All posts tagged: recycling

BPF roadmap calls for urgent action on UK plastic waste recycling

BPF roadmap calls for urgent action on UK plastic waste recycling

Published by skeptic

A new edition of the British Plastics Federation’s (BPF) Recycling Roadmap has just been released, offering updated insights into the UK’s plastic waste recycling targets and challenges. The report, developed in collaboration with RECOUP, outlines what the UK needs to achieve by 2035 and the critical changes required to meet ambitious plastic waste recycling goals. RECOUP’s Sustainability & Circularity Manager Irina Ankudinova explained: “The BPF Recycling Roadmap provides a systemic overview of plastic recycling, highlighting opportunities and challenges in maximising plastic material circularity in the UK. “The roadmap demonstrates the potential to achieve an ambitious future vision while also drawing attention to the potential negative consequences of inaction. “We view the roadmap as a valuable tool for promoting collaboration between the government, businesses, and citizens to achieve a plastic recycling system that we all can be proud of.” Slow progress despite initial roadmap The report reveals that while the first edition of the roadmap was introduced in 2021, many of the suggested changes have yet to be implemented. Delays in government policy rollouts and challenging …

BMW partners with Redwood Materials for EV battery recycling

BMW partners with Redwood Materials for EV battery recycling

Published by skeptic

Battery recycling specialist Redwood Materials has just gained another major automaker as a client, signing a partnership with BMW of North America. Redwood will help recover and recycle end of life lithium-ion cells and their rare materials from BMW Group marques like MINI and Rolls-Royce. Today’s latest partnership announcement only helps solidify Redwood Materials’ current status as the industry leader in battery recycling. The company, founded in 2017 by Tesla co-founder and former CTO JB Straubel, has found quick success in creating a more circular economy around lithium-ion batteries and their precious materials, such as cobalt, copper, lithium, and nickel. In the past few years especially, Redwood has earned the business of several major OEMs, including Ford, Volkswagen Group, and Volvo. In turn, Redwood has recycled those brand’s batteries and resold their materials and components to companies like Panasonic and Toyota for a new life in EVs. The company is quite good at what it does, too. In 2023, it was touting 95% efficiency in a battery recycling pilot, which helped it garner huge government …

Woman Disgusted When She Uses Tracker to See Where Her Plastic Recycling Really Ends Up

Woman Disgusted When She Uses Tracker to See Where Her Plastic Recycling Really Ends Up

Published by José

“We want to know what was happening with this stuff.” Handy Device An environmentalist put a GPS tracker in with her recycling to see where it ended up — and the results were not confidence-inspiring. As Inside Climate News reports in an investigative collaboration with CBS, Houston activist and avid recycler Brandy Deason tossed an Apple Tag in with her bagged plastic waste to take to one of the city’s new recycling drop-off sites to see what really happens to recyclables. Deason dropped her secretly-tagged plastic bag off with the Houston Recycling Collaboration, a public-private partnership that launched with the help of Exxon nearly two years ago to address the city’s low recycling rates. Though the program was partially billed as being capable of melting any plastic down for reuse chemically, ICN and CBS found with the help of Deason that no such process has occurred in the 20 months since the project first began. In fact, the sorting plant that’s supposed to enact the so-called “advanced recycling” process still hasn’t opened — and won’t do so until …

Research identifies advanced PET plastic recycling methods

Research identifies advanced PET plastic recycling methods

Published by skeptic

A Chinese Academy of Sciences review has identified effective methods for PET plastic recycling. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic poses major environmental risks as it is highly durable and has resistance to natural degradation. According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), over 82 million metric tons of PET plastic are produced globally each year. This is mainly to manufacture single-use plastic bottles, clothing, packaging, and carpets. Due to prevalent usage, PET is a significant contributor to plastic waste worldwide and requires effective recycling strategies. To combat this issue, researchers have now identified innovative biotic and abiotic recycling and upcycling methods for PET. These methods will help transform PET waste into valuable materials. What is PET plastic? PET plastic is a versatile polymer widely used in the manufacturing of various products, particularly packaging materials. This thermoplastic polymer is renowned for its exceptional properties, notably its clarity, strength, and lightweight nature, making it an excellent material for producing bottles, containers, and films. Additionally, PET plastic exhibits excellent barrier properties, protecting contents from moisture, gases, and other external …

Plastic pollution treaty would be ‘failure’ without tackling emissions

Plastic pollution treaty would be ‘failure’ without tackling emissions

Published by skeptic

People took part in a rally in Ottawa to support ending plastic pollution Canadian Press/Shutterstock Delegates from nearly every country are gathered in Canada to hammer out the details of a global treaty to address ballooning plastic pollution. One source of division at the summit, which concluded 29 April, was how to address the greenhouse gas emissions generated by producing and using plastic, a growing and under-recognised driver of climate change. “When people think about plastic, they think about what they see visually,” says Alice Zhu at the University of Toronto in Canada. But extracting and processing the fossil fuels and other chemicals used to make plastic produces substantial greenhouse gas emissions, as does generating the energy required to make plastic products. Plastic now accounts for around 10 per cent of total demand for oil and natural gas; coal is also increasingly used to power plastic production. Incinerating plastic waste is another source of greenhouse gas emissions. As it degrades, plastic in the environment can also produce carbon dioxide and methane emissions. Plastic may even …

Let’s not trash recycling technologies that could end plastic waste

Let’s not trash recycling technologies that could end plastic waste

Published by skeptic

Andriy Onufriyenko/Getty Images In 1980, Disney World in Orlando, Florida, started work on a new way to generate power for the theme park, cutting its use of oil, the price of which had soared. The Solid Waste Energy Conversion Plant took trash, including plastic, and used a method called pyrolysis to turn it into combustible gases. It opened in 1982, but closed a year later, as the cost of running it mounted. Today, environmental campaigners are invoking the Disney story to trash the reputation of a suite of new technologies, collectively known as advanced recycling, which take plastic waste and convert it back into brand new plastic. Their argument is disingenuous. The failure of Disney’s plant had more to do with a subsequent fall in oil prices than technological or environmental problems. Pyrolysis has improved a lot since the 1980s. And in any case, Disney’s plant was designed to produce fuel, which isn’t classed as advanced recycling. As we report in our feature “The incredible new tech that can recycle all plastics, forever”, advanced recycling …

New method for wind turbine blade recycling

New method for wind turbine blade recycling

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Lithuanian researchers have developed an innovative method using pyrolysis to solve the challenge of wind turbine blade recycling. Wind turbine blades have a vital role in the transition to clean energy. However, when the blades reach the end of their operational lifespan, disposal becomes a serious concern. Wind turbine blades, made with composite materials such as layers of fibreglass or carbon fibre reinforced with epoxy, can be used for 20 to 25 years. Although these materials ensure strength and lightness, they also complicate the recycling of them. Pyrolysis for wind turbine blade recycling Until a few years ago, wind turbine blades were almost impossible to recycle. Conventional disposal methods like landfilling pose environmental risks and resource depletion. Because of this, researchers are looking for new recycling methods. In 2022, Dr Samy Yousef, a researcher at Kaunas University of Technology (KTU) Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Design, and a team of researchers from the Lithuanian Energy Institute, completed several experiments to develop a new solution. The team used a special catalyst to break down old composite …

The incredible new tech that can recycle all plastics, forever

The incredible new tech that can recycle all plastics, forever

Published by skeptic

Satakorn Sukontakajonkul/Alamy I spend an inordinate amount of time in my kitchen scrutinising pieces of plastic, trying to discern whether they are recyclable or not. If they are, they go into a bag alongside glass, cans, cardboard and paper. If not, or if I am unsure, I put them in a plastic bag (non-recyclable) and shove it into the cupboard under the stairs. My intention is to deposit it in a container for non-recyclable plastics in a nearby supermarket. But the road to landfill is paved with good intentions. Sometimes I get exasperated and just end up chucking it. Whether my obsessive sorting actually makes any difference, I don’t know. I hope the recyclables do end up being recycled. As for the other stuff, which makes up about half of my plastic waste, I have no idea of its fate. I presume it is called “non-recyclable” for a reason. Hopefully, I soon won’t have to waste any more of my precious time triaging this type of waste. A suite of “advanced recycling” technologies is gradually …

16 Best Recycled and Upcycled Clothes (2024): Leggings, Sneakers, T-shirts

16 Best Recycled and Upcycled Clothes (2024): Leggings, Sneakers, T-shirts

Published by skeptic

I love clothes, but the fashion industry is having a crisis all on its own, on top of the trash crisis and general climate crisis we’ve been dealing with for decades. Textile waste and other plastic trash is polluting our oceans, lining both city and rural streets, and harming animals that are trying to go about their day. We can reduce our own plastic usage, especially swapping single-use plastics out for reusable items, but some fashion brands have figured out how to turn some of that trash—mostly plastic bottles and old clothes—into new shirts and accessories. Sustainable fashion is a growing category, and it isn’t perfect, but it’s a start. These are our favorite clothes made from recycled materials that we’ve tested. Be sure to check out our other product guides, like the Best Recycled Bags, Best Everyday Products Made of Recycled Materials, and the Best Reusable Products. Updated April 2024: We added a Carve Designs sweater, Swedish Stockings tights, and new slide slippers from Verloop. We’ve also updated prices and links throughout. How Plastic …

French PM accused of recycling far-right ideas in youth violence crackdown | France

French PM accused of recycling far-right ideas in youth violence crackdown | France

Published by skeptic

The French prime minister, Gabriel Attal, is facing criticism for his proposed crackdown on teenage violence in and around schools, after he said some teenagers in France were “addicted to violence”, just as the government seeks to reclaim ground on security issues from the far right before European elections. In his speech in Viry-Châtillon, a town south of Paris where a 15-year-old boy was beaten and killed this month by a group of young people, Attal said the state needed “a real surge of authority”. Attal suggested some offenders aged under 18 could be treated as adults in the legal system. He also proposed sending disruptive children far away from their neighbourhoods to boarding schools, and will visit a boarding school next week to promote the measure. Attal said: “There are twice as many adolescents involved in assault cases, four times more in drug trafficking, and seven times more in armed robberies than in the general population.” He claimed there were also increased “Islamist” influences among school-age children. Attal said disruptive behaviour could be marked …