Paper Recycling is good for the environment. Recycling not always an energy and resource saver, study finds. (NaturalNews) A recent study conducted by researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has found that remanufacturing or recycling certain products actually uses more energy than simply using new products. Published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, the findings cast doubt on the notion that remanufacturing things like old tires and used motor cores always helps to save energy and resources in the long run.
Timothy Gutowski, professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT, and his colleagues conducted 25 case studies on products in eight different categories and found that for every remanufactured product that appeared to have a net energy savings, there was another that had a net energy loss. And even among those with net savings, the benefits were often minute or even negligible. "You think you're doing the right thing, it sounds so simple," said Gutowski, concerning the idea of recycling and reusing to save energy and resources. How to Go Green: Recycling (Rayann) Recycling got it's start almost four decades ago, when a U.S. paper company wanted a symbol to communicate its products' recycled content to customers. The design competition they held was won by Gary Anderson, a young graphic designer from the University of Southern California.
His entry, based on the Mobius strip (a shape with only one side and no end) is now universally recognized as the symbol for recycling. To many people, recycling conjures up the blue plastic bins and bottle drives. But recycling is a design principal, a law of nature, a source of creativity, and a source of prosperity. For anyone looking to make recycling a more integral part of their lives, this guide is an overview of the basic legwork as well as some of the finer and more advanced concepts that have emerged in recent years. To wit: "Recycling a ton of 'waste' has twice the economic impact of burying it in the ground. Back To Top Λ Top Recycling Tips Recycling: By the Numbers Recycling: Getting Techie Back To Top Λ.
Scientists hatch plan to recycle eggshells into plastic. Closed loop: Scientists are aiming to create egg boxes from eggshells Scientists working on creating plastic from eggshellsEggshells currently classified as wasteCould provide egg boxes as example of closed-loop recycling (CNN) -- "Go to work on an egg" was the slogan of a successful British television advert and "green chemists" from the UK are doing just that with plans to create plastics made from eggshells.
Scientists from the University of Leicester in England are experimenting with a process that extracts the proteins found in eggshells, called glycosaminoglycans, which are commonly used in the pharmaceutical industry to help people with cartilage and connective tissue problems. The aim of the current project is to adapt the proteins to create a starch-based plastic that could then "bulk up" existing plastics and be molded into anything from shop fitting to supermarket meal trays.
At Earth Day tire roundup, rubber hits the road to recycling. A truck loaded with tires found behind a vacant house is ready to head to the tire collection point in Atlanta. Southeast Atlanta neighborhoods mark Earth Day with a race to collect tiresRoundup gathers dumped tires from ditches, vacant houses, dead-end streetsVolunteers say roundup is a fun way to get rid of mosquito-breeding tires Atlanta (CNN) -- It's like an Easter egg hunt for grownups.
Volunteers race the clock, scouring their neighborhood for junked used tires to be recycled for free. It's an Earth Day tradition in the Atlanta district of Council Member Natalyn Archibong. This year on April 16, more than 1,500 tires were collected. It's an in-town neighborhood that has more than its share of crime, graffiti and illegal dumping. One hazard is "tire juice," the rainwater that collects in dumped tires and makes them mosquito-breeding menaces. Volunteers have just four hours to drop the tires at Archibong's collection site. Perhaps amazingly, volunteers find this fun and rewarding. Can Manufacturers Institute. By the Numbers Get facts, information and statistics about America’s most recycled packaging solution. How to recycle steel food cans: Empty the steel cans.Place containers in your curbside recycling bin or take them to your local recycling center.Complete the recycling loop by buying products made with recycled steel.For more information as to where and how to recycle steel food cans in your area, visit the Steel Recycling Institute's Website at www.recycle-steel.org or call their national consumer information hotline (800.937.1226)
The EPA’s first fracking rules deal only with air pollution. Class="byline" The EPA issued the first ever national air pollution regulations for fracking on Wednesday. First proposed in July of last year, the final rules have been welcomed by environmental groups as a much needed initial move in reducing pollution and protecting public health from the toxic chemicals involved in the oil and natural gas drilling process. But many cautioned it was just a first step. “It sets a floor for what the industry needs to do,” said attorney Erik Schlenker-Goodrich of the Western Environmental Law Center. “The reality is we can do far better.” Over the past few years, more information has come out about fracking’s potential harms to the environment and human health, particularly relating to the risk of groundwater contamination. The EPA’s new rules don’t cover most of those issues. “These rules do not resolve chronic water, public health, and other problems associated with fracking and natural gas,” Schlenker-Goodrich said.
Crazy Crayons. Recycling. Curbside recycling. Recycling is the process of turning used products into raw materials that can be used to make new products. Its purpose is to conserve natural resources and reduce pollution. Recycling reduces energy consumption, since it generally takes less energy to recycle a product than to make a new one. Similarly, recycling causes less pollution than manufacturing a new product, and conserves raw materials. During World War II, Americans experimented with conservation and recycling as a matter of national security.
Belittled by many environmentalists, recycling often seems like busy-work for kids with little actual environmental benefit. Non-profit recycling centers began opening around the country, followed by municipal recycling programs. Depending on the type, plastics can be recycled into anything from fiberfill to polyester-like fibers, to blue recycling bins, or plastic lumber furniture.
Further Reading Strasser, Susan. Citation Ackerman, F. (2013). Interesting Recycling Facts. Find some interesting recycling facts mentioned in the following article, as recycling is the best option to degrade materials. Recycling can be used to make other useful things from materials which have lost their durability or exhausted their use. Everyone knows that recycling is the process in which materials like plastic, glass and metals are degraded so that they can be used to make something more useful. These are used as raw materials for creating a completely different object. This can also be useful energy saving option thereby reducing pollution of water and air. In today's world, many things fall under the use and throw category, such articles but can be made into useful things after being recycled. Interesting Facts about Recycling Every country and city has a particular strategy for recycling, as human dwellings and society needs to be kept clean. Water A dishwasher uses 11 gallons of water per use.A running faucet wastes about 2.5 gallons of water each minute it flows.
Recycling not always an energy and resource saver, study finds. Action Needed: The Case for Recycling. Recycling. Two-in-one device uses sewage as fuel to make electricity and clean the sewage. Scientists have described a new and more efficient version of an innovative device the size of a home washing machine that uses bacteria growing in municipal sewage to make electricity and clean up the sewage at the same time.
Their report at the 243rd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in San Diego on March 28 suggested that commercial versions of the two-in-one device could be a boon for the developing world and water-short parts of the U.S. "Our prototype incorporates innovations so that it can process five times more sewage six times more efficiently at half the cost of its predecessors," said Orianna Bretschger, Ph.D., who presented a report on the improved technology at the ACS meeting.
"We've improved its energy recovery capacity from about 2 percent to as much as 13 percent, which is a great step in the right direction. Bretschger's team at the J. Craig Venter Institute is developing one version of a so-called microbial fuel cell (MFC). Is seaweed the future of biofuel? As scientists continue the hunt for energy sources that are safer, cleaner alternatives to fossil fuel, an ever-increasing amount of valuable farmland is being used to produce bioethanol, a source of transportation fuel. And while land-bound sources are renewable, economists and ecologists fear that diverting crops to produce fuel will limit food resources and drive up costs. Now, Prof. Avigdor Abelson of Tel Aviv University's Department of Zoology and the new Renewable Energy Center, and his colleagues Dr.
Alvaro Israel of the Israel Oceanography Institute, Prof. Aharon Gedanken of Bar-Ilan University, Dr. Ariel Kushmaro of Ben-Gurion University, and their Ph.D. student Leor Korzen, have gone to the seas in the quest for a renewable energy source that doesn't endanger natural habitats, biodiversity, or human food sources.He says that marine macroalgae -- common seaweed -- can be grown more quickly than land-based crops and harvested as fuel without sacrificing usable land. Wastewater recycling can multiply greenhouse gas emissions. Despite evidence that some wastewater treatments multiply nitrous oxide emissions, researchers say planners need to look at the big picture. New research shows that wastewater recycling processes may generate more greenhouse gases than traditional water-treatment processes. Despite this finding, there are good reasons to continue keep wastewater recycling among the water-resource tools for urban areas. That's the summary of a new paper by Amy Townsend-Small, assistant professor of geology and geography at the University of Cincinnati, and a team of researchers from the University of California, Irvine.
A report of their research appears in the September-October issue of the Journal of Environmental Quality. "Advanced methods in wastewater treatment supplement fresh water supplies in areas where fresh water is scarce," Townsend-Small said. Townsend-Small, along with Diane E. Nitrous oxide is a by-product of the metabolism of two different types of bacteria. A New Recycling Strategy Is Catching On. Glad Cuts the Hyperbole for Its New Green Trash Bag.