Styrofoam-Eating Mealworms Could Happily Dispose of Plastic Waste
One man's trash is another man's — or worm's — treasure. Research from Stanford shows that darkling beetle larvae, commonly called mealworms, will happily eat a diet of polystyrene (better known by its trade name, styrofoam), providing a possible method for disposing of this notoriously durable and pervasive plastic waste. Related: Millions of Tons! Scientists Tally Up Plastic Pollution in Oceans Wei-Min Wu and his colleagues at the university's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering raised a hundred mealworms from birth strictly on styrofoam, which the creatures can digest thanks to a type of bacteria in their gut. Amazingly, the worms seem to suffer no ill effects from eating plastic all day — they were as healthy as a control group that ate bran. Understanding how bacteria process a plastic thought to be practically indestructible, let alone edible, may lead to a way of disposing safely of the millions of tons of non-recyclable plastic thrown away every year.
5 Ways to Green Your K-Cup
Since Keurig’s K-Cup coffee system arrived on the market in the late ‘90s, single-serve coffee makers have exploded in popularity. In fiscal year 2013 alone, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, owner of the Keurig Company since 2006, sold more than $827 million worth of brewers and other accessories, more than double its sales just three years before. While the convenience and variety afforded by single-serve coffee systems is celebrated by many, the appliance’s darker side—the mountains of unrecyclable waste that result from its use—is equally abhorred by environmentalists and others concerned about the impacts of on-demand coffee. To put this waste into perspective, John Sylvan, the system’s creator, has himself estimated that a single K-Cup machine can create ten times more waste than a conventional drip brewer, and in fact now notes regretting his invention. In 2013, roughly 10 billion individual K-Cup packs were sold. Here are five greener single-serve alternatives worth checking out:
Science Update: The Science Radio News Feature of the AAAS
May 30, 2014 A biodegradable plastic isolated from shrimp shells could help curb a huge environmental problem. Podcast: Play in new window Transcript BOB HIRSHON (host): From shrimp to plastic. Plastics made from chitosan are versatile and break down quickly. Plastic waste can take decades or longer to break down, leaching toxic chemicals the whole time. DON INGBER (Wyss Institute, Harvard University): We literally took one of those clear plastic egg cartons that you may see in the supermarket, and he used that as a mold, and he made one out of this chitosan shrimp shell based plastic. HIRSHON: That suggests it could be more versatile than existing biodegradable plastics.
NYIT Students Turn Plastic Bottles Into Disaster Relief
Last week’s devastating typhoon in the Philippines has reminded designers of the ongoing challenge of creating safe, temporary shelters when natural disasters hit. Crates of food and water are some of the first types of aid delivered to these ravaged areas; so what if these resources could be designed to also provide shelter and minimize waste? The New York Institute of Technology’s School of Architecture asked just that question and came up with a solution: SodaBIB, a new type of shipping pallet that would allow commonly used plastic bottles to be used for shelter. The team just launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a full-scale shelter using their patented water bottle roofing system: the roof is constructed with discarded water bottles that are crushed, overlapped, and offset like Spanish tiles. Recently, NYIT has seen enough value in the idea to award it a modest construction budget as an institutional grant.
A lot of US plastic isn’t actually being recycled since China put up its Green Fence
For many environmentally conscious Americans, there’s a deep satisfaction to chucking anything and everything plasticky into the recycling bin—from shampoo bottles to butter tubs—the types of plastics in the plastic categories #3 through #7. Little do they know that, even if their local trash collector says it recycles that waste, they might as well be chucking those plastics in the trash bin. “[Plastics] 3-7 are absolutely going to a landfill—[China’s] not taking that any more… because of Green Fence,” David Kaplan, CEO of Maine Plastics, a post-industrial recycler, tells Quartz. “This will continue until we can do it in the United States economically.” The Green Fence went up…and it’s not coming down Kaplan is referring to an initiative the Chinese government launched last year ostensibly to reduce pollution. The program was supposed to end in November of 2013. The many lives of plastic junk Why would China import this? Cheap plastic’s toll on China’s environment But it will take time
Plastic-eating wax worm 'extremely exciting' for global pollution crisis
Cabin Built with Repurposed Windows
Hand-built by photographer Nick Olson and designer Lilah Horwitz, this charming little structure was built with a front wall of old, repurposed windows. Located in the mountains of West Virginia… Nick Olson | Lilah Horwitz
Company expands wind turbine recycling operation - Plastics Recycling Update
Wind turbines generate clean and renewable power, but when their blades reach end-of-life, the options – burning or landfilling – aren’t so green. The wind power industry pulls at the heartstrings of environmentalists, but if the blades go into landfills, “that doesn’t exactly paint a real nice PR picture for the whole industry,” said Karl Englund. “We don’t want to see that happen.” Englund is chief technology officer for Global Fiberglass Solutions (GFS), a Bothell, Wash.-based company that is hoping to make some of its own green by recycling the blades into pellets and boards. The company has developed – and is scaling up – a plant in Sweetwater, Texas to recycle fiberglass from wind turbine blades and other sources. In January, the company began commercial production of its flagship product offering: recycled EcoPoly brand pellets. GFS says it’s the first U.S. Tough to recycle The difficulties start at collection. GFS uses a mechanical breakdown process to size reduce the blades.
Canadian company recycles minerals from electric vehicle batteries » Yale Climate Connections
As electric vehicles become more mainstream, the demand for lithium ion car batteries is growing. But to increase production, the industry needs more lithium, cobalt, and nickel. One possible source is batteries that are no longer in use. “It’s a bit of a waste to just have batteries sitting in a landfill. Li-Cycle uses a two-step process to recover more than 80% of the materials in old lithium ion batteries. “We take the batteries and shred them,” Phalpher says. The approach generates less carbon pollution than mining those minerals from the ground. Li-Cycle has a demonstration plant in Canada, and Phalpher says it’s building a new facility in Rochester, New York. Reporting credit: ChavoBart Digital Media.
