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We know who turned water into wine. Now, reports the Timesonline, Australian scientists are going a step further – they are turning wine and beer waste into water to generate electricity. Miracles aside, man still relies on a lengthy process to make alcoholic drinks that produces tens of millions of …

According to the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, more than 29 million tons of non-biodegradable plastic waste ends up in landfills each year. Justin Barone, associate professor of biological systems engineering at Virginia Tech, is investigating ways to create biodegradable plastics from agricultural byproducts such as poultry feathers and eggs …

WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) has launched a major project designed give the UK Magazine industry a new impetus to extend its use of recycled content paper. It will provide a solid commercial and environmental case to accelerate take-up across the industry and encourage further investment in recycled magazine …

The Arizona Republic reports that Americans are gaga for green, buying every eco-friendly product manufacturers and marketers can possibly conjure: the new forest-friendly sofas at Crate & Barrel, compostable sweeping towels at Target, kitchen countertops fashioned from recycled US$5 bills. But in dumpsters and landfills across the country, the green …

Separation and treatment to remove additives from waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) can be more commercially and environmentally beneficial than landfill, incineration with energy recovery, export for recycling outside the UK or feedstock recycling options. These are the results of new research investigating the waste management options for mixed …

IBM has announced that it processed over 100 million pounds of used and obsolete computer gear, as part of its computer renewal and recycling efforts worldwide in 2006, returning less than 1% of non-hazardous material to landfills. This is the fourth straight year in a row that IBM has managed …

Japan Society of Waste Management Experts reports that Chofu City, located in the western Tokyo Metropolitan Area – known as the Tama Area – is a municipality with a population of 213,000 and 104,000 households. In 2004, it reviewed the manner of separate collection of household waste and changed the …

Defra have published protocols for determinig the amount of WEEE for each category when a mixed load of WEEE is delivered to Approved Authorised Treatment Facilities. The research carried out through the CIWM EB looked at the average category breakdown from hand sorting of mixed WEEE loads derived from a …

Brazilian NGO Cempre reports on a survey that has revealed that 11% of urban waste was recycled in Brazil in 2005. This rate, although appearing to be a return to 2003 figure, in fact reveals a more positive reality. The total recycled rose from 5.2 million tonnes in 2004 to …

Catia Bastioli and her team from Novamont s. p.a., has won this year‘‘s "European Inventors of the Year 2007" award for their invention of biodegradable plastics obtained from starch, a renewable raw material. Catia Bastioli is the first woman to be honoured "European Inventor of the Year". The "European Inventor …