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Gold mining with mushrooms
What do gold mining, mushrooms, and landfills have in common? Put together, they sound like elements of an extraordinarily strange dream — but they’re all part of a very real, very novel approach to electronics recycling. Here’s the short version: a special kind of mushroom is being used to filter gold and other precious metals […]

Combating wasted food with a new countertop composter
What’s on your kitchen counter? A toaster? A coffee maker? A mini, automatic countertop composter? If we lost you at that last one, stay tuned — if the folks behind a company called Food Cycle Science have their way, their product will soon turn composting into a mainstream activity. Food Cycle Science’s new gadget is […]

Can compost islands save New York?
Present Architecture has a bold proposal that could change the face of New York City. Their project, called the Green Loop, aims to create giant compost islands off of each borough to process the city’s waste. Rather than being eyesores, these islands will actually be soothing to the eye and will include 125 acres of […]

Goodwill’s GoBin will change the face of textile recycling
We’ve all seen the donation bins for clothing and shoes. The large metal boxes, usually languishing in parking lots, are uninviting, to say the least. Goodwill knows that these bins leave something to be desired, and they’re doing something about it. Goodwill partnered with hip global design firm Frog to trash (pun intended) the old […]

Small-town Minnesota will start recycling food scraps
St. Cloud, Minnesota is known for a few things: cold winters, providing the setting for the movie Juno, and being located in Representative Michele Bachmann’s district. You’d be forgiven for not immediately associating St. Cloud with innovative recycling programs, but that’s exactly what’s happening in the central Minnesota city. Tri-County Organics has obtained a state […]

DIY plastic recycling machine will revolutionize waste management
Dutch designer Dave Hakkens’s latest project, Precious Plastics, may have just opened the doors for do-it-yourself plastic recycling. This comes at a time when only a meager amount of accumulated plastic waste is reprocessed. In fact, in 2011, only 8 percent of the total amount of plastic waste generated was recovered for recycling. The Precious […]

EPA says clothing recycling has massive impact
When you think of “recycling,” what items come to mind? Bottles? Cans? Newspapers? These are (arguably) the items most commonly associated with recycling, and as a result, we’re conditioned to think that they’re the ones with the biggest environmental impact. Not so, says a new report from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The report is entitled, […]

Restaurant recycling on the rise
What happens to all the food scraps, bottles, napkins, and condiment packages after you finish your meal at a restaurant? They may make their way to the dumpster, but more often than not, at least some of those leftovers and materials find new life in a recycling bin. A recent article by Nation’s Restaurant News weighed […]

Is paper recycling bad for the environment?
Stephen P. Ashkin is churning up some attention with a recent column that showcases a new perspective on paper recycling. Ashkin asserts that, “In recent years, it has become clear that when it comes to paper, recycling may not be as good for the environment as previously thought.” The column, in an August edition of […]

Recycling center cameras aim to stop lazy recyclers
Think you can get away with chucking just about anything into the recycling bin? Tell that to the video camera, say officials at one recycling center in Adrian, Michigan. The center grew tired of dealing with discarded items that fell far (very far) outside the guidelines of acceptable recyclables. Their solution: installing video cameras to […]