Reuse

Meteorology may not seem like an eco-unfriendly field, but it does need to clean up its act in at least one way. A new high-tech glider could help it do so, by allowing single-use weather-balloon-carried devices to be reclaimed and reused.

The drinking straw seems pretty simple and unassuming, but it’s contributing to one of the most pressing environmental problems today. To help cut back on that, a start-up in Singapore is getting ready to launch the Chew, a reusable straw with a “chewable” rubber tip and a spin-dry mechanism.

Chemists at the University of California, Riverside have created rewritable paper that can be printed on and erased many times before it needs to be discarded, offering a proposed alternative to current rampant paper consumption and real hope for achieving the promised "paperless office."