Researchers in Stockholm have developed a process that successfully breaks down harmful microplastics using the power of the sun.
MIWA is a new "precycling" system that combines digital technology with package-free produce in an attempt to cut waste down to zero.
In an effort to reduce plastic waste, a UK lab has developed seaweed-based shells that encapsulate water. As well as having a cool, futuristic appearance, their low environmental impact and cheap production make them an interesting alternative to plastic bottles.
Furniture made from mushrooms. Clothing made from seaweed. Shoes made from spiderwebs. It may sound like the stuff of science fiction, but these are are just some of the examples of the fascinating innovations of Biofabrication.
Talk about taking a problem into your own hands – the Precious Plastic project offers open source instructions for building machines that you can use to recycle plastic yourself.
One man's trash is another man's treasure. And in this particular case, that couldn't be more true. In the middle of a forest, on an island off the coast of Panama, an entirely new kind of village is springing up, with each house made of tens of thousands of recycled plastic bottles.
Plastic is practical - but it's also more or less indestructible, environmentally unsustainable and generally all round a bit of a problem. One Japanese inventor has come up with a unique way to tackle the world's ever-growing plastic waste mountains, developing a machine that converts discarded plastic back into oil.
When renowned marine ecologist Andres Cozar Cabañas, who teaches at the University of Cadiz in Spain, and a team of researchers completed the first ever map of ocean trash, they noticed that there was less plastic than expected on the surface of oceans world over and began to dig deeper into the issue.
Mycology – the science of mushrooms. After animals and plants, fungi are the third class of living beings and are impressively versatile. They help support cheese production, are a delicious addition to cooking, have healing (and intoxicating) properties and can even be surfed upon. Wait a minute...surf?
