Eco-Friendly

A new vision for design: buildings that don’t dominate nature, but kneel beside it; protecting life as it learns to stand tall

Environment

TreeSoil earthen shelter nurtures young trees in harsh conditions

A new project called TreeSoil is reimagining how architecture can support vulnerable environments. It proposes a small but radical idea: build structures not for people, but to protect saplings struggling to survive in degraded landscapes.

A new technique can remove nanoplastics from water – and under pretty lights, it sure looks cool

Science

Simple technique removes over 98% of nanoplastic particles from water

Researchers from the University of Missouri have developed a relatively simple and safe method that allows over 98% of nanoplastic particles in water to easily be scraped off the top.

In the process of felting a hair mat. She has gloves on

Environment

Human hair: A surprisingly effective way to soak up oil spills

In a world of weird, this one ranks up there... A non-profit out of San Francisco, California, is cleaning up oil spills using the naturally adsorbent properties of human hair, woven into thick mats that soak up a gallon and a half at a time.

Researchers have extracted triacetin from waste cigarette butts, which can be added to biodiesel to reduce production costs

Environment

Recycling cigarette butts may reduce biodiesel production costs

To drive down the cost of biodiesel, researchers have developed an eco-friendly way of extracting triacetin, a combustion-enhancing additive, from an abundant waste source, cigarette butts, both reducing waste and providing a sustainable use for it.

Environment

Fish scales may find use in sustainable electronic skin

Skin-worn flexible electronics show great promise, in applications ranging from health monitoring to gesture control. The devices could soon also be more eco-friendly, as scientists have recently developed a method of making them from fish scales.

The glue is intended to ultimately perform at least as well as traditional plastic-based adhesives

Environment

Biodegradable adhesive breaks down when discarded

While it's good that there are plastics which biodegrade, the glue used to join pieces of those or other materials together isn't as eco-friendly. Scientists have set about addressing that problem, however, by developing a biodegradable adhesive.

RMIT estimates that if 15 percent of bricks produced worldwide contained at least 15 percent biosolids, it would use up the 5 million tonnes (5.5 million US tons) of biosolids stockpiled annually by Australia, New Zealand, the EU, US and Canada

Environment

Environmentally-friendly bricks made from sewage-treatment byproduct

When sewage sludge is processed at wastewater treatment plants, the leftover "biosolid" material is generally dried and set aside. While some of it ends up being used as fertilizer, much is often just stockpiled. Soon, however, it could find its way into eco-friendly fired-clay building bricks.

Around 50 percent of the material used in the upper comes from recycled coffee grinds, coffee beans and coffee plants

Environment

Luxury sneaker maker wants you to wrap your feet in recycled coffee

Germany's eco-lux footwear brand nat-2 has been making sustainable footwear for a few years, and has now launched some sneakers made from recycled coffee, with some recycled plastic bottles thrown in for good measure. And yes, they smell of coffee.