Reusable packaging provides untapped payoffs for business

GreenBiz Group

August 13, 2020

Reusable packaging provides untapped payoffs for business Joana Kleine Jäger Thu, 08/13/2020 - 01:45 Remember the time when milk was delivered to your door in reusable glass bottles? If not, you were probably born during the plastics-era, which began about 50 years ago. Until the 1980s, glass or cotton bags were the go-to packaging materials for many products, such as milk and flour.

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Microrecycling science: revolutionising recycling and manufacturing

Sustainability Matters

August 10, 2020

Pioneers of ‘microrecycling science’ at UNSW’s Centre for Sustainable Materials Research and Technology (SMaRT) have developed a technology that is set to propel advanced manufacturing in Australia while also addressing the nation’s waste management challenges. Developed by Professor Veena Sahajwalla and her team, the novel ‘material microsurgery’

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Powder coating: an unacknowledged waste stream

Sustainability Matters

August 3, 2020

Concerns about the impact of nanoplastics and microplastics (NMPs) on global ecosystems has been on the radar for many years.1 Most attention to date has focused on microplastics in waterways and oceans, but much is unknown about their occurrence on land.2 NMPs contaminate practically all areas of the world including air, soil and water — streams, rivers, oceans and even arctic snow.3 They have been

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Students' sludge solution wins internships at GHD

Sustainability Matters

July 30, 2020

Two engineering students at the University of Sydney — Vanathy Arudselvan and Yeeun Cho — have developed a more hygienic, dignified and safer way to dislodge latrine sludge in developing countries, earning them paid internships at GHD. The duo received the GHD Humanitarian Internship Prize presented at the Humanitarian Innovation (Digital) Hackathon hosted by engineering think-tank the

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Closed Loop Partners teams with Walmart, CVS, Target to take on the plastic bag

GreenBiz Group

July 24, 2020

Closed Loop Partners teams with Walmart, CVS, Target to take on the plastic bag Deonna Anderson Fri, 07/24/2020 - 01:15 Single-use plastic shopping bags are a real problem. They take decades to break down but nearly 100 billion of them are used in the United States every year to cart away goods from retailers. Fewer than 10 percent of those are recycled — often winding up in landfills

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Creating cost-effective waste reduction solutions

Sustainability Matters

July 21, 2020

Reducing waste is a critical environmental concern. Waste ends up polluting the environment, having a significant impact on plants and animals and contributing to climate change. Apart from ecological concerns, waste also has an impact on the economy. Once waste is sent to landfill, it is a dead asset. A circular economy, where items are recycled and re-used, creates jobs and ensures assets stay in the

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When it comes to sustainability, the path forward might mean looking back

Grist News

July 21, 2020

We asked Grist readers to share the customs, habits, and practices that taught them how to reuse, recycle, and waste less.

The electronic waste collection conundrum

GreenBiz Group

July 16, 2020

The electronic waste collection conundrum Heather Clancy Thu, 07/16/2020 - 01:15 The primary reason I started covering the business of sustainability during the 2008 financial crisis wasn’t just because I was laid off from my position as editor of a technology trade publication. Quite simply, I had become obsessed with the tech industry’s then-blasé attitude about

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$190m "bonza" boost to recycling industry

Sustainability Matters

July 5, 2020

The Australian Government will invest $190 million in resource recovery infrastructure to transform the nation’s waste and recycling capacity — a huge milestone for recycling, according to the Australian Council of Recycling (ACOR), the national peak body for the $1.5 billion industry that employs 50,000 Australians. The Recycling Modernisation Fund (RMF) is set to generate $600 million

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‘Why now is the time for brands to invest in recycled plastics and waste-picker communities’

Ethical Corporation

July 1, 2020

The Covid-19 crisis has provided brands with a rare opportunity to reset their supply chain strategy and create a plan for achieving their recycling goals. Plastic waste is a concern for many businesses, especially in the packaging industry, where “branded litter” flows into ocean-bound waterways at an unprecedented rate of almost a truckload per

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