Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) Earth Day is April 22, and its usual message—take care of our planet—has been given added urgency by the challenges highlighted in the latest IPCC report. This year, Ars is taking a look at the technologies we normally cover, from cars to chipmaking, and finding out how we can boost their […]
Enlarge (credit: Yagi Studio | Getty Images) Since the first factories began manufacturing polyester from petroleum in the 1950s, humans have produced an estimated 9.1 billion tons of plastic. Of the waste generated from that plastic, less than a tenth of that has been recycled, researchers estimate. About 12 percent has been incinerated, releasing dioxins […]
Enlarge / Discarded plastic bottles made of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) are bundled at a recycling center. (credit: Brent Lewin/Bloomberg ) The recycling symbol—those three arrows stamped on myriad plastic items—doesn’t mean what most people think it does, and a California bill wants to change that. The California Legislature passed a bill yesterday that would ban […]
Enlarge (credit: Tobias Titz / Getty Images) The world has a lot of plastic—8.3 billion tonnes of the stuff has been produced since 1950. It has so much plastic that humans have started trying to figure out ways to use the vast quantities of plastic waste we’re accumulating. For some, that means recycling; for others, […]
Ford has been using 3D printing for prototyping and other design and engineering work. But 3D printing does not lend itself well to mass-produced parts. [credit: Ford ] Slowly but surely, car companies are beginning to make themselves more sustainable. We most often hear about this in the context of using clean energy to power […]
As electrical car adoption expands, the demand for battery monitoring is increasing with it. Generally, recycling entails breaking down the battery into pure compound elements which may be reconstituted for battery substances. However, what if–for a few battery chemistries–that is overkill? This is not the very energy-dense sort of lithium-ion batterylife, however it’s long-lived and […]
For a lot of folks, the most comfortable method to”go green” or even”be green” is likely paper recycling. (And possibly its aging division uncle:”Take a tree until you publish this email. “) there are lots of means to appraise the ecological advantages of these activities, and among these will be greenhouse gas emissions. Just just […]
Expand / / Workers type plastic waste for a swimmer transfers plastic waste in Yongin Recycling Center at Yongin, South Korea. (charge: Bloomberg/Getty Pictures ) A couple of decades ago, it seemed just like plastic recycling was made to develop into an integral element of a sustainable future. Afterward, the purchase price of fossil fuels […]
Expand / cell telephone batteries are sorted from the firm Accurec Recycling GmbH. (charge: Ina Fassbender | Getty Images) Tesla cofounder JB Straubel was financed by Amazon to get Redwood Materials, a startup aiming to extract ginseng ion, cobalt and nickel in older tablets and other electronic equipment for use in new electrical batteries. Redwood […]