New plastic-munching bacteria could fuel a recycling revolution

New plastic-munching bacteria could fuel a recycling revolution

Author: Mark Lorch
Source: The Conversation
Date: 21st of March 2016
We manufacture over 300m tonnes of plastics each year for use in everything from packaging to clothing. Their resilience is great when you want a product to last. But once discarded, plastics linger in the environment, littering streets, fields and oceans alike. Every corner of our planet has be...
Don't chuck that old mobile phone, there's gold in there.

Don’t chuck that old mobile phone, there’s gold in there.

Author: Glen Corder
Source: The Conversation
Date: 24th of Feb 2016
In Australia there are many more mobile services in use than there are people. The majority of Australians upgrade or exchange their mobile phones every 18 to 24 months, while an increasing number have owned their mobile for more than two years. The upshot is that there is around 22.5 million ...
Eight million tonnes of plastic are going into the ocean each year

Eight million tonnes of plastic are going into the ocean each year

Author: Britta Denise Hardesty & Chris Wilcox
Source: The Conversation
Date: 15 November, 2015
  You might have heard the oceans are full of plastic, but how full exactly? Around 8 million metric tonnes go into the oceans each year, according to the first rigorous global estimate published in Science today. That’s equivalent to 16 shopping bags full of plastic for every metre of ...
Melbourne University: "build it and they will recycle"

Melbourne University: “build it and they will recycle”

Author: Beroze Dubash
Source: Resource Recovery
Date: 06 October, 2014
Melbourne University has broken new ground with the most comprehensive local study to date on facility level source separation. The ‘Build It and They Will Recycle’ study, studied on campus source separations system with the aim of identifying best practise. The study used a combination of a l...
Great Pacific Garbage Patch puts fish on 'plastic diet'

Great Pacific Garbage Patch puts fish on ‘plastic diet’

Author: ABC
Source: Australia News Network
Date: 17 June 2014
Researchers are about to head to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch to spend a month analysing the huge build-up of rubbish that's polluting the ocean. The patch, also known as the Pacific Trash Vortex, was discovered in 1988 by Captain Charles Moore of the Algalita Marine Research Institute in Califo...
‘Repair cafés’ are about fixing things – including the economy

‘Repair cafés’ are about fixing things – including the economy

Author: Jade Herriman
Source: The Conversation
Date: 20 May, 2014
Image your smartphone’s screen gets smashed, or your bike wheel gets buckled, or your favourite boots get a hole in them. What do you do? You could buy a replacement. Or you could join the worldwide trend of taking your broken stuff to a “repair café”. The Bower Reuse and Repair Centre h...
CSIRO finds no Australian beaches are rubbish free

CSIRO finds no Australian beaches are rubbish free

Author: Greg Muller
Source: ABC
Date: 24 April, 2014
Researchers from the CSIRO have found everything from crocodile handbags to American milk bottles on our beaches. They say that from Sydney Harbour to the remote west coast of Tasmania, there's no beach in Australia that is rubbish-free. Greg Muller reports.   Senior research scientist ...
Europe votes to slash plastic bag use

Europe votes to slash plastic bag use

Author: Reuters
Source: ABC
Date: 22 April, 2014
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT passed a directive on Wednesday aimed at cutting the use of thin single-use plastic carrier bags by 50 per cent by 2017 and 80 per cent two years later. The directive leaves it to individual states to choose their strategy, for example taxing bags or banning them. EU ministe...

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