Tag: recycle

3 Top Tips for the Eco Conscious Shopper

Guest Author
green recycle alternative

We are all much more environmentally conscious today than we were just a few years ago. In the modern world we don’t have much of a choice about it, global warming is a hot button issue and we are all beginning to experience the effects of climate change first hand. Just as surely as we are all learning to love the environment however, we still need to keep our inner consumer fed. Moving towards a more environmentally friendly world doesn’t mean that we have to completely turn our backs on…

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New recycling technology can keep more glass out of landfills

Angie Bergenson

Self-adhesive technology allows clear separation of labels from glass. Avery Dennison has introduced a glass recycling technology that enables the clean separation of self-adhesive labels from glass materials. Their new technology will not only ensure that glass products will still maintain shelf appeal but, more importantly, it will allow more glass items to be recycled, which means less glass will be sent to landfills. More glass that consumers recycle end up in landfills than they might realize. According to information on the Avery Dennison Glass Recycling webpage, “For single-use bottles,…

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Rare-earth magnets recycling process simplified

John Max

The new process to recycle rare-earth magnets could make the electronic industry more sustainable. American researchers from the University of Pennsylvania have developed a new recycling process, which focuses on reprocessing two types of rare earth metals, neodymium and dysprosium, which are commonly used as magnets in a variety of electronic devices, and are both equally difficult to find in nature and can only be extracted via a complex method that is also damaging to the environment. The new reprocessing method is surprisingly uncomplicated. According to Engineering and Technology Magazine,…

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New York City to overhaul recycling program

Erin Kilgore

New York City plans to lower its waste by 90% by 2030. The OneNYC plan, a new environmental plan, which includes overhauling the city’s current recycling system, introducing incentives to decrease waste, and dramatically reducing the use of plastic shopping bags – in order to reach the goal of lowering the city’s waste output by 90% by 2030 – was unveiled on Earth Day in New York City by NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio. Adopting this plan would decrease the city’s waste by over 3 million tons. According to the…

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Plasma arc technology to be developed for US Waste Management company

Amanda Giasson

Duncan Recycling & Refining will be able to recover precious metals from catalytic converters. US waste management firm, Duncan Recycling & Refining (DR2), has entered into a deal with UK based manufacturer of plasma arc recycling equipment for the recovery of precious metals, Tetronics International, which will provide DR2 with its technology to enable the company to recover precious metals from catalytic convertors found in automotive vehicles. The recovery of valuable resources will help reduce waste. Tetronics International’s arc systems make it possible to recover valuable resources from materials, such…

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Mexican company develops water-free plastic recycling technology

Amanda Giasson

The plastic recycling system requires only half of the energy used by previous systems. Mexican startup, Ak Inovex, has developed a new recycling technology that enables plastics to be recycled without the use of water, with less energy compared to previous systems, and produces plastic pellets of the same or better quality. More than 90% of all types of plastics can be processed by the water-free method. In addition to processing 90% of any type of plastic, it can also process PET, ABS, Styrofoam, and polystyrene. Even more impressive, aside…

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Goats help to recycle Christmas trees and keep them out of landfills

Tami Hood

New recycling program in Nevada helps manage Christmas tree waste. It is the time of year when those who celebrated Christmas and decorated real Christmas trees will soon be disposing of them and, in some parts of the U.S., different programs have been established to help recycle these trees to prevent them from being tossed into landfills, such as Vince Thomas’ recycling program in Nevada, which uses goats to help manage the waste. Trees dumped in the desert can be a serious fire hazard. Vince Thomas is a volunteer firefighter…

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New recycling plant in Southern Nevada to help encourage residents to recycle more

Angie Bergenson

Waste management company will be able to process more kinds of reusable material. Republic Services, a waste management company in Southern Nevada, operates a recycling facility that is no longer large enough to accommodate all of the curbside recyclables left by residents in the area with large recycle bins and, as a result, the excess recyclables have been dumped at the company’s Apex landfill, but a new facility is about to change all of that. A second and larger plant will boost the company’s capacity and enable it to handle…

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New recycling technology revolutionizes how scrapped cars are recycled

Amanda Giasson

A new technology aims to recycle almost 100% of old vehicles or turn them into energy. Oldbury, a town in the West Midlands in England, will be introducing the largest industrial waste gasification factory in the world this month, a facility that is the £100 million joint venture between Chinook Sciences and European Metals Recycling (EMR), the biggest metals recycling company in Britain. The project is part of the growing “cleantech” sector. Cleantech is a specific area of the clean economy that includes everything from car sharing to renewable energy…

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Recycling technology could make paper cups more recyclable

Amanda Giasson

A new coating developed by a company based in the Netherlands makes paper cups recyclable. AkzoNobel, a company that produces specialty paints, coatings and chemicals in the Netherlands, has created a recycling technology that makes paper cups not only recyclable but compostable. The coating technology is made from oils that are plant based. Called the EvCote Water Barrier 3000, the coating is comprised of recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles and plant-based oils. According to AkzoNobel’s executive committee member who is responsible for performance coatings, Conrad Keijzer, “This is an industry-changing…

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Recycling company makes technology more affordable

John Max

A UK firm is helping out the environment and refurbishing computers at the same time. Spartan, a UK IT recycling and remarketing company that is based in Cannock, is working toward helping people in the United Kingdom who do not have access to digital technology overcome this issue by providing them with refurbished equipment that would have otherwise ended up in a landfill. Almost 20 percent of the UK population lack basic online skills. Approximately 9.5 million people in Britain do not have the general skills that are required to…

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Waste management in Sweden has become a “recycling revolution”

Tami Hood

99% of household garbage is now recycled in Sweden. In what has been called a “recycling revolution”, the Scandinavian nation is moving closer and closer to becoming a waste-free country, as less than 1% of the country’s household trash is dumped in landfills due to its innovative recycling program that enables highly efficient waste management. Sweden imports nearly 800,000 tons of trash per year from other European countries. Although Swedes typically generate as much, or just slightly less, waste as people in other countries every year (roughly 461 kilograms per…

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Recycling technology creates clothing exclusively made from recycled cotton

Amanda Giasson

Swedish scientists invent a new method of recreating cotton. Scientists at Stockholm’s Royal Institute of Technology are attempting to prevent discarded clothing from being sent to landfills and to help preserve cotton, an important resource that could become quite scarce in the future, by inventing a new form of recycling technology that will allow the fabric to be reused. The worldwide consumption of clothing has notably increased throughout the years. According to United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) statistics, in 2010, around the world, people consumed 69.7 million tons…

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Recycling technology in Istanbul feeds stray dogs and cats

Amanda Giasson

People in Turkey’s largest city can feed stray animals by recycling plastic. The recycling technology, created by Pugedon, has been designed to distribute a small portion of dry kibble and drinking water for one of the city’s numerous stray dogs or cats whenever a person deposits a plastic bottle in one of the company’s “Smart Recycling Boxes”. Combined, there are an estimated 150,000 stray cats and dogs in Istanbul. Due to the fact that there are so many of them, it is not uncommon to see animals wandering the streets.…

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Recycling technology enables asphalt to be reused

Amanda Giasson

Paving machine demonstrates how it can save money and lower carbon footprint. Last week, in Hazelton, Pennsylvania, city officials were given a demonstration of how recycling technology could make asphalt reusable for patching potholes and they watched a Bagela portable asphalt recycler transform old broken asphalt into a fresh hot asphalt mix in a matter of minutes, which was then used on a cracked area of North Poplar Street that was in need of a patch. The machine offers the city several cost effective benefits. Frank Vito, a Hazelton highway…

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EU Recycling of beverage cartons is on the rise

Bret Williams

Most recent figures on carton recycling in Europe show that rates are up more than 40 percent. An estimated 42 percent of beverage cartons were recycled last year, which is about equal to 425,000 tons of cartons and is a 3 percent increase from 2012, which is positive news for Europe and EU recycling goals. The entire recovery rate has surpassed 70 percent across the European Union (EU). The boost in rates follows the year on year rise of 3 percent from 2011- 2012. This brings the full recovery rate…

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