Archive for category Recycling

Emerging Objects’ Cheap 3D Printing Material Made from Salt, Recycled Wood and Clay

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Recycling on May 17, 2013

3D printing these days is not actualy… um… green. Because it uses plastic. However, a team at Emerging Objects, a small fabrication studio in Oakland, has developed a material made from salt, wood and clay that can be (greenly) used to make 3D printing a lot greener and cheaper. “Many people are focused on machines [...]

Iran’s Apartment No. 1 Built Entirely from Recycled Stone

Posted by Mike Sandru in Green Buildings, Green News, Recycling on May 8, 2013

Iranian city Mahallat is home to a thriving stone cutting industry. Even though the industry contributes nearly half of the city’s economy, it also generates a lot of waste stone from the cutting process. Tehran’s Architecture by Collective Terrain thus set out to put the so-called waste stone to use by constructing an apartment building [...]

Half of New York’s Food Waste Will No Longer Go to Landfills

Posted by Mila Luleva in Recycling on May 3, 2013

Big restaurants and major food chains in the city of New York joined forces in a common cause to keep food waste away from landfills. Last week, the city mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that more than 100 restaurants have set a target to reduce commercial food waste added to landfills by up to 50%. The [...]

Oslo Imports Trash for Power Generation, But There’s Not Enough Trash to Go Around

Posted by Benji Jerew in Pollution, Recycling on May 2, 2013

The city of Oslo, Norway, burns its trash in specialize plants for power generation and heating, but there are more trash-burning plants than there is trash to feed them. The situation is similar in other Northern European countries, which exceed 700 million tons of trash-burning power generation capacity. The problem is, in an age of [...]

U.N. Urges That Electronic Devices be Made of Recyclable Metals

Posted by Mila Luleva in Recycling on April 26, 2013

Two United Nations reports urge companies to produce devices that are easy to break down and recycle once their lifetime is over. The two studies suggest that technologies such as mobile phones and electric car batteries should be made of copper or gold, so that they can be easily broken up. Recycling policies should not [...]

WWII Bunker Turned into Green Power Generating Facility in Germany

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Energy news, Recycling on April 24, 2013

An old World War II bunker used for sheltering 30,000 people in Hamburg is going to be transformed into an energy-generating facility that will provide heat for 3,000 homes and electricity for 1,000, reports Inhabitat. A large solar array has already been attached to the roof and exterior, and an open-air terrace will open this [...]

ORNL and GM to Recycle Used Volt Batteries in Grid Backup Supply

Posted by Benji Jerew in Energy Storage, Recycling on April 18, 2013

After years and many thousands of miles, the hybrid and electric vehicle lithium-ion battery pack performance starts to degrade, but they can’t just be thrown into the nearest landfill. This is a problem that conscientious consumers and automakers are struggling to address. Recycling is one solution, which recovers poisonous metals and other parts of the [...]

Carbon Dioxide Recycled into Sodium Bicarbonate by French Vineyard

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Recycling on April 15, 2013

To reduce their carbon footprint, a French vineyard has announced plans to capture the CO2 produced during the fermentation of grapes and convert it into sodium bicarbonate (an important ingredient in toothpaste). After collection, pharmaceutical companies will buy the sodium bicarbonate naturally-produced by Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte, from Bordeaux, France. Quoting the Industrial Agricultural Products Center [...]

How to Make a Nice Bowl From Recycled Paper

Posted by Mila Luleva in How to..., Recycling on April 10, 2013

This article will teach you how to make an inexpensive, low-tech bowl by recycling paper you have lying around, instead of throwing it to the bin and letting it rot in decades. Do you sometimes find yourself sitting on a rainy Sunday afternoon, looking at a pile of old magazines, junk mail and papers and [...]

How to Make Paper at Home from Recycled Materials

Posted by Mila Luleva in How to..., Recycling on April 7, 2013

This tutorial should enable anyone interested to make paper at home from recycled materials and put them to good, green use. “Recycle paper, save a tree” is motto that has become increasingly popular over the past few years. It is used to raise awareness and stimulate more people to care and protect the environment. Taking [...]

How to Make a $1 Speaker Out of Recycled Paper Plates

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in How to..., Recycling on April 7, 2013

This project can prove itself green if you use leftover plastic plates from a picnic, some magnets you have lying around and some copper wire from an old TV or radio. You can get yourself a nice speaker, entertain your kids and at the same time teach them something useful. So here’s this Youtube guy, [...]

Nuclear Waste Recycled by New Method Developed at OSU

Posted by Mila Luleva in Nuclear Power, Recycling on April 5, 2013

New method to reduce cost of nuclear waste disposal while irradiating medical supplies and food, was developed by a researcher at Oregon State University. Russell Goff, a masters student in the OSU Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Health Physics, estimated that the new technique could produce an annual revenue of as much as $10 million [...]

Recyclable Organic Solar Cell Hits New Efficiency Record at 2.7%

Posted by Benji Jerew in Recycling, Solar Power on March 26, 2013

Photovoltaic organic solar cells have the potential to be truly green, but often their manufacturing processes are not so green. Petroleum- and silicon-based solar cells can be bad for the environment and nearly impossible to recycle. One possible solution to creating a truly green solar cell could be to use natural materials. On the other [...]

Leftover Ash Generates Hydrogen Gas, We Just Need to Collect It

Posted by Benji Jerew in Hydrogen Power, Recycling on March 25, 2013

When power plants burn coal, wood or even refuse to generate electricity, the leftover ash generates hydrogen gas, which is why it must be stored outside. Leftover ash from power production often finds its way to landfills or, in some countries, as a construction material. It can’t be stored inside though, because the leftover ash [...]

Teijin’s Waterproof Paper Made of Recycled Plastic Bottles

Posted by Benji Jerew in Recycling on March 14, 2013

There’s always another use for recycled materials, Teijin’s new waterproof paper is made of recycled plastic bottles and can be put in a standard laser printer. We’re likely familiar with waterproof papers, and while they’re useful to a certain point, they require special handling and printing techniques. I have trail maps and guidebooks made of [...]