Solar panels don’t last forever. After about 20-30 years, they stop working and often get thrown away. That adds up to a lot of waste—millions of panels every year. One company now sees this waste not as trash, but as a hidden source of gold and silver. Instead of digging for new metals, they want t
Recycling leftover eucalyptus wood into biochar turns a common trash problem into a water-cleaning hero. Scientists took ordinary wood chips from eucalyptus trees and heated them without oxygen, creating a material that grabs arsenic from polluted water. In lab tests, one gram of this biochar remove
In many parts of western Iran, farmers produce a lot of crop and orchard leftovers that can harm the environment if not handled properly. A new study looked at why these farmers decide to recycle or ignore that waste, using two well‑known theories about human behavior. The research combined the T
Every year, billions of used alkaline batteries end up in landfills, leaking harmful metals like zinc and manganese. Instead of just chucking them away, scientists found a clever way to give these batteries a second job. They turned battery scrap into tiny particles that can purify dirty water under
A new team effort in Germany is turning the way we think about plastic waste. The project, called Smart Pyrolysis, brings together a chemical company and a research institute to make plastic recycling smarter. Instead of burning or dumping plastic, the plan is to heat it in a controlled way so
Short‑chain and medium‑chain chlorinated paraffins, common in plastics and metal‑working fluids, have become a hot topic because they stick around in the environment, travel far, and can build up in living things. Long‑chain variants are less studied but may also be a threat. In China’s Guiyu, a tow
A Texas federal judge has cleared the way for ExxonMobil to sue California’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, over remarks about the company’s plastic recycling claims. Judge Michael J. Truncale ruled that Bonta cannot rely on official immunity for certain statements, including a campaign email sent to
Ever wondered what happens to all that shrink wrap after it's used? It turns out, it can be turned into something new and useful. A special process called STRAP is making this possible. It takes old shrink wrap, full of inks, glue, and even bits of paper, and turns it into clean, clear plastic. Thi
Alachua County is doing pretty well with recycling, ranking fifth in Florida in 2024. But there's still a big problem: people putting the wrong stuff in recycling bins. This messes things up and makes recycling more expensive. So, what can you actually recycle? Bottles, cans, cardboard, and paper a
Plastic waste is a big problem. It's everywhere. In our homes, in our streets, and even in our oceans. By 2050, there could be 40 billion tons of plastic waste in the oceans. That's a huge amount! So, finding ways to recycle plastic is really important. Scientists have found a new way to recycle po
