Rafael Mezzenga
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Modern Alchemist Profitably Extracts Gold From E-Waste

ZURICH, Switzerland, March 6, 2024 (ENS) – Transforming base materials into gold was one of the unachieved aims of ancient alchemists. But now Professor Raffaele Mezzenga from the Department of Health Sciences and Technology at the research university ETH Zurich has discovered how to recover gold from the base materials in discarded electronics using a byproduct of cheesemaking. […]

space debris
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U.S. Issues World’s First Fine for Mishandling Space Debris

WASHINGTON, DC, October 3, 2023 (ENS) – The Enforcement Bureau of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission Monday cracked down on the publicly traded Dish Network Corporation over the TV and technology company’s failure “to properly deorbit” its EchoStar-7 satellite at the end of its mission. The EchoStar-7 was used to carry Dish’s direct broadcast satellite service. […]

Baltimore
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Biden Admin Invests $100 Million in Recycling Infrastructure

WASHINGTON, DC, September 14, 2023 (ENS) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is receiving more than $100 million from President Joe Biden’s Investing in America agenda to expand recycling infrastructure and waste management systems across the country. These funds will be EPA’s largest recycling investment in 30 years. […]

cigarette butts
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Discarded Cigarette Butts Leak Thousands of Killer Chemicals

GOTHENBURG, Sweden, May 18, 2023 (ENS) – On the trail, in the gutter, at the bus stop, in the park, on the beach, cigarette butts are everywhere. In fact, cigarette filters are the world’s most common form of litter, and now University of Gothenburg researchers are calling for these filters to be completely banned. […]

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Coal Waste Reimagined as ‘Ecofriendly’

WASHINGTON, DC, March 29, 2022 (ENS) – Turning coal waste from power plants into fire-resistant, strong, lightweight building materials is a project the U.S. Department of Energy is supporting, investing another $2.2 million this month as part of a wider effort … […]

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World’s E-Waste Heavier than China’s Great Wall

BRUSSELS, Belgium, October 14, 2021 (ENS) – Today, on International E-Waste Day 2021, waste management experts are asking households, businesses, and governments to take more dead or unused electronic devices to facilities where they can be repaired or recycled to recover precious metals and reduce the need to mine new resources. […]

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Upcycling Turns Plastic Waste Into Oils, Foods

AMES, Iowa, August 5, 2021 (ENS) – In pursuit of a circular economy that captures waste plastic before it contaminates the environment, scientists are transforming discarded plastic items, originally made from petroleum, right back into oil in the form of liquid lubricants such as hydraulic fluids, heat transfer fluids and greases. […]

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3D Printing Plant Hits Zero Waste To Landfill Status

DUSSELDORF, Germany, April 20, 2021 (ENS) – Henkel’s, the German firm founded in 1876 that today manufactures adhesives and resins for 3D printing, has achieved zero production waste to landfill status at its Dixon facility in California. Achieving this status is a global initiative […]

nets
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Trash by the Ton Cleared Off Remote Hawaiian Beaches

KAUNAKAKAI, Moloka’i, Hawaii, January 13, 2021 (ENS) – In the Hawaiian Islands, the past year was plagued with travel and gathering limitations due to COVID-19, yet The Nature Conservancy’s Hawaii Chapter and partners were able to remove more than 46,000 pounds of marine debris from Moloka’i’s remote beaches in the last quarter of 2020 alone. […]

workers
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U.S. Hanford Nuclear Site to Glassify Plutonium Waste

RICHLAND, Washington, January 12, 2021 (ENS) – The U.S. Department of Energy is poised to complete a cleanup commitment that has been decades in the making – immobilizing in glass the least radioactive portion of the tank waste at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in south central Washington State. […]

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Secret Canada-U.S. Plastic Waste Trade Deal Revealed

SEATTLE, Washington, December 18, 2020 (ENS) – Environmental groups are calling a secret agreement on plastic wastes signed between Canada and the United States “illegal, unacceptable and dangerous.” In a letter to Canadian Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, Canadian, U.S. and international environmental organizations called on the minister to make the secret agreement public. […]

cask
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Low-level Radioactive Waste Could Go to Local Landfills

ROCKVILLE, Maryland, April 8, 2020 (ENS) – As the nation is focused on coping with the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, NRC, is quietly moving to permanently deregulate massive amounts of low-level radioactive waste, but not spent nuclear fuel. […]

plastic trash
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Microplastics Problem Extends Beyond the Sea

GLOUCESTER POINT, Virginia, February 24, 2020 (ENS) – “Microplastics are a global phenomenon that can’t be adequately understood or addressed in the context of the marine environment alone,” says Professor Rob Hale of William & Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science, VIMS. “Plastics are produced, used, and discarded on land, and disperse through soils, rivers, and the atmosphere. […]

dead whale
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Turning the Plastic Tide

NEW YORK, New York, October 22, 2019 (ENS) – Every minute around the world, almost one million plastic bottles are purchased. As the environmental impact of that plastic tide swells into a political issue, packaged goods sellers and retailers, pressured to stem the flow of single-use bottles and containers, are coming up with new ideas and technologies. […]

plastic
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Canada to Ban Throw-Away Plastics by 2021

MONT-SAINT-HILAIRE, Quebec, Canada, June 10, 2019 (ENS) – Canada intends to ban “harmful” single-use plastics as early as 2021 and hold companies responsible for plastic waste, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced today. “Canadians know first-hand the impacts of plastic pollution, and are tired of seeing their beaches, parks, streets, and shorelines littered with plastic waste. […]

trash
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Powering Jet Planes With Plastic Waste

RICHLAND, Washington, June 4, 2019 (ENS) – Scientists have found a way to turn daily-use plastic waste products into jet fuel. In a method described in a new paper in the journal “Applied Energy,” a research group led by Washington State University Associate Professor Hanwu Lei melted plastic waste at a high temperature with activated carbon to produce jet fuel. […]

mayors
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New York City Ends Reliance on Plastic Tableware

NEW YORK, New York, April 15, 2019 – New York Mayor Bill de Blasio signed an executive order today that will end the direct city purchase of unnecessary single-use plastics in favor of compostable or recyclable alternatives. New York City purchases at least 1.1 million pounds of single-use plastic tableware every year… […]