable energy and the transition from fossil fuels is how to handle carbon-intensive products and byproducts of society and push for low carbon content at source, at processing, or disposal. At Rockwell Automation’s 2025 Automation Fair, a panel of industry leaders offered a rare, unified … [continued]
New catalyst could make mixed plastic recycling a reality. The future of plastic recycling may soon get much less complicated, frustrating and tedious. In a new study, Northwestern University chemists have introduced a new plastic upcycling process that can drastically reduce — or perhaps even fully bypass — the laborious … [continued]
The seemingly effortless execution of the green initiatives was perhaps the most impressive part. Environmental impact was being reduced while the experience was made better and more convenient. It didn’t try to attract massive attention and didn’t come off as greenwashing. It just made sense when you thought about it, but you didn’t have to think about it.
Why don’t people recycle more? I suppose there are a lot of reasons. You need storage space for the bottles and cans as they pile up. It’s just too much work. It’s too time consuming. There’s little payback for the effort. Good citizenship is often disrespected or unpaid — so … [continued]
Key Process Improvements Save Energy and Cut Costs for Recycling Polyester With Enzymes A successful collaboration involving a trio of research institutions has yielded a road map toward an economically viable process for using enzymes to recycle plastics. The researchers, from NREL, the University of Massachusetts Lowell, and the University of … [continued]
Technology Helps Overcome Affordability Barriers to Wider Use and Manufacturing of a High-Value Material Found in Aircraft, Bicycles, Cars, and More Deconstructing epoxy resins with hot acetic acid has the potential to provide a scalable and affordable solution for recycling a material used in a range of high-value consumer products, according … [continued]
