In 2015, over 320 million tons of polymers, excluding fibers, were manufactured across the globe.
Articles on Recycling
Displaying 301 - 320 of 411 articles
Every day we throw away plastic and every day we’re reminded of its environmental impact. Why can’t something be done about it?
New types of biodegradable or compostable plastic products seem to offer an alternative to conventional plastics. But they may be no better for the environment.
Plastic bags are commonly mistaken for food by sea animals. They require a lot of energy and resources to be made, and have caused floods in some countries.
You might know expanded polystyrene as packing foam, but it’s a nightmare to recycle. Why not just turn it into something useful (or beautiful) instead?
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but plastic straws are ruining the ocean.
The residents of Freetown Christiania have lived by degrowth values for decades.
Waste byproducts from rice and glass combined with fungus can create a construction material with the potential to save lives and the planet.
Illegal dumping is costing governments millions – but satellite technology could help put a stop to it.
If the US were to stop dumping these valuable metals in landfills and to cease exporting them as cheap scrap, its imports could fall, and there would be less of these metals being made from scratch.
In Asia, human hair is sold and recycled into products, but in the West it is treated with either disgust or veneration. A new exhibition explores our bizarre attitudes to hair.
Health care produces 7% of Australia’s carbon emissions. And hospitals produce about half of this. Not to mention all the single-use items thrown away every day.
No amount of post-consumer recycling can recoup the waste generated before consumers purchase their devices.
Plastic can only be recycled a few times before it becomes useless. But even non-recyclable plastic can be used to help produce petrol and diesel. Could this process help overcome the recycling crisis?
Littering in protest is indicative of a discordant society, and a culture of littering can tell us a lot about a society’s ethos.
Both short- and long-term solutions are needed to solve Australia’s recycling crisis. State and federal ministers are pursuing some promising avenues, but they need to cast the net much wider.
Under a new target, 100% of Australian packaging will be recyclable, compostable or reusable by 2025. But this is not enough - we also need to ensure that recyclable materials are actually recycled.
China new cleanliness standards for the recyclable materials it imports are so stringent that they are tantamount to a total ban. Australian councils are now in crisis mode as the rubbish piles up.
Ipswich Council has stopped recycling and it’s likely that others around Australia will follow suit.
New research has found a way to speed up enzymes that break down the PET plastic in bottles.
Top contributors
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Senior Research Fellow, BehaviourWorks Australia, Monash University
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Lecturer, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University
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Associate Professor and Research Director, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney
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Professor of Global Environmental Politics, University of California, Berkeley
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Professor of Applied Environmental Science, University of Southampton
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Research Principal, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney
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Chair professor - Circular Economy, The University of Melbourne
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Research Chair, Indigenous Approaches to Environmental Management, Keele University
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Senior Lecturer, School of Property, Construction and Project Management, RMIT University
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Associate Dean and Head of Project Management, RMIT University
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Professor of Sustainable Development, Keele University
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Research Director, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney
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Research associate, Loughborough University
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PhD Candidate in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California, Berkeley
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Birkbeck, University of London