recycling

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Your Cotton Bag Isn't Saving the Planet. Maybe the Opposite

It takes a lot of water to grow cotton

(Newser) - How many cotton tote bags do you have shoved into closets and cabinets and your car trunk? If the answer is too many, but you've at least consoled yourself that you're doing the planet good, bad news. In a piece for the New York Times on our "...

Fire Drew Phoenix's Biggest Response Ever

Recycling yard blaze could be seen from space

(Newser) - With the huge fire in a Phoenix recycling yard down to a few smoking hotspots Monday, the scale of the weekend blaze became clear. The Phoenix Fire Department mounted the largest response in its history, the Arizona Republic reports. At one point Saturday, the day the blaze started, more than...

Huge Fire at Recycling Plant Could Take Days to Put Out

Dozens of fire departments are fighting the blaze at Atlantic Coast Fibers in Passaic, NJ

(Newser) - A massive fire engulfed a northern New Jersey recycling plant overnight and raged into Saturday morning as firefighters battled flames, frigid cold, and wind. The blaze broke out around midnight at the Atlantic Coast Fibers plant in Passaic, sending flames shooting into the dark as more than two dozen fire...

$340K Painting Found in Dumpster
$340K Painting
Found in Dumpster

$340K Painting Found in Dumpster

Work by French surrealist Yves Tanguy had gone missing

(Newser) - A surrealist painting worth more than a quarter million dollars that was forgotten by a businessman at Duesseldorf's airport has been recovered from a nearby recycling dumpster, police said Thursday, per the AP . The businessman, whose identity was not given, accidentally left behind the painting by French surrealist Yves...

Ikea Wants to Buy Back Old Ikea Furniture

Just not in the US

(Newser) - Forget hawking your Ikea bookcase on Facebook Marketplace. As of November you'll be able to sell it back to Ikea—so long as you live in one of 27 countries. Spoiler: The US isn't on the list. "By making sustainable living more simple and accessible, Ikea hopes...

&#39;Pac-Men&#39; Enzymes May Help Solve a Major Problem
Lab Breakthrough May Help
Fight on Plastic Waste
new study

Lab Breakthrough May Help Fight on Plastic Waste

'Pac-Men' enzymes engineered to feast on plastic

(Newser) - Plastic waste is a large and ever-growing problem around the world. Now, researchers say they're closing in on a potentially game-changing solution that could be commercially available in a year or two, reports the Guardian . Scientists have engineered a "super-enzyme" that breaks down plastic six times faster than...

Someone Tried to Recycle a Civil War Cannonball

Michigan's Kent County recycling center evacuated Tuesday

(Newser) - "DO NOT RECYCLE CANNONBALLS." That was the message from a county commissioner in Michigan on Tuesday after a Kent County resident tried to, well, recycle a cannonball. Grand Rapids police evacuated the county recycling center just after noon Tuesday after finding a live cannonball believed to have a...

For First Time, Olympians Will Snooze on Cardboard Beds

Bed frames at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo will be made of cardboard

(Newser) - Tokyo Olympic athletes, beware—you may not want to celebrate your gold by jumping on the bed. That's because the bed frames in the athletes village at this year's Olympics will be made of cardboard. Sturdy cardboard. "Those beds can stand up to 200 kilograms," explained...

In Some Cafes, To-Go Cups Are To Go

Coffeehouses experimenting with BYO cup policies, rental cups, glass jars

(Newser) - A new cafe culture is brewing in the San Francisco area, reports the AP , where a growing number of coffee houses are banishing paper to-go cups and replacing them with everything from glass jars to rental mugs and BYO cup policies. What started as a small trend among neighborhood cafes...

Lego Tests New Way to Recycle Bricks

Unwanted bricks will be donated to US nonprofit

(Newser) - Lego is looking to keep its plastic bricks out of the trash. The Danish toymaker is testing a way for customers to ship their unwanted bricks back and get them into the hands of other kids. It said Tuesday that customers in the US can print out a mailing label...

After Man Dumps Fridge in Ravine, Cops Get Last Laugh
After Man Dumps Fridge in
Ravine, Cops Get Last Laugh
in case you missed it

After Man Dumps Fridge in Ravine, Cops Get Last Laugh

The culprit had to drag it back up

(Newser) - Let the punishment fit the crime? That's what police in Spain did when they forced a man to drag a refrigerator up a deep ravine. Police say the 24-year-old is the person seen in viral footage tipping a fridge down the ravine in Almería. "We're going...

Oregon Man Tosses Life Savings. It&#39;s Found in California
Oregon Man's $23K Mistake
Has Improbable Happy Ending
in case you missed it

Oregon Man's $23K Mistake Has Improbable Happy Ending

All but $320 survived the cash's trip to a recycling plant

(Newser) - A man who accidentally recycled his life savings managed to get back all but $320 of it, and the story of how it got away from him and back to him is a wild one. The unnamed Oregon man accidentally recycled a Vans shoebox on Thursday that held just north...

McDonald's Opts for Paper Straws That Can't Be Recycled

At least, not yet

(Newser) - McDonald's has ditched its plastic straws in favor of paper ones in the UK and Ireland —there's just one itty-bitty, teenie-weenie little problem: The paper straws can't be recycled. The fast-food company has called the new paper straws "eco-friendly," but, though the paper is...

Scientists: We've Found the 'Holy Grail' of Recycling

New material may lead to plastic that's easily recyclable

(Newser) - The "Holy Grail" of recycling may finally be here. Scientists at Berkeley Lab say they've found a new way to create plastics that are 100% recyclable, meaning they can be used, recycled, and re-used without losing value, Fox News reports. "Most plastics were never made to be...

Could This Be the Next Big Idea on Product Containers?
Could This Be the Next Big
Idea on Product Containers?
the rundown

Could This Be the Next Big Idea on Product Containers?

World's biggest brands creating reusable containers in new 'Loop' experiment

(Newser) - Lots of people have embraced the idea that they should reduce and recycle as a way to cut down on waste. But as Bloomberg notes, the third R in the green bible doesn't get as much attention: "reuse." Now, however, that might change, at least on a...

He Saves Our Electronics From the Dump, Now Faces Prison

The 'Washington Post' takes a look at Eric Lundgren's court battle

(Newser) - Eric Lundgren is known for impressive and admirable feats, with his e-waste recycling company putting 14,000 cellphones in the hands of US soldiers abroad; the 33-year-old's company handles 41 million pounds of e-waste annually. Now, he's fighting a 15-month sentence. The Washington Post explains the jargony situation,...

China Is No Longer Accepting the World's Recycling

Move is causing buildup of paper, plastic overseas

(Newser) - China has declared that it's no longer accepting "foreign garbage"—which has left a lot of countries, including the US, wondering what to do with it. As part of a drive to reduce pollution, the country stopped accepting 24 kinds of waste on Jan. 1, including mixed...

British Coffee Drinkers May Be Hit With a 'Latte Levy'

Tax on disposable cups would be aimed at fighting waste

(Newser) - A trip to Starbucks could get slightly more expensive for British coffee drinkers. The Christian Science Monitor reports some lawmakers in Britain are recommending a 34-cent "latte levy" on disposable cups." Fewer than 1% of disposable coffee cups in Britain are recycled for a variety of reasons, including...

Discarded H&amp;M Clothes Are Powering Homes in Sweden
A Swedish Power Plant
Is Burning H&M Rejects
in case you missed it

A Swedish Power Plant Is Burning H&M Rejects

A rep for the company says the clothing may have mold or chemical issues

(Newser) - H&M's fashions are on fire—literally, that is, in Vasteras, Sweden. A heat and power station that powers 150,000 homes there has a mandate to stop burning fossil fuels like coal and oil by 2020. Its path to achieving that involves burning "only renewable and recycled...

Engineer's Award-Winning Idea: Clothes Grow With Kids

UK student Ryan Yasin comes up with Petit Pli

(Newser) - It's an age-old problem for parents: Shell out money for clothes that their young children quickly outgrow. Now, however, 24-year-old London designer Ryan Yasin has put his degree in aeronautical engineering to use to create origami-like pleated clothing designed to grow along with the kids, reports Quartz . The result...

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