All posts tagged: Recycle

Electrochemical bath provides new way to recycle lithium-ion batteries

Electrochemical bath provides new way to recycle lithium-ion batteries

Published by skeptic

Cornell researchers have developed an electrochemical solution that can regenerate the electrodes of lithium-ion batteries. The recycled batteries could then regain up to 95% of their original power and last longer when reused. Published in Energy and Environmental Science by lead author postdoctoral researcher Kiwon Kim, the project to recycle lithium-ion batteries was led by Vibha Kalra, the Fred H. Rhodes Professor of Chemical Engineering in the Cornell Duffield College of Engineering. Co-authors include doctoral student Chenlu Yang and Sabine Gallagher at Argonne National Laboratory, with additional support provided by the Pao-Wang Fellowship. Subverting the linear “take-make-dispose approach” of batteries Spent lithium-ion batteries, when they are not causing extremely hot fires in electric vehicles, often end up in landfill, where they leak chemicals into the surrounding environment. As well as this detrimental effect on nature, this approach is in conflict with the limited global supply of critical raw materials like nickel and cobalt, which are needed to manufacture lithium-ion batteries. “When these lithium-ion batteries came about, nobody was thinking about how these minerals are limited …

Expecting charity shops to recycle your unwanted clothes is creating a rubbish pile – here’s how to help to avoid that

Expecting charity shops to recycle your unwanted clothes is creating a rubbish pile – here’s how to help to avoid that

Published by Sam Flores

Charity shops are generally seen as a responsible way to get rid of unwanted belongings. In theory, donating items allows them to be reused and raises money for important causes. However, many charity shops struggle to make use of the donations they receive. The UK has more charity shops per person than any other country, handling hundreds of thousands of tonnes of used clothing every year in addition to a wide range of other household items. When goods are donated to charity shops, they are either sold to local customers to be reused or purchased by commercial companies and traded through complex international markets. An estimated 70-90% of donated goods follow these routes, with local traders reusing and recycling as much as possible. However, large quantities are also dumped and burned, resulting in environmental damage and waste. My ongoing research shows the challenges charity shops face in reusing donated goods. Charity shops are the primary outlet for used textiles in the UK: roughly half of all textiles currently collected for reuse and recycling are charity …

I didn’t know the Recycle Bin had a size limit until files started disappearing

I didn’t know the Recycle Bin had a size limit until files started disappearing

Published by skeptic

There’s a specific kind of panic that sets in when you open the Recycle Bin in Windows to recover deleted files and find they’re gone. You didn’t permanently delete the files, nor did you hold Shift. You just deleted it the normal way, the way you’ve deleted files for years, fully expecting it to sit patiently in that little trash can until you needed it. I’ve been there, and the explanation turned out to be so mundane it was almost insulting: the Recycle Bin decided my older files were a liability and disposed of them without a word. That specific betrayal sent me down a rabbit hole I clearly should have gone down years ago. Here’s what was actually going on. The Recycle Bin has been rationing space this whole time Five percent of your drive is doing a lot of heavy lifting Most people treat the Recycle Bin like a bottomless holding pen — send something there, forget about it, retrieve it someday if needed. But it was never bottomless. The Recycle Bin stores …

The Download: Quantum computing for health, and why the world doesn’t recycle more nuclear waste

The Download: Quantum computing for health, and why the world doesn’t recycle more nuclear waste

Published by skeptic

The prize will go to the quantum computer that can solve real health care problems that conventional “classical” computers are unable to solve. But there can be only one big winner—if there is a winner at all. Read the full story.  —Michael Brooks  Why the world doesn’t recycle more nuclear waste  There’s still a lot of usable uranium in spent nuclear fuel when it’s pulled out of reactors. Recycling could reduce both the waste and the need to mine new material, but the process is costly, complicated, and not fully efficient.  Find out why it’s such an issue. —Casey Crownhart  This story is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday.  The must-reads  I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.  1 The FBI has confirmed it’s buying Americans’ location data  Director Kash Patel said it’s led to “valuable intelligence.” (Politico) + What AI “remembers” about you is privacy’s next frontier. (MIT Technology Review)  2 The first draft of a federal AI bill has been introduced It aims to protect “children, creators, conservatives, and communities.” (Engadget) + A war is brewing over AI …

Why the world doesn’t recycle more nuclear waste

Why the world doesn’t recycle more nuclear waste

Published by skeptic

My reporting also helped answer another question that was lingering in my brain: Why doesn’t the world recycle more nuclear waste? There’s still a lot of usable uranium in spent nuclear fuel when it’s pulled out of reactors. Getting more use out of the spent fuel could cut down on both waste and the need to mine new material, but the process is costly, complicated, and not 100% effective. France has the largest and most established reprocessing program in the world today. The La Hague plant in northern France has the capacity to reprocess about 1,700 tons of spent fuel each year. The plant uses a process called PUREX—spent fuel is dissolved in acid and goes through chemical processing to pull out the uranium and plutonium, which are then separated. The plutonium is used to make mixed oxide (or MOX) fuel, which can be used in a mixture to fuel conventional nuclear reactors or alone as fuel in some specialized designs. And the uranium can go on to be re-enriched and used in standard low-enriched …

How to Responsibly Dispose of Your Electronics (2026)

How to Responsibly Dispose of Your Electronics (2026)

Published by skeptic

Whether you have an old phone languishing in a desk drawer or a broken laptop gathering dust in the back of a closet, there will never be a better time to dispose of it. There’s a good chance your unwanted gadget can return to useful service, and it may even make you a little cash or help someone else. Recycling should be the last resort, but if there’s no other option for your device, there are ways to recycle electronics responsibly. Global e-waste topped 62 million metric tons in 2022, according to the latest data published by the United Nations Global E-Waste Monitor, and just 22.3 percent of that waste was collected and recycled. Too many old electronics end up in landfills and hellish e-waste graveyards in poor countries, where they poison communities. The problem is only growing worse, with an estimated increase of 2.6 million tons every year, taking us to 82 million by 2030. Governments, companies, and people are waking up to the fact that we must do better. The big question is, how? Here are …

These Official ChromeOS Flex USB Sticks Can Give Your Old Mac or Windows PC a Second Life

These Official ChromeOS Flex USB Sticks Can Give Your Old Mac or Windows PC a Second Life

Published by skeptic

“People want something that lasts them a long time, that is quality, that is useful,” says Google senior director Alexander Kuscher. “Eventually, when it breaks or when you lose it, you get a new one because you feel taken care of. So I think that builds trust, and the trust is important.” Flex started as an enterprise service for businesses; Google offered companies worried about security vulnerabilities on aging hardware a way to easily update to a more secure operating system. Or, at least, one that still received updates. After a while, other users started to get ahold of the software, downloading and installing it on their own USB sticks for their personal machines. “We didn’t make it particularly easy at the time,” Kuscher says. “But people did it.” What led to the more consumer-oriented push of ChromeOS Flex—like this partnership with Back Market—was the end of software support for Microsoft’s Windows 10 operating system last fall. While the OS still technically works, it stopped receiving security updates, and Microsoft has encouraged users to update …

How to responsibly recycle your children’s old toys : NPR

How to responsibly recycle your children’s old toys : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

Now that the holiday gift-giving season is over, parents may be looking for ways to recycle or donate their children’s old toys. Here’s what you need to know about recycling responsibly. A MARTÍNEZ, HOST: ‘Twas a time after New Year’s, and all through the house, the floor was littered with Legos. Ouch, ouch and ouch. The children’s bedroom is a plush animal zoo, and parents are wondering just what they can do. LEILA FADEL, HOST: I think what A is trying to say is… MARTÍNEZ: Sounds clear to me. FADEL: (Laughter) As you’re packing up the holiday decor, what to do about any toys that have been nudged out of the rotation by something newer and shinier? Rhonda Collins knows a thing or two about misfit toys. RHONDA COLLINS: There really is a very big issue when it comes to toys, principally because about 80% of them are made with plastics and plastics that are really hard to recycle. MARTÍNEZ: Collins is the CEO of Toycycle, one of a number of online stores where parents …

Stop Hoarding Old Computers and Printers. How To Recycle Electronics for Free

Stop Hoarding Old Computers and Printers. How To Recycle Electronics for Free

Published by skeptic

Whether you were gifted a shiny new computer for the holidays or simply have old ones sitting around collecting dust, there are sustainable ways to recycle your old PCs and printers free of charge. A recent CNET survey found that nearly a third of us are hoarding old electronics, because figuring out how to get rid of them feels like a huge pain. You can’t just toss them in the trash. It’s terrible for the environment and might even be illegal. The good news is that recycling your e-waste is ridiculously easy, and you don’t even have to find a special recycling center. This story is part of 12 Days of Tips, helping you make the most of your tech, home and health during the holiday season. Zooey Liao/CNET Just take it to Best Buy or Staples. These stores take your old laptops, printers and other tech junk off your hands for free. Some places will even give you a gift card for your trouble. It’s the easiest way to finally clear out that closet and do the …