The information: Less than 1% of clothes is recycled. Most of the remainder finally ends up dumped in a landfill or burned. A group of researchers hopes to alter that with a brand new course of that breaks down mixed-fiber clothes into reusable, recyclable components with none sorting or separation prematurely.
How they did it: Many clothes are product of a mixture of pure and artificial fibers. Once these fibers are mixed, they’re tough to separate. To sort out this drawback, the group used a solvent that breaks the chemical bonds in polyester cloth whereas leaving cotton and nylon intact. To velocity up the method, they energy it with microwave power and add a zinc oxide catalyst.
Why it issues: While related strategies have been used to recycle pre-sorted plastic, that is the primary time they’ve been used to recycle mixed-fiber textiles with none sorting required. Read the total story.
—Sarah Ward
What new hydropower tech says about local weather motion
Back at MIT Technology Review’s ClimateTech occasion in 2022, Gia Schneider, a cofounder of Natel Energy, spoke about her firm’s mission to design hydropower generators which can be safer for fish.
To illustrate her level, she shared grisly photos of fish that had been hit by typical turbine blades. On the opposite hand, the fish swimming by Natel’s generators appeared comparatively unbothered, curving across the blades and happening their merry approach downstream.
Recently, our local weather reporter Casey Crownhart had a chat with Schneider about how Natel is working to alter hydropower expertise and juggle local weather motion with freshwater ecosystems to make hydropower a bit extra fish-friendly. Read the total story.
This story is from The Spark, our weekly publication protecting improvements in local weather and power tech. Sign up to obtain it in your inbox each Wednesday.
