recycling

MIT engineers developed a recyclable thermoplastic yarn made from two polyethylene variants that matches the strength and stretch of spandex-based yarns and can be melted and respun for up to 10 cycles without losing performance, potentially enabling a circular textile economy.

A University of Melbourne study led by Haiwei Zhou finds that lithium-ion battery manufacturing emissions could grow tenfold by 2050, and explores demand-side strategies to avoid them rather than just shrinking per-battery footprints through cleaner production and recycling.

Danu Robotics, an Edinburgh-based startup founded by Amy Ma, raised $5 million in late-seed funding for its H.E.R.O. recycling sorting robot, which uses a pincer claw and AI-driven software improvements to undercut competitors like Glacier and RecycleEye.

Mass Magnetics, a Y Combinator startup, recycles rare earth magnets from electric vehicle motors for defense and robotics applications, reducing dependence on mining.

Mass Magnetics recycles rare earth magnets from electric vehicle motors into new ones for robotics and defense, avoiding the capital-intensive refining required by mining.

A GAO report examines how substitution and recycling technologies could reduce U.S. reliance on imported critical minerals for batteries and semiconductors, noting near-term potential for batteries but longer timelines for semiconductors.

An artist created a koi pond mosaic using 10 pounds of waste from 3D printing, turning discarded plastic into art.

Scientists in Japan have developed a new method that recovers up to 90% of lithium from used EV batteries, potentially revolutionizing battery recycling and reducing carbon emissions.

This paper introduces the Multi-Scale Feature Attention Network (MSFAN), a deep learning architecture for classifying 12 types of polymers using THz Dual-Comb Spectroscopy, achieving 85.2% accuracy and outperforming state-of-the-art models.

Nike's World Cup uniforms made from chemically recycled textiles are touted as a turning point for sustainable fashion, but experts argue that chemical recycling is not scalable and will not significantly reduce textile waste in the near future.

Recycling startups like Sortera and Amp are using AI-powered sorting systems to recover aluminum more efficiently, aiming to profit from rising prices driven by geopolitical conflict and increased demand.

In Gaza, a project called Green Rock recycles rubble from destroyed buildings into Lego-like interlocking bricks to address the shortage of construction materials, providing an affordable and locally produced building solution.