Sustainable Consumption Stories
Researchers crack the code for economically turning plastic waste into fuel
Making new straws and plastic bags is much cheaper than recycling them. Could this fast, low-temperature, low energy upcycling process solve the problem?
There’s an environmental rebound problem in the food-sharing economy
In a new study, researchers made a surprising discovery: the environment benefits of online food sharing are often undone by how consumers spend their saved cash.
Clothes recycling depends on sorting fabric blends. This clever invention can do that.
Engineers devised an invisible fiber containing data on a fabric’s composition and origin—it can be woven into garments and read like a barcode.
Researchers dig deep into the huge potential value of industrial food waste
Starch-heavy foods such as popcorn and old pizza can be used to make bioplastics and high fiber wastes like tomato peels and eggshells are excellent fillers for tires and other rubber products
Are gas or electric appliances better for the climate? The answer is a moving target.
When researchers assessed the break-even point between gas and electric appliances for 25 countries, they found only 5 where electricity is now clearly more climate-friendly. But that will change.
Takeout has a plastic problem. But just how much do reusable containers really help?
A new, intensive lifecycle assessment compared the benefits of buy-and-return container schemes with the costs of their production and use. The takeaway wasn’t clean.
Groundbreaking process powered by the sun converts plastic and CO2 into fuel
In a promising step toward a more sustainable, circular economy, chemists have developed a reactor that turns two of the world’s most problematic waste streams into useful products
Researchers chart a path to carbon-negative plastic
A new study shows this feat is possible, but will require more than recycling or a price on carbon
A massive supply of fresh water exists as vapor above oceans. Scientists have an idea to tap it.
Desalinating the oceans is energy-hungry business, so why not economically and sustainably capture the water vapor floating above the oceans with cruise ship-sized structures?
Discarded electronics could become a huge source of gold in the United States. Here’s how.
In a first, researchers assessed the kinds of electronics that will be discarded in the future and the materials they contain to see how a national e-waste recycling strategy might pan out.
