Recycling and Waste news and discussions

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The Case of the Missing 45 Million Gallons of Milk
by Bridget Huber
June 6, 2024

Introduction:

(Inverse) In January 2019, students at Lovin Elementary School in Lawrenceville, Georgia, took a hard look at how much food they were throwing away. It was Taco Day, and as lunch period wrapped up, teacher Gerin Hennebaul and a group of students sorted the milk, fruit, vegetables, and other foods left on the cafeteria trays into buckets. “It really left an impact on the kids," Hennebaul says. "They were shocked."

The students weighed the waste and found that that day's lunch, served to 721 kids, generated nearly 600 pounds of food waste. About 75 pounds of it was fruits and vegetables, and 120 pounds was still edible: unopened milk cartons, bags of baby carrots and sliced apples.

With more than 95,000 schools across the country serving lunch each day, that waste adds up. About 530,000 tons of food and 45 million gallons of milk is wasted in U.S. school cafeterias each year, the World Wildlife Fund estimates, which translates into about $1.7 billion worth of uneaten food.

Dumping food in landfills releases methane, a greenhouse gas more potent than carbon dioxide. And wasting food indirectly drives extinction; agriculture is the leading cause of biodiversity loss around the world — converting wild lands to cropland, diverting or polluting rivers and lakes, and pesticide use destroys habitats that wildlife need to survive. To tackle the environmental toll of landfilling all that food, environmental groups, like the World Wildlife Fund, have been working for about a decade with nearly 250 schools nationwide, including Lovin Elementary, to reduce waste but also to educate kids about the broader connection between the food they eat and issues like climate change and biodiversity loss.

As Pete Pearson, the WWF's senior director of food loss and waste, explains, making the cafeteria a classroom helps reduce waste now, and hopefully will produce a generation that's more environmentally responsible than their parents. "When you get a school that is saying, 'Hey, let's take a look at our cafeteria, let's understand the connection of food to the environment,’ then students start asking questions," he says.

Read more here: https://www.inverse.com/science/food-w ... c-schools

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How to Increase the Rate of Plastics Recycling
July 2 , 2024

Introduction:

(Eurekalert) While recycling systems and bottle deposits have become increasingly widespread in the U.S., actual rates of recycling are “abysmal,” according to a team of MIT researchers who studied the rates for recycling of PET, the plastic commonly used in beverage bottles. However, their findings suggest some ways to change this.

The present rate of recycling for PET, or polyethylene terephthalate, bottles nationwide is about 24 percent and has remained stagnant for a decade, the researchers say. But their study indicates that with a nationwide bottle deposit program, the rates could increase to 82 percent, with nearly two-thirds of all PET bottles being recycled into new bottles, at a net cost of just a penny a bottle when demand is robust. At the same time, they say, policies would be needed to ensure a sufficient demand for the recycled material.

The findings are being published today in the Journal of Industrial Ecology, in a paper by MIT professor of materials science and engineering Elsa Olivetti, graduate students Basuhi Ravi and Karan Bhuwalka, and research scientist Richard Roth.

The team looked at PET bottle collection and recycling rates in different states as well as other nations with and without bottle deposit policies, and with or without curbside recycling programs, as well as the inputs and outputs of various recycling companies and methods. The researchers say this study is the first to look in detail at the interplay between public policies and the end-to-end realities of the packaging production and recycling market.
They found that bottle deposit programs are highly effective in the areas where they are in place, but at present there is not nearly enough collection of used bottles to meet the targets set by the packaging industry. Their analysis suggests that a uniform nationwide bottle deposit policy could achieve the levels of recycling that have been mandated by proposed legislation and corporate commitments.

Read more of the Eurkealert article here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1050280

For a presentation of the study as published in Journal of Industrial Ecology: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jiec.13496

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Plastic Waste Can Now be Converted to Electronic Devices
July 19, 2024

Introduction:

(Eurekalert) University of Delaware and Argonne National Laboratory have come up with a chemical reaction that can convert Styrofoam into a high-value conducting polymer known as PEDOT:PSS. In a new paper published in JACS Au, the study demonstrates how upgraded plastic waste can be successfully incorporated into functional electronic devices, including silicon-based hybrid solar cells and organic electrochemical transistors.
The research group of corresponding author Laure Kayser, assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering in UD’s College of Engineering with a joint appointment in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences, regularly works with PEDOT:PSS, a polymer that has both electronic and ionic conductivity, and was interested in finding ways to synthesize this material from plastic waste.

After connecting with Argonne chemist David Kaphan during an event hosted by UD’s research office, the research teams at UD and Argonne began evaluating the hypothesis that PEDOT:PSS could be made by sulfonating polystyrene, a synthetic plastic found in many types of disposable containers and packing materials.

Sulfonation is a common chemical reaction where a hydrogen atom is replaced by sulfonic acid; the process is used to create a variety of products such as dyes, drugs and ion exchange resins. These reactions can either be “hard“ (with higher conversion efficiency but that require caustic reagents) or “soft” (a less efficient method but one that uses milder materials).

In this paper, the researchers wanted to find something in the middle: "A reagent that is efficient enough to get really high degrees of functionalization but that doesn't mess up your polymer chain,” Kayser explaine

Read more of the Eurekalert article here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1051974

For a technical presentation of study results as published in ACS AU: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacsau.4c00355

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One of the important things about waste is to ensure that it doe not pollute our water supply. Case in point are microplastics:

There's a Surprisingly Easy Way to Remove Microplastics From Your Drinking Water
by Daivd Nield
August 7, 2024

Introduction:

(Science Alert) Tiny fragments of microplastics are making their way deep inside our bodies in concerning quantities, significantly through our food and drink.

Scientists have recently found a simple and effective means of removing them from water.

A team from Guangzhou Medical University and Jinan University in China ran tests on both soft water and hard tap water (which is richer in minerals), adding in nanoplastics and microplastics (NMPs) before boiling the liquid and then filtering out any precipitates.

In some cases, up to 90 percent of the NMPs were removed by the boiling and filtering process, though the effectiveness varied based on the type of water. Of course the big benefit is that most people can do it using what they already have in their kitchen.

"This simple boiling water strategy can 'decontaminate' NMPs from household tap water and has the potential for harmlessly alleviating human intake of NMPs through water consumption," write the researchers in their paper, published in February.

Read more here: https://www.sciencealert.com/theres-a- ... ing-water

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Researchers discover smarter way to recycle polyurethane
https://phys.org/news/2024-08-smarter-r ... thane.html
by Peter F. Gammelby, Aarhus University

Researchers at Aarhus University have found a better method to recycle polyurethane foam from items like mattresses. This is great news for the budding industry that aims to chemically recover the original components of the material—making their products cheaper and better.

Polyurethane (PUR) is an indispensable plastic material used in mattresses, insulation in refrigerators and buildings, shoes, cars, airplanes, wind turbine blades, cables, and much more. It could be called a wonder material if it weren't also an environmental and climate burden. Most of the PUR products discarded worldwide end up being incinerated or dumped in landfills.

[firestar464]

A way to recover silver from dead solar panels with 98% efficiency

https://phys.org/news/2024-08-recover-s ... anels.html

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New 'Living Plastic' Self-Destructs Once It's Thrown Away
by Carly Cassella
August 29, 2024

Introduction:

(Science Alert) Scientists have created a 'living plastic' that self-destructs when the material begins to erode.

In the composting process, the novel product breaks down within a month, compared with more traditional versions that take up to 55 days to decompose under the same conditions.

The hopeful technology was inspired by the power of plastic-munching proteins, which are naturally produced by a species of bacteria discovered in 2016 at a recycling facility in Japan.

In the years since scientists have found several other species of bacteria that have evolved the enzymes to eat plastic, and these natural proteins have inspired synthetic versions that are even hungrier for our waste.

Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), led by synthetic biologist Chenwang Tang, have now figured out how to bake bacterial spores that secrete these enzymes into the very structure of polycaprolactone (PCL) plastic.

Read more here: https://www.sciencealert.com/new-livin ... own-away

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These Household Brands Want to Redefine What Counts as “Recyclable”
by Lisa Song
September 9, 2024

Introduction:

(ProPublica) Most of the products in the typical kitchen use plastics that are virtually impossible to recycle.

The film that acts as a lid on Dole Sunshine fruit bowls, the rings securing jars of McCormick dried herbs, the straws attached to Juicy Juice boxes, the bags that hold Cheez-Its and Cheerios — they’re all destined for the dumpster.

Now a trade group representing those brands and hundreds more is pressuring regulators to make plastic appear more environmentally friendly, a proposal experts say could worsen a crisis that is flooding the planet and our bodies with the toxic material.

The Consumer Brands Association believes companies should be able to stamp “recyclable” on products that are technically “capable” of being recycled, even if they’re all but guaranteed to end up in a landfill. As ProPublica previously reported, the group argued for a looser definition of “recyclable” in written comments to the Federal Trade Commission as the agency revises the Green Guides — guidelines for advertising products with sustainable attributes.

The association’s board of directors includes officials from some of the world’s richest companies, such as PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, Land O’Lakes, Keurig Dr Pepper, Hormel Foods Corporation, Molson Coors Beverage Company, Campbell Soup, Kellanova, Mondelez International, Conagra Brands, J.M. Smucker and Clorox.

Read more here: https://www.propublica.org/article/rec ... sociation

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Durable supramolecular plastic is fully ocean-degradable and doesn't generate microplastics

https://phys.org/news/2024-11-durable-s ... ocean.html

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Infrastructure and Enforcement are Key to Ridding Food Waste From Landfills
November 25, 2024

Introduction:

(Eurekalert) AUSTIN, Texas — The U.S. wastes a third of its food supply, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Worldwide, food waste contributes 8% of human greenhouse gas emissions. The problem is so severe that the USDA and the Environmental Protection Agency pledged nearly 10 years ago to cut food waste in half by 2030.

Because 60% of commercial food waste ends up in landfills — from sources such as grocery stores and restaurants — it seems like an easy fix to ban that dumping. Since 2014, nine states have passed laws pressing businesses to compost food waste instead of trashing it.

But new research from Texas McCombs finds most of those state laws have been ineffective in reducing food waste disposal. The sole exception is Massachusetts, which achieved a 7.3% decrease over time.

“We were surprised to find that in every other state, the data suggests the laws did basically nothing,” says Ioannis Stamatopoulos, associate professor of information, risk, and operations management. “But in Massachusetts, the law had precisely the expected effects.”

Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1066096

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New Research Improves Predictions for Solid Waste Management
January 7, 2025

Introduction:

(Eurekalert) A new approach for predicting the contents of municipal solid waste can help improve the efficiency of recycling and landfill operations. The new method applies a conventional approach to forecasting how many total tons of solid waste will be generated at the county level and incorporates a separate, complimentary model that predicts the makeup of the waste with an unprecedented level of detail.

“The effect of our new approach is that solid waste managers can forecast a detailed breakdown of the different materials that will make up the waste stream in addition to the overall tonnage of waste they might expect in the coming year,” says Adolfo Escobedo, co-author of a paper on the work and an associate professor in North Carolina State University’s Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering.

“The diverse materials that end up in the waste stream are managed differently, particularly when attempting to implement a sustainable operation,” says Joshua Grassel, corresponding author of the paper and a Ph.D. student in the operations research graduate program at NC State. “It’s useful for managers to have a good idea of what sorts of materials they’ll be getting, and in what amounts, so that they can plan for how to process those materials. Some things can be recycled, some can be composted, and so on. Different types of infrastructure are required to process the array of materials, and proper planning is critical for making sustainable waste management a practical reality.”

Historically, waste managers have relied on simple models for forecasting the overall tonnage of solid waste that will be produced each year at the county level. But attempts to predict the composition of that waste have been somewhat limited, with few models attempting to break the overall waste stream down in any significant detail.

“One of the problems that previous modeling attempts ran into was that they were trying to predict the amount of each material present in the waste stream directly,” Escobedo says. “In other words, they were trying to predict how many tons there would be of each category of waste. This was challenging, even when evaluating only a limited number of categories. We took a different approach, adopting a two-phased strategy.”

Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1069693

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Scientists Discovered An Amazing Practical Use For World's Leftover Coffee Grounds
by Tessa Koumoundouros
March 28, 2025

Introduction:

(Science Alert)We could be producing concrete that's 30 percent stronger by processing and adding charred coffee grounds to the mix, researchers in Australia discovered.

Their clever recipe could solve multiple problems at the same time.

Every year the world produces a staggering 10 billion kilograms (22 billion pounds) of coffee waste globally. Most ends up in landfills.

"The disposal of organic waste poses an environmental challenge as it emits large amounts of greenhouse gases including methane and carbon dioxide, which contribute to climate change," explained RMIT University engineer Rajeev Roychand when the research was published in 2023.

With a booming construction market globally, there's also an ever increasing demand for resource intensive concrete causing another set of environmental challenges too.

Read more here: https://www.sciencealert.com/scientist ... -grounds

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New plastic dissolves in the ocean overnight, leaving no microplastics
By Michael Irving
March 27, 2025
https://newatlas.com/materials/plastic- ... oplastics/

Plastics are durable and strong, which is great while they’re being used but frustrating when they end up in the environment. Scientists at RIKEN in Japan have developed a new type of plastic that’s just as stable in everyday use but dissolves quickly in saltwater, leaving behind safe compounds.

The benefit of plastics is that they’re made with strong covalent bonds that hold their molecules together, meaning they take a lot of energy to break. This is why they’re so sturdy, long-lasting and perfect for everything from packaging to toys.

But those same strong bonds become a problem after the useful life of a plastic product is over. That cup you used once and threw away will sit in landfill for decades, even centuries, before it fully breaks down. And when it does, it forms microplastic pieces that are turning up in all corners of the natural world, including our own bodies, where they wreak havoc on our health in ways we’re only just beginning to understand.

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Vermont plastic bag use dropped 91% following ban, researchers find

https://phys.org/news/2025-06-vermont-plastic-bag.html

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Glass bottles found to contain more microplastics than plastic bottles
https://phys.org/news/2025-06-glass-bot ... astic.html
by Rébecca Frasquet

Drinks including water, soda, beer and wine sold in glass bottles contain more microplastics than those in plastic bottles, according to a surprising study released by France's food safety agency Friday.

Researchers have detected the tiny, mostly invisible pieces of plastic throughout the world, from in the air we breathe to the food we eat, as well as riddled throughout human bodies.

There is still no direct evidence that this preponderance of plastic is harmful to human health, but a burgeoning field of research is aiming to measure its spread.

Guillaume Duflos, research director at French food safety agency ANSES, told AFP the team sought to "investigate the quantity of microplastics in different types of drinks sold in France and examine the impact different containers can have."

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‘For some this is junk, for others food’: the shops collecting plastic waste and handing back cash

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... etherlands

[wjfox]

Australian ban on fish-shaped plastic soy sauce dispensers a world first

Sun 31 Aug 2025 01.00 BST

They have been a familiar sight at takeaway sushi shops around the world for decades but it could be the beginning of the end for fish-shaped soy sauce dispensers.

South Australia will be the first place in the world to ban them under a wider ban on single-use plastics that comes into force on 1 September.

The device known as shoyu-tai (or soy-sauce snapper in Japanese) was invented in 1954 by Teruo Watanabe, the founder of Osaka-based company Asahi Sogyo, according to a report from Japan’s Radio Kansai.

It was then common for glass and ceramic containers to be used but the advent of cheap industrial plastics allowed the creation of a small polyethylene container in the shape of a fish, officially named the “Lunch Charm”.

The invention quickly spread around Japan and eventually worldwide, and it is estimated that billions have been produced.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-n ... e-plastics

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Hydrogen-Powered Plasma Torch Decimates Plastic Waste in a Blink
Using the quirky physics of plasma, this torch instantly converts mixed plastic waste into chemical compounds that can be recycled for other projects.
By Gayoung Lee Published September 3, 2025 | Comments (22)
https://gizmodo.com/hydrogen-powered-pl ... 2000653076

Why sort plastic when you can blast it to oblivion? Sounds extreme, but that’s the idea behind a new technology with the potential to “realize the era of zero plastic sorting”—while minimizing carbon emissions, too.

In a press release today, the Korea Institute of Machinery & Materials (KIMMS) announced the development of a plasma torch that annihilates plastic waste in less than 0.01 seconds—about ten times faster than a blink. The torch is entirely powered by hydrogen and converts mixed plastic waste into ethylene and benzene, two primary chemical ingredients for plastic. The process is relatively inexpensive and virtually carbon-free; if implemented, it could revolutionize plastic recycling, according to the researchers.

“In a world first, we have secured a process to successfully convert mixed plastic waste into raw materials,” said program director Young-Hoon Song in the release. “We will aim to resolve waste and emissions problems through continued demonstrations and commercialization of this breakthrough.”