Tag: Recycling

A new film knows when food goes off. Now, a startup from Hungary has come up with a solution for companies and their biological waste. Instead of winding up on the rubbish tip and creating greenhouse gases, the waste can be composted on site. It's done by a device resembling a mini kettle barbecue. Employees are incentivised to use the...

Tempura leftovers can be repurposed. But glass-fibre reinforced plastics, used for boats, cars and wind turbines, have always been trickier to recycle. Until now. A Swiss-based startup cuts pieces into 1.5 x 2 metre units, before separating the glass-fibre structures from the resin in their oxygen-free reactor. By applying heat the resin is converted into gas. Some of it...

A flexible bracelet harvests electricity through body heat. Now, a Swedish-based startup has developed flexible, customisable solar cells that convert indoor and outdoor light into electricity. Enabling e-book readers, headphones and keyboards to run without batteries. The solar cells comprise a titanium dioxide layer coated with light-absorbing dye and the maximum intake under different lighting conditions is defined by...

Robot boats are clearing Hong Kong’s waters, while intelligent bins monitor their own fill levels. For better recycling, a startup from Würzburg has created an analysis system used during waste sorting. It combines digital cameras and near-infrared sensors with artificial intelligence. Parsing images of the material flow, the AI detects both individual objects and additional properties such as weight,...

Banana paper protects potatoes from parasites. After harvesting, potato stems are often burned, since they are hard to compost and unsuitable as animal feed or fertiliser. A London-based startup has recognised their value. In their patent-pending process, fibres are extracted from stems using biological and mechanical processes and spun into yarn. Like cotton, linen or synthetic fibre, it can...

When combined, microorganisms and corn stover make a palm-oil alternative, while fermented sugarcane can be used to fry food. Japanese food, meanwhile, is often fried in batter: per restaurant, some 5kg of tempura dishes are left uneaten every day. The leftovers can catch fire if exposed to oxygen, and are thus mixed with water and refrigerated until discarded. But...

Cocoa waste is a sweet deal for farmers. And pineapple plant leaves could prove just as useful. A startup in London has combined with farmers in the Philippines to use the plant’s leaf fibres to create an alternative to leather. First the fibres are extracted from the leaves - with remaining waste used as fertiliser or as basis for...

Naturally-occurring colour pigments in purple maize have anti-inflammatory properties. Clothes, meanwhile, are rarely manufactured using natural colours. But all that could be about to change thanks to the work of two textile engineers and their New York-based startup. The team is using biotechnology to create colourful yarn without using dye. First, in a fermentation process, special bacteria produce natural...