Recycling

SocialCycling Turns Unrecyclable Products Into Usable Items

We write a lot about upcycling, or the practice of reusing products for new purposes to prevent waste. Now DMD Green, an environmental management consulting company, wants to make the process even easier with its new SocialCycling ...READ»

Dell Greening Its Supply Chain With Bamboo

Netbooks will ship in cushioning made from one of the world's greenest materials.READ»

Preserve Everyday Tableware Is Designed for Consumers to Keep

A new line of recycled plastic tableware uses tactile cues to tell its users not to throw it away--and what to do with it when it's ready to be turned into something new.READ»

• Designers Accord Case Studies

Sound Smart, Look Sharp

Two designers team up for neckties made of recycled cassette tapes--sounds like a sharp-looking idea.READ»

Easing the Switch to Green Office Supplies

No matter what business you’re in, you use office supplies, and greening these office supplies is step in the path toward a more sustainable business.  Shoplet.com is helping more businesses and consumers choose green office ...READ»

EcoATM Pays Cash for Your Old Cell Phones

Until now there have been limited options for recycling old cell phones--send it back to the manufacturer, send it to one of a number of Web sites that offer cash for your used electronics, or go to the cell-phone store and hand it ...READ»

Tesco Uses Meat Power to Divert Waste From Landfills

British grocery chain Tesco has some good news: it has managed to divert 100% of its waste from landfills. But there's a catch: the chain is using expired meat to do it. Tesco is using over 5,000 tons of out-of-date meat to generate ...READ»

Will Your Next Prescription Drug Be Made Out of Recycled LCD Screens?

It sounds like something out of a sci-fi flick, but researchers at the University of York have discovered that waste material from old LCD TVs can be recycled for medical purposes.READ»

Naked Juice Brings PET Bottles to the Mainstream

Mainstream beverage distributors haven't managed to muster up the energy to produce 100% post-consumer recycled plastic bottles--until now. Naked Juice became the first nationally distributed brand to use PET (polyethylene ...READ»

The Culture of the Bag

My wife and I have this on-going joke about the baggers inconventional grocery stores and how they get all flustered when you bring in your own reusable bags. This afternoon we brought in two bags from Whole Foods and were ...READ»

Shirts With a Caffeine Buzz? Waste Coffee Grounds Make High-Tech Fabric

Waste coffee grounds is icky stuff that's a pain to clean up...but it's also proven to be a great biofuel, and now a Taiwanese company has figured out how to turn it into a super-high tech eco-fabric. Is there no end to its ...READ»

How Xerox Tapped the Power of Reuse

Listening to the cacophony of calls for green business, green jobs, and green economies, you'd think that everyone now is for a green future. But unless your company is manufacturing solar panels or making socks from bamboo, ...READ»

• Nature's 10 Simple Rules for Survival

Dell Challenges Apple's Advertising in Battle for Green Domination

Apple has changed the tagline for its MacBooks from "the world's greenest family of notebooks" to "the world's greenest line of notebooks" because of a recommendation from the Better Business Bureau's National ...READ»

San Jose Developing First U.S. Organics to Energy Waste Biogas Facility

San Jose, California announced yesterday a plan to develop the country's first organics-to-energy waste biogas facility on a 40 acre plot of land. The kinks of the plan are still being worked out, but if all goes well, the ...READ»

Government 2.0: San Francisco Releases EcoFinder iPhone App

The location-based app, released by Haku Wale, uses San Francisco's XML data feed to guide residents towards drop-off points for items like mercury-filled compact fluorescent bulbs, gas tanks, printer cartridges, and furniture.READ»

Terracycle's Global Expansion, First Stop Brazil

Ultra-popular upcycling company TerraCycle is introducing its reclaimed products to the global market with a new program in Brazil. 59 Wal-Mart stores in São Paulo, Curitiba and Recife are putting up collection points for Frito-Lay ...READ»

Universal Fiber Rescues Your Old Carpets From Landfills

Why should ugly old carpets be relegated to landfills? That's the thinking behind Universal Fiber's new ReFresh Fiber, a nylon fiber made out of post-consumer Nylon 6,6 carpeting from landfills. Universal Fiber just won New York ...READ»

Machine Turns Boring Office Memos Into What They Should Be: Toilet Paper

Tokyo-based manufacturer Nakabayashi has come up with a unique solution to the problem of excess used printer paper: an in-house machine that turns used A4-sized copier paper into toilet rolls. Nakabayashi's massive 600 kg machine ...READ»

Re-Tread Upcycles Tires into Earthquake-Resistant Building Material

Companies have been using ground-up tire "crumbs" for years in products like shoe soles and synthetic turf, but grinding up tires uses plentiful energy. But Re-Tread Products' Tire Logs, presented at this week's ...READ»

Don't Throw That Chip Bag Away! Give It Back to Frito-Lay, and Let Terracycle Turn It Into a Fashion Accessory

Instead of tossing that bag of Doritos in the trash, consider sending it back to Frito-Lay. It might just get turned into a tote bag. Frito-Lay has announced that it's opening 1,000 collection sites in the U.S. for used snack ...READ»

Dissolving Styrofoam in Biodiesel Makes Better Fuel

In terms of environmental impact, biodiesel fuel is nicer than "ordinary" diesel. Meanwhile, styrofoam is a nasty, non-biodegradable packaging material. Now, like a scene from Back to the Future made real, scientists have ...READ»

Forget TV Dinners: Microwaving Tires is the Next Big Thing

Disposing of the nearly 300 million car tires that are ditched every year in North America isn't easy. Burying them takes up way too much space, and recyclers are often hard to find. We've seen tires upcycled by enterprising ...READ»

Reducing, Reusing, and Recycling at the Milan Furniture Fair

These are nervous times for the companies showing off their wares at the sprawling Milan Furniture Fair. At the same time, a showcase for luxurious goods is as good a place as any to see how the prevailing grey mood is translating ...READ»

Garbage Moguls: The Trashiest Reality TV Show Ever [preview]

Reality shows are often classified as trashy TV. Now things have come full circle with a reality program focusing on--you guessed it--garbage. Garbage Moguls, premiering today on The National Geographic Channel, follows a team ...READ»

The Putting Lot: An Urban Golf Course in Brooklyn

Think you have what it takes to help design a miniature golf course? Then get in touch with the organizers of the Putting Lot, a temporary nine-hole course in a Bushwick, Brooklyn dirt lot going up this summer. The Putting Lot's ...READ»