recycling – News Stories About recycling - Page 2

new report

Oct 25, 2022 3:17 PM CDT

Plastic Recycling Is a Fool's Errand

Greenpeace report says the problem is most plastic just can't be recycled

(Newser) - "Plastic recycling is a dead-end street." So proclaims a new Greenpeace report that makes that very case using an underwhelming set of stats regarding the scant amount of plastic that's recycled in the US. Per the report, at our peak in 2014, America recycled 9.5% of...

Coca-Cola Is Ditching Sprite's Green Bottles

Say Goodbye to
Sprite's Green Bottles

Jul 28, 2022 6:51 AM CDT

Say Goodbye to Sprite's Green Bottles

Coca-Cola says it's switching to clear plastic to boost recycling efforts

(Newser) - Sprite's green plastic bottles will soon be a thing of the past. Coca-Cola says it's changing the packaging of Sprite and other beverages, including Fresca, to clear plastic so it can step up recycling, CNN reports. The green polyethylene terephthalate—PET—currently used in Sprite bottles can be...

Plastic Recycling Is a Hoax

Environmental groups say the plastics industry has been lying all along

(Newser) - Last year, Americans recycled at most 6% of their plastic waste, according to a report released Wednesday by a pair of environmental groups. It's a number that's even worse than it used to be. Every American produced an average 218 pounds of plastic waste in 2018, per Reuters,...

Adult Diapers a Problem, and Opportunity, in Japan

Adult Diapers Are a Scourge
in Japan—and an Opportunity

Nov 21, 2021 5:11 PM CST

Adult Diapers Are a Scourge in Japan—and an Opportunity

Rather than incinerating them, diapers are starting to be recycled

(Newser) - It's a somewhat ominous-sounding sentence, but the comparison isn't as grim as it seems: "The operations slightly evoke the factory scenes from Soylent Green, the 1973 dystopian thriller in which nutrition wafers are made from human remains." So write Motoko Rich and Makiko Inoue for the...

World's Latest Shortage: Empty Plastic Bottles

Competition for
Empty Plastic Bottles
Is Heating Up

Nov 9, 2021 3:31 PM CST

Competition for Empty Plastic Bottles Is Heating Up

Recycled PET now costs more than virgin plastic

(Newser) - Companies in the US and worldwide are facing a major shortage of something that often ends up in the trash: empty plastic bottles. With governments including those of California and Washington state introducing mandatory recycled content quotas for some items and major companies bringing in voluntary targets, producers are having...

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

Aug 25, 2021 2:15 PM CDT

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

Jun 7, 2021 7:25 PM CDT

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

Jan 30, 2021 8:00 AM CST

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

Dec 12, 2020 4:40 PM CST

$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

Oct 14, 2020 3:47 PM CDT

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...

Lab Breakthrough May Help
Fight on Plastic Waste

new study

Sep 29, 2020 12:00 PM CDT

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

May 21, 2020 10:40 AM CDT

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

Jan 9, 2020 8:12 AM CST

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

Dec 24, 2019 9:22 AM CST

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

Oct 9, 2019 12:11 AM CDT

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

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's $23K Mistake
Has Improbable Happy Ending

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

Aug 5, 2019 11:05 AM CDT

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 study

May 9, 2019 12:30 AM CDT

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?

the rundown

Jan 24, 2019 12:02 PM CST

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...