Tag: Waste

We have octopuses to thank for sustainable suncream. Environmentally-friendly containers for the cosmetics industry, in turn, are the brainchild of a female founder’s startup in London. Their process entails fermenting plant waste and converting it into bio-based synthetic materials. They can be hard or soft, matt or glossy. The products have been certified for home composting by a testing organisation...

No one needs kidney stones. Nevertheless, a mineral present in animals’ urinary calculus is helping to make construction materials from sawdust fire resistant. A research team in Switzerland mixed sawdust and struvite (a crystalline ammonium magnesium phosphate), adding an enzyme extracted from watermelon seeds for stickiness. The mixture was then pressed for two days into chipboards. Tests showed that...

AI can find sustainable materials for the textile industry. A startup in England, meanwhile, is focusing on the circular economy and the power of nature to create non-toxic colouration technology. Plants owe their dazzling colour to crystals present in their cell walls, which reflect light differently depending on how they are arranged. The team extracts these crystals from the...

Tree bark can be an alternative to single-use plastic. Meanwhile a Finnish PhD student has alighted on pine bark as a filter for removing pharmaceutical residues from liquid waste. Treated wastewater often contains traces of medication such as blood pressure medicine or antidepressants. Antibiotics are particularly problematic as their presence helps pathogens develop resistance. The female researcher fortified the...

In Africa, group buying is making fresh produce more affordable. Meanwhile, a new startup in Germany is aiming to provide warm meals to those in financial need, while simultaneously reducing food waste in canteens. Students or those on a tight budget register on the app. After vetting, they can request food each day from a nearby canteen for a...

Wastewater from soybean production can provide fodder for fish. Meantime, a university research team from the US has been experimenting with wastewater from beer and potato production, as the sodium acetate it contains is a carbon compound offering a low-cost alternative to glucose. Like glucose, it can be a carbon source for the protein-rich microalgae Chlorella sorokiniana. The team...

Waste from wine production can be put to good use. But wine left in opened bottles is generally discarded after 3 days because of oxidation or loss of quality. That's $1.5 billion dollars of wine wasted each year in America alone. Enter a female founder and her startup's patented new solution. Her innovation comprises a silicon stopper lid and...

A robot can clean oceans by dropping harmful seaweed below the surface. Yet in Brasil, a research team has found a new use for sargassum, a rapidly-spread brown algae that stinks out beaches. The team mixed the seaweed with clay, using 20% sargassum in one batch and 40% in the other. These samples were compressed at temperatures of 800-1.000°C...