Tag: Environment

Donations left by a desert robot could help create an oasis. The same cannot be said, however, for humans leaving their “mark” and their tissues in nature. Enter an Israeli design student’s sustainable toilet paper. Made from oranges and aloe vera, each individual leaf is woven with plant seeds such as mint, rose or parsley. Though thicker than traditional...

Historical smells no longer belong to the past. Methane, however, is odourless, and usually slips undetected into the atmosphere. Traditional methods of recovering the greenhouse gas, where people with handheld devices scour rubbish depots or faulty pipelines, are expensive. Yet methane can be deployed as a sustainable energy source to produce hydrogen. Cue a Michigan-based startup which has developed a patented drone complete...

With the right light, plants grow better. But too much light can have a negative impact on the health and daily rhythms of both people and animals. To say nothing of the bulb waste. Ever since observing bioluminescent marine bacteria, a female founder from France has been working to produce more environmentally-friendly city lamps. Talk about a bright idea… Her startup’s...

Fires can be extinguished in an environment-friendly way. Water- and grease-proof coatings, meanwhile, often contain substances which are hard to break down. They are already found in drinking water: so-called ‘forever chemicals’ belonging to the PFAS group. Among others, a research team from the University of British Columbia is after them and has developed a new material that can...

Building elements filled with seeds and surfboards containing straw are allowing nature to grow. Now, a Hong Kong-based startup is 3D printing hexagonal tiles from clay which are installed on the seafloor and planted with young coral. A coral-specific algorithm tells a robotic arm how to print the tiles' labyrinthine structure. This not only promotes growth but enables corals...

Malleable metal tyres are a revelation. Now a startup from London has developed a patent-pending system which aims to prevent tyre wear from entering the environment. The microplastic pollutants are produced when vehicles accelerate and brake. Using electrostatics and airflow, particles charged from friction with the road are diverted to containers beneath the rear bumper. Captured pollution can be...

Human urine could help build astronauts’ sleeping quarters on the moon, or supply fertiliser for farming. Cattle, however, are a major contributor to greenhouse gases by passing methane front and back. According to a study by a Washington State University research team, help might come from an unlikely source: the faeces of baby kangaroos. For, in contrast to their...

Fire retardants and soft drinks can help reduce CO2 levels. Why? Because they are made from algae. Now, a US startup is using the environmentally-friendly plant to produce organic, black printing ink. The algae is grown using sunlight, water and carbon dioxide from air. First, the natural blue pigment phycocyanin is extracted for use in food. Applying a process...