The US aluminium industry is experiencing a surprising effect of President Donald Trump’s steep 50 per cent tariffs on imported primary aluminium: a surge in domestic recycling. While the tariffs were originally intended to revitalise US smelters and reduce reliance on foreign aluminium, they are also driving a boom in recycling activity, turning scrap yards into unexpected beneficiaries of trade protectionism. With aluminium import prices spiking, particularly in the US Midwest, where premiums have surged compared to 2024 levels, downstream manufacturers are facing higher production costs.&nbsp;As companies like beverage and food packaging firms contend with increased prices on cans and tinplate steel, many are seeking cheaper, more sustainable alternatives. That shift is accelerating demand for recycled aluminium, which consumes just 5 per cent of the energy needed to produce primary aluminium and is not subject to the same tariff restrictions. Adding to the momentum is the growing interest in low-carbon materials from automakers and global brands. This trend makes the recycled aluminium sector not only cost-effective but also environmentally aligned with broader industrial goals.<h2>Scrap market reverses flow as local demand soars</h2>A critical driver of the shift is the policy loophole exempting scrap metal from tariffs. While primary aluminium imports face a 50 per cent surcharge, scrap metal does not, allowing recyclers to profit from remelted aluminium sold at tariff-inflated prices. This dynamic has caused a sharp drop in US scrap exports, once totalling about 2 million tonnes annually, as more material is diverted to domestic use.The emerging economics have made US recycling facilities highly competitive, prompting discussions about implementing scrap export controls to retain supply. Analysts estimate that fully utilising scrap aluminium in the US could offset nearly half of the country’s 5.5-million-tonne annual import deficit, potentially replacing the need for four new primary smelters. Meanwhile, global suppliers eyeing the US market are constrained by volatile transatlantic trade conditions. Exporters in Europe, in particular, face uncertainty as the future of tariff alignments and trade agreements remains unsettled.<h2>Low-cost, low-carbon facilities attract investment</h2>The current environment favours recycling over new smelter construction. A new recycling plant requires only 10 per cent of the capital investment and can be completed in one to two years, compared to five or more for a traditional smelter. Companies like Hydro have already scaled up US operations, commissioning new facilities with over 300,000 tonnes of annual capacity.This rapid deployment is especially valuable as the energy-intensive aluminium industry competes for power with AI data centres and other emerging sectors. In this context, the energy efficiency of recycling adds to its appeal, not only for producers but also for investors and regulators focused on sustainability and supply resilience.In effect, while the tariffs are raising costs and adding complexity across the value chain, could they be setting the stage for a greener, more self-sufficient aluminium ecosystem in the US and reshaping the long-term trajectory of the industry?&nbsp;(With inputs from agencies)

A critical driver of the shift is the policy loophole exempting scrap metal from tariffs. While primary aluminium imports face a 50 per cent surcharge, scrap metal does not, allowing recyclers to profit from remelted aluminium sold at tariff-inflated prices.

The US aluminium industry is experiencing a surprising effect of President Donald Trump’s steep 50 per cent tariffs on imported primary aluminium: a surge in domestic recycling. While the tariffs were originally intended to revitalise US smelters and reduce reliance on foreign aluminium, they are also driving a boom in recycling activity, turning scrap yards into unexpected beneficiaries of trade protectionism. With aluminium import prices spiking, particularly in the US Midwest, where premiums have surged compared to 2024 levels, downstream manufacturers are facing higher production costs. As companies like beverage and food packaging firms contend with increased prices on cans and tinplate steel, many are seeking cheaper, more sustainable alternatives. That shift is accelerating demand for recycled aluminium, which consumes just 5 per cent of the energy needed to produce primary aluminium and is not subject to the same tariff restrictions. Adding to the momentum is the growing interest in low-carbon materials from automakers and global brands. This trend makes the recycled aluminium sector not only cost-effective but also environmentally aligned with broader industrial goals. Scrap market reverses flow as local demand soars A critical driver of the shift is the policy loophole exempting scrap metal from tariffs. While primary aluminium imports face a 50 per cent surcharge, scrap metal does not, allowing recyclers to profit from remelted aluminium sold at tariff-inflated prices. This dynamic has caused a sharp drop in US scrap exports, once totalling about 2 million tonnes annually, as more material is diverted to domestic use. The emerging economics have made US recycling facilities highly competitive, prompting discussions about implementing scrap export controls to retain supply. Analysts estimate that fully utilising scrap aluminium in the US could offset nearly half of the country’s 5.5-million-tonne annual import deficit, potentially replacing the need for four new primary smelters. Meanwhile, global suppliers eyeing the US market are constrained by volatile transatlantic trade conditions. Exporters in Europe, in particular, face uncertainty as the future of tariff alignments and trade agreements remains unsettled. Low-cost, low-carbon facilities attract investment The current environment favours recycling over new smelter construction. A new recycling plant requires only 10 per cent of the capital investment and can be completed in one to two years, compared to five or more for a traditional smelter. Companies like Hydro have already scaled up US operations, commissioning new facilities with over 300,000 tonnes of annual capacity. This rapid deployment is especially valuable as the energy-intensive aluminium industry competes for power with AI data centres and other emerging sectors. In this context, the energy efficiency of recycling adds to its appeal, not only for producers but also for investors and regulators focused on sustainability and supply resilience. In effect, while the tariffs are raising costs and adding complexity across the value chain, could they be setting the stage for a greener, more self-sufficient aluminium ecosystem in the US and reshaping the long-term trajectory of the industry? (With inputs from agencies)

A critical driver of the shift is the policy loophole exempting scrap metal from tariffs. While primary aluminium imports face a 50 per cent surcharge, scrap metal does not, allowing recyclers to profit from remelted aluminium sold at tariff-inflated prices.

Trump’s aluminium tariffs unintentionally fuel US recycling boom

A Noida-based man’s video of making teddy bears from burnt cigarette butts has been garnering views and opinions on social media.

In a video, shared on Instagram, a man named Naman Gupta shows a unique way towards dealing with pollution. Some Instagram users liked the idea while others expressed concerns about the toy being harmful for kids.

The video is posted on the Instagram page 60 Second Docs with the caption, “Most parents would say cigarettes are not toys, but Naman Gupta from Noida, India has found a sustainable way to recycle cigarette butt litter… into stuffed animals.”

Also Read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/india-news/watch-monkey-makes-a-scary-jump-on-car-breaks-through-its-sunroof-777743">Watch: Monkey makes a scary jump on car, breaks through its sunroof</a>

“Gupta and his brother founded Code Effort Private Limited which scans for toxic metals, then processes and treats the product until it’s safe to be upcycled as filling for plush stuffies”.

In the video, Gupta gives a brief description about his work and how he and his team recycle the cigarette butts.&nbsp;

Watch the video here.

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
<div class="twitter-block" draggable="false">
<blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DCj3K69y9ns/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14" style=" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:540px; min-width:326px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);">
<div style="padding:16px;">
<div style=" display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;">
<div style="background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;">&nbsp;</div>

<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;">
<div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;">&nbsp;</div>

<div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;">&nbsp;</div>
</div>
</div>

<div style="padding: 19% 0;">&nbsp;</div>

<div style="display:block; height:50px; margin:0 auto 12px; width:50px;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DCj3K69y9ns/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style=" background:#FFFFFF; line-height:0; padding:0 0; text-align:center; text-decoration:none; width:100%;" target="_blank"><svg height="50px" version="1.1" viewbox="0 0 60 60" width="50px" xmlns="https://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><g fill="none" fill-rule="evenodd" stroke="none" stroke-width="1"><g fill="#000000" transform="translate(-511.000000, -20.000000)"><g><path d="M556.869,30.41 C554.814,30.41 553.148,32.076 553.148,34.131 C553.148,36.186 554.814,37.852 556.869,37.852 C558.924,37.852 560.59,36.186 560.59,34.131 C560.59,32.076 558.924,30.41 556.869,30.41 M541,60.657 C535.114,60.657 530.342,55.887 530.342,50 C530.342,44.114 535.114,39.342 541,39.342 C546.887,39.342 551.658,44.114 551.658,50 C551.658,55.887 546.887,60.657 541,60.657 M541,33.886 C532.1,33.886 524.886,41.1 524.886,50 C524.886,58.899 532.1,66.113 541,66.113 C549.9,66.113 557.115,58.899 557.115,50 C557.115,41.1 549.9,33.886 541,33.886 M565.378,62.101 C565.244,65.022 564.756,66.606 564.346,67.663 C563.803,69.06 563.154,70.057 562.106,71.106 C561.058,72.155 560.06,72.803 558.662,73.347 C557.607,73.757 556.021,74.244 553.102,74.378 C549.944,74.521 548.997,74.552 541,74.552 C533.003,74.552 532.056,74.521 528.898,74.378 C525.979,74.244 524.393,73.757 523.338,73.347 C521.94,72.803 520.942,72.155 519.894,71.106 C518.846,70.057 518.197,69.06 517.654,67.663 C517.244,66.606 516.755,65.022 516.623,62.101 C516.479,58.943 516.448,57.996 516.448,50 C516.448,42.003 516.479,41.056 516.623,37.899 C516.755,34.978 517.244,33.391 517.654,32.338 C518.197,30.938 518.846,29.942 519.894,28.894 C520.942,27.846 521.94,27.196 523.338,26.654 C524.393,26.244 525.979,25.756 528.898,25.623 C532.057,25.479 533.004,25.448 541,25.448 C548.997,25.448 549.943,25.479 553.102,25.623 C556.021,25.756 557.607,26.244 558.662,26.654 C560.06,27.196 561.058,27.846 562.106,28.894 C563.154,29.942 563.803,30.938 564.346,32.338 C564.756,33.391 565.244,34.978 565.378,37.899 C565.522,41.056 565.552,42.003 565.552,50 C565.552,57.996 565.522,58.943 565.378,62.101 M570.82,37.631 C570.674,34.438 570.167,32.258 569.425,30.349 C568.659,28.377 567.633,26.702 565.965,25.035 C564.297,23.368 562.623,22.342 560.652,21.575 C558.743,20.834 556.562,20.326 553.369,20.18 C550.169,20.033 549.148,20 541,20 C532.853,20 531.831,20.033 528.631,20.18 C525.438,20.326 523.257,20.834 521.349,21.575 C519.376,22.342 517.703,23.368 516.035,25.035 C514.368,26.702 513.342,28.377 512.574,30.349 C511.834,32.258 511.326,34.438 511.181,37.631 C511.035,40.831 511,41.851 511,50 C511,58.147 511.035,59.17 511.181,62.369 C511.326,65.562 511.834,67.743 512.574,69.651 C513.342,71.625 514.368,73.296 516.035,74.965 C517.703,76.634 519.376,77.658 521.349,78.425 C523.257,79.167 525.438,79.673 528.631,79.82 C531.831,79.965 532.853,80.001 541,80.001 C549.148,80.001 550.169,79.965 553.369,79.82 C556.562,79.673 558.743,79.167 560.652,78.425 C562.623,77.658 564.297,76.634 565.965,74.965 C567.633,73.296 568.659,71.625 569.425,69.651 C570.167,67.743 570.674,65.562 570.82,62.369 C570.966,59.17 571,58.147 571,50 C571,41.851 570.966,40.831 570.82,37.631"></path></g></g></g></svg></a></div>

<div style="padding-top: 8px;">
<div style=" color:#3897f0; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:550; line-height:18px;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DCj3K69y9ns/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style=" background:#FFFFFF; line-height:0; padding:0 0; text-align:center; text-decoration:none; width:100%;" target="_blank">View this post on Instagram</a></div>
</div>

<div style="padding: 12.5% 0;">&nbsp;</div>

<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;">
<div>
<div style="background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);">&nbsp;</div>

<div style="background-color: #F4F4F4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;">&nbsp;</div>

<div style="background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);">&nbsp;</div>
</div>

<div style="margin-left: 8px;">
<div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;">&nbsp;</div>

<div style=" width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg)">&nbsp;</div>
</div>

<div style="margin-left: auto;">
<div style=" width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);">&nbsp;</div>

<div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);">&nbsp;</div>

<div style=" width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);">&nbsp;</div>
</div>
</div>

<div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;">&nbsp;</div>

<div style=" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;">&nbsp;</div>
</div>

<p style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DCj3K69y9ns/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style=" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">A post shared by 60 Second Docs (@60secdocs)</a>
</div>
</blockquote>
<script async src="//www.instagram.com/embed.js"></script></div>
<a class="close-mark close-div" href="#" id="jqclosemark">×</a></div>

CodeEffort describes itself “as an everlasting end-to-end collective effort to recycle cigarette butts and conserve our depleting environment most responsibly,” read their official website.

<h2>Mixed reaction from netizens</h2>

Some users didn’t like this idea and were apprehensive of the toxic elements present in the burnt cigarette butts which can harm kids if not removed properly.&nbsp;

“A wonderful cause but there is absolutely no way that these fibres are being completely stripped of the chemicals and are safe for children. This a very well-intended yet horrific practice,” expressed one user.&nbsp;

But, on the other hand, netizens also appreciated the effort with some concerns.&nbsp;

“He literally said they are certified as safe, he’s doing something wonderful, stop trying to find a fault,” posted an Instagram user.&nbsp;

Also Read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/india-news/swiggy-instamart-delivers-free-round-gourds-amid-maharashtra-elections-777650">Swiggy Instamart delivers free round gourds amid Maharashtra elections</a>

Another added, “I can’t believe it … reading the comments. Even when people are trying to do good you have sarcasm from people who probably do nothing to help any cause or person but can make remarks against others who are trying. Do they feel better? I wonder.”

A third expressed, “I support this 100% but share concerns about HOW they render the fibre ‘safe,’ and what happens to the toxic stuff they allegedly remove? Yes, the problem is cigarettes!”&nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)

A Noida-based man’s video of making teddy bears from burnt cigarette butts has been garnering views and opinions on social media. In a video, shared on Instagram, a man named Naman Gupta shows a unique way towards dealing with pollution.

A Noida-based man’s video of making teddy bears from burnt cigarette butts has been garnering views and opinions on social media. In a video, shared on Instagram, a man named Naman Gupta shows a unique way towards dealing with pollution. Some Instagram users liked the idea while others expressed concerns about the toy being harmful for kids. The video is posted on the Instagram page 60 Second Docs with the caption, “Most parents would say cigarettes are not toys, but Naman Gupta from Noida, India has found a sustainable way to recycle cigarette butt litter… into stuffed animals.” Also Read | Watch: Monkey makes a scary jump on car, breaks through its sunroof “Gupta and his brother founded Code Effort Private Limited which scans for toxic metals, then processes and treats the product until it’s safe to be upcycled as filling for plush stuffies”. In the video, Gupta gives a brief description about his work and how he and his team recycle the cigarette butts. Watch the video here. View this post on Instagram A post shared by 60 Second Docs (@60secdocs) × CodeEffort describes itself “as an everlasting end-to-end collective effort to recycle cigarette butts and conserve our depleting environment most responsibly,” read their official website. Mixed reaction from netizens Some users didn’t like this idea and were apprehensive of the toxic elements present in the burnt cigarette butts which can harm kids if not removed properly. “A wonderful cause but there is absolutely no way that these fibres are being completely stripped of the chemicals and are safe for children. This a very well-intended yet horrific practice,” expressed one user. But, on the other hand, netizens also appreciated the effort with some concerns. “He literally said they are certified as safe, he’s doing something wonderful, stop trying to find a fault,” posted an Instagram user. Also Read | Swiggy Instamart delivers free round gourds amid Maharashtra elections Another added, “I can’t believe it … reading the comments. Even when people are trying to do good you have sarcasm from people who probably do nothing to help any cause or person but can make remarks against others who are trying. Do they feel better? I wonder.” A third expressed, “I support this 100% but share concerns about HOW they render the fibre ‘safe,’ and what happens to the toxic stuff they allegedly remove? Yes, the problem is cigarettes!” (With inputs from agencies)

Noida man recycled cigarette butts into teddy bears. Netizens give mixed reactions | Watch

A fire erupted at a battery recycling facility in southern France, engulfing approximately 900 tonnes of lithium batteries and releasing thick black smoke into the sky, Reuters reported citing local authorities on Sunday.<o:p></o:p>

The fire, which broke out in a warehouse owned by French recycling group SNAM in Viviez, north of Toulouse, has raised concerns about potential environmental and health hazards posed by the burning batteries. <o:p></o:p>

"This incident underscores the potential dangers associated with lithium batteries, given their combustible nature and the toxic materials they contain," Reuters quoted the local councillor Pascal Mazet as saying. <o:p></o:p>

Lithium batteries, integral to various electrical devices including smartphones and electric vehicles, are known to pose fire risks when exposed to heat, raising alarms about the environmental and health implications of the ongoing fire. <o:p></o:p>

In a similar incident in January 2023, a massive fire erupted at a warehouse storing car components and thousands of lithium batteries in Normandy, although authorities managed to contain the blaze without causing casualties. <o:p></o:p>

Despite assurances from firefighters regarding the absence of dangerous air pollution, concerns persist about the potential release of toxic materials into the environment as a result of the ongoing fire at the Viviez facility.<o:p></o:p>

According to reports, thick smoke billowed over the Viviez site, with up to 70 firefighters deployed to combat the inferno, as depicted by French media. <o:p></o:p>

While efforts to control the fire are underway, local official Charles Giusti emphasised that residents living in proximity to the plant face no immediate danger. <o:p></o:p>

However, the slow-burning nature of the fire is expected to prolong firefighting efforts over the coming hours, posing logistical challenges for emergency responders.<o:p></o:p>

A security note for the site warns of potential emissions of cadmium, a highly toxic substance, in the event of a major fire. <o:p></o:p>

While acknowledging the environmental risks posed by toxic fumes, the note assures residents that immediate health hazards are unlikely given the factory's environment and the behaviour of emitted fumes.<o:p></o:p>

&nbsp;(With inputs from Reuters)<o:p></o:p>

A fire erupted at a battery recycling facility in southern France, engulfing approximately 900 tonnes of lithium batteries and releasing thick black smoke into the sky, Reuters reported citing local authorities on Sunday.

A fire erupted at a battery recycling facility in southern France, engulfing approximately 900 tonnes of lithium batteries and releasing thick black smoke into the sky, Reuters reported citing local authorities on Sunday. The fire, which broke out in a warehouse owned by French recycling group SNAM in Viviez, north of Toulouse, has raised concerns about potential environmental and health hazards posed by the burning batteries. "This incident underscores the potential dangers associated with lithium batteries, given their combustible nature and the toxic materials they contain," Reuters quoted the local councillor Pascal Mazet as saying. Lithium batteries, integral to various electrical devices including smartphones and electric vehicles, are known to pose fire risks when exposed to heat, raising alarms about the environmental and health implications of the ongoing fire. In a similar incident in January 2023, a massive fire erupted at a warehouse storing car components and thousands of lithium batteries in Normandy, although authorities managed to contain the blaze without causing casualties. Despite assurances from firefighters regarding the absence of dangerous air pollution, concerns persist about the potential release of toxic materials into the environment as a result of the ongoing fire at the Viviez facility. According to reports, thick smoke billowed over the Viviez site, with up to 70 firefighters deployed to combat the inferno, as depicted by French media. While efforts to control the fire are underway, local official Charles Giusti emphasised that residents living in proximity to the plant face no immediate danger. However, the slow-burning nature of the fire is expected to prolong firefighting efforts over the coming hours, posing logistical challenges for emergency responders. A security note for the site warns of potential emissions of cadmium, a highly toxic substance, in the event of a major fire. While acknowledging the environmental risks posed by toxic fumes, the note assures residents that immediate health hazards are unlikely given the factory's environment and the behaviour of emitted fumes. (With inputs from Reuters)

Major fire at French recycling plant engulfs 900 tonnes of lithium batteries

Killarney, an Irish town, has rid itself of the "plague" of disposable coffee cups. Three months ago, it became the first Irish town to ban single-use coffee mugs, and now the results are visible.

<h2>Not caring for nature will cost you</h2>

Killarney, a popular tourist town, had a ubiquitous problem: coffee cups littering the streets, overflowing bins and ruining the beauty of the picturesque national parking.&nbsp;

Every year, the town would go through millions of cups — about 23,000 a week — which added up to 18.5 tonnes of waste.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/science/european-space-agency-shares-stunning-visualisation-of-mars-labyrinth-of-night-watch-here-647379">This stunning visualisation of Mars' gigantic 'Labyrinth of Night' will blow your mind</a>

Now, people are required to carry their own reusable cups with them, and those who don't, have to cough up a €2 (around $2.11) deposit for a reusable cup from the coffee shop. This deposit is returned once the customer gives back the cup they "borrowed".

<h2>Is the move helping?</h2>

Yes. As per the Guardian, the result is pretty evident. Streets and forest trails rarely have the pesky disposable cups littering them.

Talking to the publication, Michael Gleeson, chair of 'Killarney Looking Good,' a group that promotes civic improvements, said: "This was a wonderful and necessary initiative. The amount of cups strewn around is considerably reduced."

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/american-museum-to-remove-human-remains-from-exhibits-647430">Top American museum to remove 'human remains' from exhibits</a>

As per Gleeson, these cups were a "plague on the town and countryside."

Not only that, the move is also beneficial to restaurants and cafés, which save up to 20 to 30 cents a cup.&nbsp;

<h2>A source of inspiration</h2>

Killarney's success has become a source of inspiration for other Kerry towns, including Tralee and Dingle, which are also considering emulating similar experiments.

Gleeson expressed his hope that it will soon spread across Ireland and beyond, and said: "Our great challenge is to make our world more beautiful."

Similar initiatives have been undertaken by other towns across the globe. However, their numbers are low, because even the modest goal of eliminating single-use coffee cups isn't easy.

(With inputs from agencies)

WATCH WION LIVE HERE

<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="350" loading="”lazy”" src="https://www.wionews.com/live-tv/embed?autoplay=1&amp;mute=1" width="100%"></iframe>

You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us <a href="https://www.wionews.com/content-contribution-registration-form">here</a>.

Killarney, an Irish town, has rid itself of the "plague" of disposable coffee cups. Three months ago, it became the first Irish town to ban single-use coffee mugs, and now the results are visible.

Killarney, an Irish town, has rid itself of the "plague" of disposable coffee cups. Three months ago, it became the first Irish town to ban single-use coffee mugs, and now the results are visible. Not caring for nature will cost you Killarney, a popular tourist town, had a ubiquitous problem: coffee cups littering the streets, overflowing bins and ruining the beauty of the picturesque national parking. Every year, the town would go through millions of cups — about 23,000 a week — which added up to 18.5 tonnes of waste. Also read | This stunning visualisation of Mars' gigantic 'Labyrinth of Night' will blow your mind Now, people are required to carry their own reusable cups with them, and those who don't, have to cough up a €2 (around $2.11) deposit for a reusable cup from the coffee shop. This deposit is returned once the customer gives back the cup they "borrowed". Is the move helping? Yes. As per the Guardian, the result is pretty evident. Streets and forest trails rarely have the pesky disposable cups littering them. Talking to the publication, Michael Gleeson, chair of 'Killarney Looking Good,' a group that promotes civic improvements, said: "This was a wonderful and necessary initiative. The amount of cups strewn around is considerably reduced." Also read | Top American museum to remove 'human remains' from exhibits As per Gleeson, these cups were a "plague on the town and countryside." Not only that, the move is also beneficial to restaurants and cafés, which save up to 20 to 30 cents a cup. A source of inspiration Killarney's success has become a source of inspiration for other Kerry towns, including Tralee and Dingle, which are also considering emulating similar experiments. Gleeson expressed his hope that it will soon spread across Ireland and beyond, and said: "Our great challenge is to make our world more beautiful." Similar initiatives have been undertaken by other towns across the globe. However, their numbers are low, because even the modest goal of eliminating single-use coffee cups isn't easy. (With inputs from agencies) WATCH WION LIVE HERE You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us here.

Irish town's unique solution to 'plague-like coffee-cup problem' miring its beauty

The plastics industry has championed recycling as a critical solution to the rising problem of plastic waste. However, new research has found that recycling itself may be producing massive amounts of microplastics.

An international team of experts collected wastewater from a cutting-edge recycling plant in an unknown site in the United Kingdom. They discovered that microplastics discharged into the water accounted for 13 per cent&nbsp;of all plastic processed, as reported by the Guardian.

Based to their estimates, the plant might be emitting up to 75 billion plastic particles every cubic metre of effluent.

“I was incredibly shocked,” said Erina Brown, the lead researcher of the study, conducted at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow.

“It’s scary because recycling has been designed in order to reduce the problem and to protect the environment. This is a huge problem we’re creating,” she told&nbsp;the Guardian.

The researchers analysed the water before and after the facility installed a water filtration system and discovered that the filter decreased microplastic concentrations from 13 per cent&nbsp;to 6 per cent&nbsp;of the plastic processed.

Brown stated that the bulk of the particles were less than 10 microns, or around the diameter of a human red blood cell, with more than 80 per cent&nbsp;being smaller than five microns.

<h2>Where else are&nbsp;microplastics found?</h2>

Microplastics, defined as any plastic particle less than 5mm in size, have been discovered everywhere: from freshly fallen snow in Antarctica to the depths of the ocean and inside human organs. They can be hazardous to animals and plants.

ALSO READ <a href="https://www.wionews.com/science/ocean-plastic-pollution-reaches-unprecedented-levels-since-15-years-570377">|&nbsp;Ocean plastic pollution reaches 'unprecedented levels' since 2005</a>

The findings also found a significant concentration of microplastics in the air near the recycling plant, with 61 per cent&nbsp;of the particles being smaller than 10 millimetres in size. Human illness has been connected to particulate matter smaller than 10 millimetres.

Brown described the facility as a "best case scenario" since it had taken attempts to incorporate water filtering, something many other recycling companies may not have done.&nbsp;According to the research, the recycling facility emitted up to 2,933 metric tonnes of microplastics per year before the filtering system was installed, and up to 1,366 metric tonnes thereafter.

“More than 90 per cent&nbsp;of the particles we found were under 10 microns and 80 per cent&nbsp;were under 5 microns,” said Brown.

“These are digestible by so many different organisms and found to be ingested by humans," she added.

Only around 9 per cent&nbsp;of the 370 million metric tonnes of plastic generated globally is recycled.

<h2>Defining microplastics</h2>

Microplastics, as the name suggests are&nbsp;small plastic particles. Officially, they are described as plastics with a diameter of less than five millimetres (0.2 inches) smaller in diameter than a normal pearl used in jewellery. Microplastics are classified into two types: the primary and secondary, as per&nbsp;National Geographic.

ALSO WATCH |&nbsp;Western US states reach deal on colorado river conservation

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/western-us-states-reach-deal-on-colorado-river-conservation-595643/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

Microfibres shed from clothes and other fabrics, such as fishing nets, are examples of primary microplastics. Secondary microplastics are particles that form when bigger plastic products, such as water bottles, degrade. This disintegration is produced by exposure to environmental elements, including sunlight and ocean waves.

WATCH WION LIVE HERE:

<iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/live-tv/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe>

The plastics industry has championed recycling as a critical solution to the rising problem of plastic waste. However, new research has found that recycling itself may be producing massive amounts of microplastics.

The plastics industry has championed recycling as a critical solution to the rising problem of plastic waste. However, new research has found that recycling itself may be producing massive amounts of microplastics. An international team of experts collected wastewater from a cutting-edge recycling plant in an unknown site in the United Kingdom. They discovered that microplastics discharged into the water accounted for 13 per cent of all plastic processed, as reported by the Guardian. Based to their estimates, the plant might be emitting up to 75 billion plastic particles every cubic metre of effluent. “I was incredibly shocked,” said Erina Brown, the lead researcher of the study, conducted at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. “It’s scary because recycling has been designed in order to reduce the problem and to protect the environment. This is a huge problem we’re creating,” she told the Guardian. The researchers analysed the water before and after the facility installed a water filtration system and discovered that the filter decreased microplastic concentrations from 13 per cent to 6 per cent of the plastic processed. Brown stated that the bulk of the particles were less than 10 microns, or around the diameter of a human red blood cell, with more than 80 per cent being smaller than five microns. Where else are microplastics found? Microplastics, defined as any plastic particle less than 5mm in size, have been discovered everywhere: from freshly fallen snow in Antarctica to the depths of the ocean and inside human organs. They can be hazardous to animals and plants. ALSO READ | Ocean plastic pollution reaches 'unprecedented levels' since 2005 The findings also found a significant concentration of microplastics in the air near the recycling plant, with 61 per cent of the particles being smaller than 10 millimetres in size. Human illness has been connected to particulate matter smaller than 10 millimetres. Brown described the facility as a "best case scenario" since it had taken attempts to incorporate water filtering, something many other recycling companies may not have done. According to the research, the recycling facility emitted up to 2,933 metric tonnes of microplastics per year before the filtering system was installed, and up to 1,366 metric tonnes thereafter. “More than 90 per cent of the particles we found were under 10 microns and 80 per cent were under 5 microns,” said Brown. “These are digestible by so many different organisms and found to be ingested by humans," she added. Only around 9 per cent of the 370 million metric tonnes of plastic generated globally is recycled. Defining microplastics Microplastics, as the name suggests are small plastic particles. Officially, they are described as plastics with a diameter of less than five millimetres (0.2 inches) smaller in diameter than a normal pearl used in jewellery. Microplastics are classified into two types: the primary and secondary, as per National Geographic. ALSO WATCH | Western US states reach deal on colorado river conservation Microfibres shed from clothes and other fabrics, such as fishing nets, are examples of primary microplastics. Secondary microplastics are particles that form when bigger plastic products, such as water bottles, degrade. This disintegration is produced by exposure to environmental elements, including sunlight and ocean waves. WATCH WION LIVE HERE:

Recycling of plastics can generate large amounts of microplastics: Study

A valuable new tool in recycling has been found. In the latest discovery, scientists have found microbes that can break down and digest plastics at low temperatures.&nbsp;

Several microorganisms that can perform this have already been found, but they usually only work at temperatures above 30 degree&nbsp;Celsius, which effectively means using them in the industrial sector would be expensive because of the additional heating cost, reported the Guardian.

Scientists from the Swiss Federal Institute WSL have found microbes that digest plastics at 15 degree&nbsp;Celsius, which could be a scientific leap in microbial recycling. Their findings have been published in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology.

Dr Joel Rüthi from WSL and colleagues sampled 19 strains of bacteria and 15 fungi varieties growing on free-lying or intentionally buried plastic kept in the ground for one year in Greenland, Svalbard and Switzerland, as per the Guardian.

They let the microbes grow as single-strain cultures in the laboratory in the dark at 15 degree&nbsp;Celsius and tested them to determine if they could digest different types of plastic.

The results showed that the bacterial strains belonged to 13 genera in the phylum actinobacteria and proteobacteria, and the fungi to 10 genera in the phylum ascomycota and mucoromycota.

The plastics tested included non-biodegradable polyethylene (PE) and the biodegradable polyester-polyurethane (PUR) as well as two commercially available biodegradable blends of polybutylene adipate terephthalate (PBAT) and polylactic acid (PLA).

None of the strains was able to digest PE, even after 126 days of incubation on these plastics. But 19 strains (56 per cent), including 11 fungi and eight bacteria, were able to digest PUR at 15 degree&nbsp;Celsius, while 14 fungi and three bacteria were able to digest the plastic blends of PBAT and PLA.

“Here we show that novel microbial taxa obtained from the ‘plastisphere’ of alpine and arctic soils were able to break down biodegradable plastics at 15C. These organisms could help to reduce the costs and environmental burden of an enzymatic recycling process for plastic.” Dr Rüthi told the Guardian.&nbsp;

He said it was astonishing that a large fraction of the tested strains were able to degrade at least one of the tested plastics.

Additionally, Dr Beat Frey, one of the study authors, explained to the Guardian, “Microbes have been shown to produce a wide variety of polymer-degrading enzymes involved in the breakdown of plant cell walls. In particular, plant-pathogenic fungi are often reported to biodegrade polyesters, because of their ability to produce cutinases, which target plastic polymers due to their resemblance to the plant polymer cutin.”

WATCH WION LIVE HERE:

<iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/live-tv/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe>

A valuable new tool in recycling has been found. In the latest discovery, scientists have found microbes that can break down and digest plastics at low temperatures.

A valuable new tool in recycling has been found. In the latest discovery, scientists have found microbes that can break down and digest plastics at low temperatures. Several microorganisms that can perform this have already been found, but they usually only work at temperatures above 30 degree Celsius, which effectively means using them in the industrial sector would be expensive because of the additional heating cost, reported the Guardian. Scientists from the Swiss Federal Institute WSL have found microbes that digest plastics at 15 degree Celsius, which could be a scientific leap in microbial recycling. Their findings have been published in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology. Dr Joel Rüthi from WSL and colleagues sampled 19 strains of bacteria and 15 fungi varieties growing on free-lying or intentionally buried plastic kept in the ground for one year in Greenland, Svalbard and Switzerland, as per the Guardian. They let the microbes grow as single-strain cultures in the laboratory in the dark at 15 degree Celsius and tested them to determine if they could digest different types of plastic. The results showed that the bacterial strains belonged to 13 genera in the phylum actinobacteria and proteobacteria, and the fungi to 10 genera in the phylum ascomycota and mucoromycota. The plastics tested included non-biodegradable polyethylene (PE) and the biodegradable polyester-polyurethane (PUR) as well as two commercially available biodegradable blends of polybutylene adipate terephthalate (PBAT) and polylactic acid (PLA). None of the strains was able to digest PE, even after 126 days of incubation on these plastics. But 19 strains (56 per cent), including 11 fungi and eight bacteria, were able to digest PUR at 15 degree Celsius, while 14 fungi and three bacteria were able to digest the plastic blends of PBAT and PLA. “Here we show that novel microbial taxa obtained from the ‘plastisphere’ of alpine and arctic soils were able to break down biodegradable plastics at 15C. These organisms could help to reduce the costs and environmental burden of an enzymatic recycling process for plastic.” Dr Rüthi told the Guardian. He said it was astonishing that a large fraction of the tested strains were able to degrade at least one of the tested plastics. Additionally, Dr Beat Frey, one of the study authors, explained to the Guardian, “Microbes have been shown to produce a wide variety of polymer-degrading enzymes involved in the breakdown of plant cell walls. In particular, plant-pathogenic fungi are often reported to biodegrade polyesters, because of their ability to produce cutinases, which target plastic polymers due to their resemblance to the plant polymer cutin.” WATCH WION LIVE HERE:

Breakthrough in microbial recycling! Scientists discover microbes that can digest plastics at low temperatures

At a time when global natural resources are getting exhausted at a record rate, the concept of the ‘3 Rs’ – Reduce, Reuse & Recycle – has never been of more significance. With this in mind, German carmaker Audi has been working on a joint project called the ‘Material Loop’. It aims to close more material cycles in the automotive industry. In essence, the project studies the possibility of using more recycled materials in the production of new cars. The recycled material, also referred to as ‘post-consumer material’, will be obtained from vehicles that have reached the end of their lifecycle.

Audi Material Loop Project: Recycling old cars to make new ones | WION Pitstop

A man in Luzira, Uganda has found a unique way to recycle plastics by making a large vessel made entirely out of plastic waste and eco-friendly materials. James Kateeba hopes his creation, called floating island, will encourage recycling and end littering in Lake Victoria. Erik Njoka brings you this report.

World Of Africa: Recycling litter from lake Victoria

Mexican scouts gather to form a giant lily flower out of tin cans to promote recycling. They commemorated ninety-six years of the scout association in Mexico. Ananya Dutta.

Mexican scouts gather to form giant flower out of rubbish

U.S. Petrochemicals giant Dow inc. Promised to recycle old sneakers into building material for playgrounds and running tracks. A new investigative report says that the donated shoes are being resold in Indonesia's bazaars. Molly Gambhir reports.

Gravitas: Dow's shoe recycling programme exposed

At a rundown market on the Indonesian island of Batam, a small location tracker was beeping from the back of a crumbling second-hand shoe store. A Reuters reporter followed the high-pitched ping to a mound of old sneakers and began digging through the pile.

At a rundown market on the Indonesian island of Batam, a small location tracker was beeping from the back of a crumbling second-hand shoe store. A Reuters reporter followed the high-pitched ping to a mound of old sneakers and began digging through the pile. There they were: a pair of blue Nike running shoes with a tracking device hidden in one of the soles. These familiar shoes had travelled by land, then sea and crossed an international border to end up in this heap. They weren’t supposed to be here. Five months earlier, in July 2022, Reuters had given the shoes to a recycling program spearheaded by the Singapore government and US petrochemicals giant Dow Inc. In media releases and a promotional video posted online, that effort promised to harvest the rubberised soles and midsoles of donated shoes, then grind down the material for use in building new playgrounds and running tracks in Singapore. Dow, a major producer of chemicals used to make plastics and other synthetic materials, in the past has launched recycling efforts that have fallen short of their stated aims. Reuters wanted to follow a donated shoe from start to finish to see if it did, in fact, end up in new athletic surfaces in Singapore, or at least made it as far as a local recycling facility for shredding. To that end, the news organisation cut a shallow cavity into the interior sole of one of the blue Nikes, placed a Bluetooth tracker inside, and then concealed the device by covering it with the insole. The tracker was synced to a smartphone app that showed where the shoe moved in real-time. Within weeks, the blue Nikes had left the prosperous city-state and were moving south by sea across the narrow Singapore Strait to Batam island, the app showed. Reuters decided to put trackers in an additional 10 pairs of donated shoes to see if wayward pair no. 1 had been a fluke. It wasn’t. None of the 11 pairs of footwear donated by Reuters were turned into exercise paths or kids’ parks in Singapore. Instead, nearly all the tagged shoes ended up in the hands of Yok Impex Pte Ltd, a Singaporean second-hand goods exporter, according to the trackers and that exporter’s logistics manager. The manager said his firm had been hired by a waste management company involved in the recycling program to retrieve shoes from the donation bins for delivery to that company’s local warehouse. But that’s not what happened to the shoes donated by Reuters. Ten pairs moved first from the donation bins to the exporter’s facility, then on to neighbouring Indonesia, in some cases travelling hundreds of miles to different corners of the vast archipelago, the location trackers showed. Using the smartphone app to trace the movement of each shoe, Reuters journalists later travelled by air, land and sea to recover three pairs – including the blue Nikes – from crowded bazaars in Indonesia’s capital Jakarta, and in Batam, which lies 19.3 kilometres south of Singapore. Four pairs ended up in locations in Indonesia that were too remote for Reuters to track down in person. In three other cases, the trackers stopped sending a signal after they reached Indonesia. The 11th pair remains in Singapore, but their fate is not what Dow and Sport Singapore had promised in media releases and a promotional video posted online. Those shoes – a pair of men’s white Reeboks – ended up in a public housing project about 1.6 kilometres from a community sports centre where Reuters had dropped them into a donation bin on Sept. 8. Its tracker still blinks from that location, according to the app, an indication that they may have been taken from the donation bin. Reuters visited the housing project but wasn’t able to find the exact location of the shoes. Presented with Reuters’ findings early this year, Dow said on Jan. 18 that it had opened an investigation along with Sport Singapore, a state agency, and other sponsors of the program: French-owned sporting goods retailer Decathlon SS; banking giant Standard Chartered plc; ALBA W&H Smart City Pte. Ltd (Alba-WH), a local waste management firm; and BT Sports Pte Ltd, a Singaporean firm responsible for shredding the donated footwear at a local facility. On Feb. 22, Dow said in an emailed statement to Reuters that the investigation had concluded and, as a result, Yok Impex would be removed from the project, effective March 1. It did not explain why a used-clothing exporter had been involved in retrieving footwear from the donation bins, but said the program’s partners were now searching for another company to collect the shoes. “The project partners do not condone any unauthorized removal or export of shoes collected through this program and remain committed to safeguarding the integrity of the collection and recycle process,” said the statement, which Dow issued on behalf of all the sponsors. Reuters reporters visited the premises of Yok Impex on Feb. 23 to ask about whether it had been removed from the project. The trader’s accountant, June Peh, told Reuters the firm would be leaving the program when its one-year contract comes to an end, without giving a reason for its exit or an exact date. In January, Decathlon sent Reuters a statement saying it had not authorized the export of any shoes from the program. Standard Chartered and BT Sports did not respond to requests for comment. Sport Singapore and Alba-WH referred questions to Dow. Alba-WH is a partnership between ALBA Group, a major German waste management company, and Wah & Hua Pte Ltd, a Singaporean waste disposal firm. The two companies did not respond to emailed requests for comment. WATCH | WION Fineprint | New "Shoe Theory" trend viral on TikTok × Reuters tracked the 11 pairs of shoes over six months. All the footwear was placed in different donation barrels around Singapore between July 14 and Sept. 9 of last year. While the sample was small, the fact that none of these shoes made it to a Singapore recycling facility underscores weaknesses in the system. The findings come as environmental groups say chemical companies like Dow are making exaggerated or false claims about recycling in order to burnish their green credentials and to undermine proposed regulations to rein in the soaring production of plastics used in single-use packaging and fast fashion. The donated shoes that ended up in Indonesia have added to a flood of illegal second-hand clothing pouring into that developing country, according to a senior government official there, who said such cast-offs pose a public health risk, undercut its local textile industry and often pile more waste into its already bulging landfills. Dow told Reuters the Singapore shoe project was making progress. A sports facility under construction in Jurong, a district in western Singapore, will use recycled shoe material in its surfaces, Dow said in its January statement. The company also pointed to Kallang Football Hub, a new soccer complex whose running track purportedly was the first in Singapore to be made from recycled shoe granules. Dow said these builds will use the 10,000 kilograms (22,000 pounds) of recycled shoe material that have been produced through the Singapore recycling project so far. Reuters was unable to verify if these sports surfaces had been built because both complexes are under construction and cordoned off from the public. A pilot project in 2019 collected 21,000 pairs of shoes, Paul Fong, Dow’s Singapore manager, said in a promotional video posted on social media in July 2021 when the nationwide program was launched. Another pilot project in 2020 collected 75,000 pairs of shoes, Fong said in that video. Fong did not respond to emailed questions. Dow and its partners declined to say how many of the shoes collected during the pilot phase had gone on to be recycled, nor would they provide those figures for the countrywide rollout. They did not explain what procedures were in place to ensure that donated shoes weren’t exported, diverted for resale or pilfered from bins. Hidden trackers Dow manufactures silicone rubber and plastic used in soles and midsoles of sports shoes. The multinational and Sport Singapore said in their 2021 media releases that their “first of its kind” program would divert 170,000 pairs of shoes annually from the landfill. The program partners did not respond to questions about what would happen to these shoes or how many would be recycled to make sports surfaces. Under the slogan “Others see an old shoe. We see the future,” they called on the public to donate used shoes with rubberized soles to help ease the burden on Singapore’s incinerators and its only landfill. Dozens of wheelie bins for donations were placed across the city-state of 5.6 million people. These containers turned up in parks, community centers, schools and outlets of retail sponsor Decathlon. Singapore residents began depositing thousands of used sneakers, flip-flops and school shoes. In the promotional video, members of the public, including school children, talked enthusiastically about donating. “I contributed 15 pairs of shoes,” student Zhang Youjia said in the video, which was produced by Dow. The ten pairs donated by Reuters that were exported moved initially from the recycling drop-off bins to the warehouse of Yok Impex, situated in west Singapore close to the island’s biggest dockyard. From there, the shoes travelled by sea to Batam, an entry point for goods entering Indonesia, which has a population of more than 270 million people, the fourth-largest in the world. Guided by the smartphone app, Reuters in December followed two of the trackers to the same location in Batam: Pertokoan Cipta Prima, a sprawling flea market catering to low-income shoppers. There, dozens of vendors working out of rows of crumbling concrete shops patched with tarpaulin and metal sheets were selling everything from T-shirts and refrigerators to plastic toys. The news agency spotted half a dozen stores selling used shoes, all clustered in the same area. At three of them, Reuters saw footwear stuffed into sacks emblazoned with the words “Yok Impex,” along with the Singapore company’s dolphin logo. The first pair to be tracked down were the blue Nike running shoes. The app led to a gloomy, cluttered shoe store. But the sneakers weren’t on display. Using a function on the app to make the tracker start beeping, a reporter followed the sound to the back of the shop, finally locating those Nikes at the bottom of a mound of loose footwear. It had been five months since Reuters had deposited them into a donation barrel at a gleaming Decathlon store in Singapore. Reuters bought them back for 180,000 rupiahs ($12). The second tracker – tucked into a pair of women’s black Nikes – was located at a nearby shop. Reuters had dropped those shoes into a Dow recycling bin at a Singapore community centre in September, three months earlier. They cost 120,000 rupiahs ($8) to repurchase. Other shoes went on a far longer voyage. Incredible journey A pair of pink and orange New Balance sneakers – donated by Reuters in Singapore on Sept. 7 – landed in the same Batam market a week later, the tracking app showed. By early October, they had moved to a nearby island called Bintan, before making a 400-mile journey to Medan, a city of 2.4 million people in northern Sumatra. On Oct. 10, the shoes traveled another 800 miles to Indonesia’s capital Jakarta, according to the app. Indonesia’s second-hand clothing industry is made up of a complex network of traders, and they often exchange goods across different regions, two garment merchants told Reuters. Three weeks later, on Nov. 1, two Reuters reporters searched a frenzied mall in Jakarta looking for the shoes, eventually discovering them in a cramped shop on the third floor. The sneakers, freshly cleaned and fitted with a new pair of laces, had crisscrossed Indonesia on a marathon eight-week journey. They cost Reuters 300,000 rupiah ($20) to buy back. To learn more about Yok Impex’s role in the movement of these shoes, Reuters on Jan. 6, 2023, paid an unannounced visit to that used-clothing exporter, and was invited onto the premises. There reporters spotted wheelie bins from Dow’s shoe program stacked up in a backyard. Inside, women sorted through tables piled high with old shoes, carefully placing them into piles and then transferring them into sacks like the ones seen at the Batam flea market. Yok Impex’s logistics manager, Tony Tan, told Reuters that waste handler Alba-WH was paying his company to collect the shoes from the donation bins around Singapore and then deliver the shoes back to Alba-WH. Tan said Yok Impex did not export shoes it collected for the program. When informed that Reuters had found shoes it had donated being resold in Batam by merchants who had Yok Impex sacks in their shops, Tan said it was possible that shoes from the program got placed in error with other footwear it exports to Indonesia. “Sometimes the workers mix it up. I’m not sure because we all collect from some other suppliers,” Tan said. “It’s a mistake. I think, some mistake.” Tan did not elaborate. Banned trade In 2015, Indonesia’s Ministry of Trade introduced the Prohibition of the Import of Used Clothing regulation. The measure banned the import of used clothes and footwear over concerns about hygiene and the potential of these items to spread disease, as well as the need to protect the local textile industry. Veri Anggrijono, Director General of Consumer Protection and Trade Control at the trade ministry, told Reuters that the illegal second-hand clothing import market in Indonesia is worth millions of dollars a year. “It’s a well-organised activity because when we raid them in one place, then it will go quiet, then continue again,” Anggrijono told Reuters in an interview at his office in Jakarta. He said the importer is the party liable under the law, not the exporter or market seller. Anggrijono said importers can be charged under trade and consumer protection laws, which carry penalties that can include imprisonment and fines. But he said so far the only action the trade ministry has taken is to revoke import licenses, as well as seizing and destroying used clothing. A torrent of cheap, unregulated second-hand clothing flowing into Indonesia also adds to the country’s mounting garbage problem, said Dharmesh Shah, a policy advisor to the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, a nonprofit working on waste pollution. He said much of that merchandise is in such poor condition that vendors can’t resell it. “They sort through it and a very small percentage is actually reusable,” Shah told Reuters. “It just gets burned in open dumps or goes into rivers or in landfills.” Two market vendors in Batam, who asked not to be named, told Reuters they buy sacks of shoes of differing grades from used-clothing traders such as Yok Impex, but don’t know exactly what they’re getting until they open them up. They said it’s not uncommon to throw out half the shoes they receive because the footwear is not good enough to sell. Recycling flops This is not the first novel recycling scheme launched by Dow that hasn’t lived up to its billing. In 2021, a Reuters investigation found that at a programme in Idaho, the company said it was using breakthrough technology to turn plastic waste into clean fuel. However, in reality, it was burning plastic trash to fuel a cement plant. At the time, a Dow spokesperson said the Boise program was helping to “transform waste into valuable products.” The same year, Reuters found that a Dow-backed project in India, which was supposed to collect plastic trash from the Ganges river and use high-tech machinery to transform the waste into clean fuel, had been shut down following regular equipment malfunctions. The India project was run by The Alliance To End Plastic Waste (AEPW), a nonprofit group set up by big oil and chemical companies. At the time, a spokesperson for the AEPW confirmed that the project had ended, due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic. Selling the promise of new recycling technologies, whether to turn shoes into playgrounds or plastic bags into clean fuel, is an attempt to lull the public into a false sense of security about the environmental impact of increased consumerism, environmental groups like Greenpeace and Break Free From Plastic say. Dow declined further comment on those claims or its track record on recycling. Jan Dell, founder of The Last Beach Cleanup, a U.S. nonprofit focused on reducing plastic pollution, said large petrochemical companies should have to report on the results of their sustainability projects with the same transparency as the profit-making parts of the business. “Dow promised to pick up these shoes and grind them into materials and make them into playgrounds, and instead they’re being found all over another country. They literally cannot be believed,” said Dell, after being given details of Reuters’ findings. Read more: Balenciaga introduces fully destroyed sneakers, the Internet cannot digest its price Promises about new recycling technologies also make good business sense for petrochemical companies, according to Dell, who said throw-away consumer culture is good for their profits. People are more likely to purchase more of a product when they are told it can be recycled into something useful, according to a 2013 study in the Journal of Consumer Psychology. In its Jan. 18 statement, Dow said the shoe recycling partners are “energized by the common vision of sport championing a greener and more sustainable Singapore.” Dow did not comment on the Journal of Consumer Psychology study. In July of last year, Dow launched a similar shoe recycling program in Malaysia, which has a population of 33 million people and neighbours Singapore to the north. In promoting that project, Dow’s Fong pointed to the Singapore shoe program as the blueprint for success. For its Malaysian initiative, Dow partnered with a local nonprofit and a textile firm. Neither responded to requests for comment. Back in Singapore, Dow’s efforts are already winning accolades. On the evening of Oct. 6, Fong and other partners in the Singapore shoe recycling program stepped onto the stage of an elegant ballroom at the Equarius Hotel beach resort on Sentosa Island, just off the mainland. There they were presented with the “Most Sustainable Collaboration” award at a glitzy event hosted by the Singapore International Chamber of Commerce, the city-state’s oldest business association. WATCH WION LIVE HERE:

Sneakers meant for recycling found in Indonesian flea markets, reveals Reuters investigation

New environmental legislation in Spain will require tobacco businesses to pay for cleaning up the millions of cigarette ends that consumers throw away each year, as reported by the Guardian. The decision, which takes effect this Friday, is one of a number of policies intended to lessen waste and boost recycling.

WION Climate Tracker: Tobacco companies to pay for clean up

In Nigeria, mounds of waste scattered along roads and vast landfills are a common site moreover collecting sorting and recycling trash is not a priority but now some entrepreneurs are working hard to tackle the rubbish mountain in the country.

WION Climate Tracker | Few people collect, sort & recycle trash in Nigeria

Kenya might boost its recycling ambitions with a high-tech trash can. It displays information about waste disposal and offers free wi-fi.

WION Climate Tracker- Smart trash can in Kenya to boost recycling & minimise waste

A study by scientists from the University of Queensland, Australia, has found that superworms, the larvae of Zophobas Morio darkling beetles, are eager to consume Polystyrene, which is among the most common forms of plastic. The study found that the gut enzymes of these worms could potentially become the key to higher plastic recycling rates, reports&nbsp;AFP news agency.

Superworms usually tend to group up to five centimetres, and in countries such as Thailand and Mexico, these worms are bred as a food source for reptiles, birds, or even humans.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/science/is-it-a-warning-microplastics-breach-another-frontier-now-found-in-freshly-fallen-snow-in-antarctica-486183">Is it a warning?&nbsp;Microplastics breach another frontier, now found in freshly fallen snow in Antarctica</a>

The study was published in the journal Microbial Genomics on Thursday. Chris Rinke, who was leading the study, told AFP that the worms had an impressive performance history when it came to feeding on plastic.&nbsp;

The team of scientists also attempted to find which gene-encoded enzymes of the worms were involved in degrading the plastic and analyze the microbial gut community using a technique called metagenomics.

Watch | 20,000 tons of Plastic flows through Las Vacas each year

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/20000-tons-of-plastic-flows-through-las-vacas-each-year-486737/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

During the course of the study, Rinke and his team fed superworms over a three-week period with different diets. Some worms were given polystyrene foam, also known as styrofoam, a few were given bran, and others were not given anything.

"We confirmed that superworms can survive on a sole polystyrene diet and even gain a small amount of weight compared to a starvation control group, which suggests that the worms can gain energy from eating polystyrene," AFP quoted Chris Rinke as saying.

The findings of the study suggest that while superworms can survive on Polystyrene and complete their life cycles as adult beetles, tests reveal that it could result in a loss of microbial diversity in their guts and potential pathogens.

Bio-upcycling&nbsp;

The findings of the study can be put to use by providing superworms with food waste or agricultural bioproducts to be consumed alongside Polystyrene, Rinke told AFP.

"This could be a way to improve the health of the worms and to deal with the large amount of food waste in Western countries," he added.&nbsp;

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/trending/threatened-snake-how-jumping-worms-are-causing-havoc-in-us-483294">'Threatened snake': How jumping worms are causing havoc in US</a>

Although breeding more superworms for the purpose of up-cycling is possible, Rinke holds another plan which involves creating recycling plants that have the ability to replicate what the larvae do, that is, firstly shredding the plastic in their mouths and then ultimately digesting it through enzymes.&nbsp;

"Ultimately, we want to take the superworms out of the equation," AFP quoted Rinke. Rinke plans to research more regarding the most efficient enzymes to enhance them further through enzyme engineering.&nbsp;

The scientists envision that the breakdown products from these enhanced enzymes can later be fed to other microbes, which can potentially create high-value compounds, such as bioplastics, which they hope would become an economically viable approach to up-cycling.

WATCH WION LIVE HERE

<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/live-tv/embed?autoplay=1&amp;mute=1" width="100%"></iframe>

You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us <a href="https://www.wionews.com/content-contribution-registration-form">here</a>.

A study by scientists from the University of Queensland, Australia, has found that superworms, the larvae of Zophobas Morio darkling beetles, are eager to consume Polystyrene, which is among the most common forms of plastic.

A study by scientists from the University of Queensland, Australia, has found that superworms, the larvae of Zophobas Morio darkling beetles, are eager to consume Polystyrene, which is among the most common forms of plastic. The study found that the gut enzymes of these worms could potentially become the key to higher plastic recycling rates, reports AFP news agency. Superworms usually tend to group up to five centimetres, and in countries such as Thailand and Mexico, these worms are bred as a food source for reptiles, birds, or even humans. Also read | Is it a warning? Microplastics breach another frontier, now found in freshly fallen snow in Antarctica The study was published in the journal Microbial Genomics on Thursday. Chris Rinke, who was leading the study, told AFP that the worms had an impressive performance history when it came to feeding on plastic. The team of scientists also attempted to find which gene-encoded enzymes of the worms were involved in degrading the plastic and analyze the microbial gut community using a technique called metagenomics. Watch | 20,000 tons of Plastic flows through Las Vacas each year During the course of the study, Rinke and his team fed superworms over a three-week period with different diets. Some worms were given polystyrene foam, also known as styrofoam, a few were given bran, and others were not given anything. "We confirmed that superworms can survive on a sole polystyrene diet and even gain a small amount of weight compared to a starvation control group, which suggests that the worms can gain energy from eating polystyrene," AFP quoted Chris Rinke as saying. The findings of the study suggest that while superworms can survive on Polystyrene and complete their life cycles as adult beetles, tests reveal that it could result in a loss of microbial diversity in their guts and potential pathogens. Bio-upcycling The findings of the study can be put to use by providing superworms with food waste or agricultural bioproducts to be consumed alongside Polystyrene, Rinke told AFP. "This could be a way to improve the health of the worms and to deal with the large amount of food waste in Western countries," he added. Also read | 'Threatened snake': How jumping worms are causing havoc in US Although breeding more superworms for the purpose of up-cycling is possible, Rinke holds another plan which involves creating recycling plants that have the ability to replicate what the larvae do, that is, firstly shredding the plastic in their mouths and then ultimately digesting it through enzymes. "Ultimately, we want to take the superworms out of the equation," AFP quoted Rinke. Rinke plans to research more regarding the most efficient enzymes to enhance them further through enzyme engineering. The scientists envision that the breakdown products from these enhanced enzymes can later be fed to other microbes, which can potentially create high-value compounds, such as bioplastics, which they hope would become an economically viable approach to up-cycling. WATCH WION LIVE HERE You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us here.

Superworms capable of chomping styrofoam hold key to higher plastic recycling rates: Study

'Out of sight, out of mind', is how most people tend to be about their garbage. A Los Angeles based campaigner has taken it upon himself to show people just how much trash we unknowingly throw away every month.

Wandering the streets of LA and surrounding towns, Rob Greenfield wears a specially designed suit that can hold all the junk he has produced over the past few weeks.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/volodymyr-zelensky-ukraines-comedian-turned-war-time-president-is-now-a-comic-book-hero-480497">Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine's comedian turned war-time President is now a comic book hero</a>

His clear plastic suit has specially constructed pockets to carry all the rubbish from the drinks, snacks, and meals he consumed and weighs around 62 pounds or 28 kilograms.

Speaking to AFP, Greenfield said "We throw it in the garbage can and it goes away and we never think about it again. I wanted to create a visual that helps people to really see how much our trash adds up."

Watch |&nbsp;UK unveils Pride coin to mark 50th anniversary

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/uk-unveils-pride-coin-to-mark-50th-anniversary-480416/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

Although the sight of a man dressed in rubbish wandering around posh areas of one of America's most overtly consumerist cities raises some eyebrows, he claims that most people are curious to learn more.

"There are some people who think I’m someone who’s experiencing homelessness or that I have a mental health issue, but for the most part, people have just been very positive.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/tokyo-medical-school-to-pay-62000-compensation-for-discrimination-against-female-candidates-480452">Tokyo medical school to pay $62,000 compensation for discrimination against female candidates</a>

There are just a few days left of his 30 days challenge. Rob, who is a minimalist, has for the duration of this challenge decided to live and consume like the average American.

Noting that an average person in the US produces around 5 pounds of waste per day, &nbsp;Greenfield says that on day 12, he really started to feel "the burden of consumerism".

(With inputs from agencies)

Watch WION LIVE HERE:

<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/live-tv/embed?autoplay=1&amp;mute=1" width="100%"></iframe>

You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us <a href="https://www.wionews.com/content-contribution-registration-form">here</a>.

'Out of sight, out of mind', is how most people tend to be about their garbage. A Los Angeles based campaigner has taken it upon himself to show people just how much trash we unknowingly throw away every month.

'Out of sight, out of mind', is how most people tend to be about their garbage. A Los Angeles based campaigner has taken it upon himself to show people just how much trash we unknowingly throw away every month. Wandering the streets of LA and surrounding towns, Rob Greenfield wears a specially designed suit that can hold all the junk he has produced over the past few weeks. Also read | Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine's comedian turned war-time President is now a comic book hero His clear plastic suit has specially constructed pockets to carry all the rubbish from the drinks, snacks, and meals he consumed and weighs around 62 pounds or 28 kilograms. Speaking to AFP, Greenfield said "We throw it in the garbage can and it goes away and we never think about it again. I wanted to create a visual that helps people to really see how much our trash adds up." Watch | UK unveils Pride coin to mark 50th anniversary Although the sight of a man dressed in rubbish wandering around posh areas of one of America's most overtly consumerist cities raises some eyebrows, he claims that most people are curious to learn more. "There are some people who think I’m someone who’s experiencing homelessness or that I have a mental health issue, but for the most part, people have just been very positive. Also read | Tokyo medical school to pay $62,000 compensation for discrimination against female candidates There are just a few days left of his 30 days challenge. Rob, who is a minimalist, has for the duration of this challenge decided to live and consume like the average American. Noting that an average person in the US produces around 5 pounds of waste per day, Greenfield says that on day 12, he really started to feel "the burden of consumerism". (With inputs from agencies) Watch WION LIVE HERE: You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us here.

'Put trash in its place': This is why an environmental activist is wearing trash in posh LA

Queen Elizabeth II's grandson Prince William presented the inaugural Earthshot prizes at a ceremony in London on Sunday, with projects from Costa Rica, Italy, the Bahamas and India picking up prizes.

The new annual awards were created by Prince William to reward efforts to save the planet in the face of climate change and global warming.

Five winners were announced, each receiving a million pounds ($1.4 million).

Also Read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/twitter-erupts-as-nobel-prize-authorities-reveal-artist-behind-laureates-illustrations-420283">Takachar's pioneering technology is helping to reduce pollution from the burning of agriculture waste</a>

The build-up to the televised event - -- featuring the renowned naturalist David Attenborough and performances by Coldplay, Ed Sheeran and others -- was marked by royal displeasure at world leaders' inaction on climate change.

William hopes it will help propel the fight against climate change leading up to the COP26 summit, which opens in Scotland at the end of the month, calling those on the shortlist "innovators, leaders and visionaries".

In a short film recorded for the ceremony in the London Eye and released ahead of the event on Sunday, William warns that the "actions we choose or choose not to take in the next 10 years will determine the fate of the planet for the next thousand".

"A decade doesn't seem long, but humankind has an outstanding record of being able to solve the unsolvable," he says.

"The future is ours to determine. And if we set our minds to it, nothing is impossible."

Winning initiatives

The Republic of Costa Rica was one of the winners on Sunday picking up the "Protect and Restore Nature" award for its efforts to protect forests, plant trees and restore ecosystems.

"We receive this recognition with pride but humility, what we have achieved in this small country in Central America can be done anywhere," said Costa Rican President Carlos Alvarado.

Indian company Takachar won the "Clean our Air" prize for the creation of a portable machine which turns agricultural waste into fertiliser so that farmers do not burn the waste and cause air pollution

The other winners included Coral Vita, from the Bahamas, for a project to grow coral in tanks, 50 times quick than coral normally grows.

Also Read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/uk-conservative-mp-dies-after-getting-stabbed-multiple-times-suspect-arrested-421026">UK: Conservative MP dies after getting stabbed multiple times; Suspect arrested</a>

The northern Italian city of Milan won the "Food Waste Hubs" award for collecting unused food and giving it to people who need it most.

The "Fix our Climate" laureate went to a joint Thai-German-Italian team for the AEM Electrolyzer, which uses renewable energy to make clean hydrogen by splitting water into its constituent elements.

Each of the finalists -- chosen by experts from more than 750 nominations -- will be given help from companies to develop their projects.

Prince William announced that the 2022 edition of the Earthshot Prize will be held in the United States.

In a BBC interview this week, William took a potshot at wealthy space tourists, for neglecting problems closer to Earth, while his father and grandmother have also weighed in this week on climate change.

Opening the Welsh legislature in Cardiff on Thursday, the 95-year-old monarch was overheard upbraiding world leaders who "talk" but "don't do" enough about the planetary crisis.

The queen complained that not enough leaders had confirmed their attendance at COP26, with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi among the key players in doubt.

Royal double standards ?

William's father, long-time environmentalist Prince Charles, meanwhile told the BBC that he worried the leaders coming would "just talk", rather than implement "action on the ground".

However, campaigners alleged climate hypocrisy from the royal family, which is Britain's biggest landowner, including large tracts of Scotland given over to hunting and farming.

Also Read |&nbsp;'<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/russian-nobel-prize-russia-labels-bellingcat-and-other-journalists-as-foreign-agents-419378">Russian Nobel Prize?': Russia labels Bellingcat and other journalists as 'foreign agents'</a>

Last weekend, TV presenter and environmentalist Chris Packham led a children's march to Buckingham Palace in London to deliver a petition with more than 100,000 signatures asking the queen to rewild royal lands.

"If they were to do so it would be a very powerful message that would resonate with people all over the world," he said.

The Earthshot Prize, launched in October last year, was inspired by US president John F. Kennedy's "Moonshot" project in the 1960s to put a man on the moon.

Queen Elizabeth II's grandson Prince William presented the inaugural Earthshot prizes at a ceremony in London on Sunday, with projects from Costa Rica, Italy, the Bahamas and India picking up prizes.

Queen Elizabeth II's grandson Prince William presented the inaugural Earthshot prizes at a ceremony in London on Sunday, with projects from Costa Rica, Italy, the Bahamas and India picking up prizes. The new annual awards were created by Prince William to reward efforts to save the planet in the face of climate change and global warming. Five winners were announced, each receiving a million pounds ($1.4 million). Also Read | Takachar's pioneering technology is helping to reduce pollution from the burning of agriculture waste The build-up to the televised event - -- featuring the renowned naturalist David Attenborough and performances by Coldplay, Ed Sheeran and others -- was marked by royal displeasure at world leaders' inaction on climate change. William hopes it will help propel the fight against climate change leading up to the COP26 summit, which opens in Scotland at the end of the month, calling those on the shortlist "innovators, leaders and visionaries". In a short film recorded for the ceremony in the London Eye and released ahead of the event on Sunday, William warns that the "actions we choose or choose not to take in the next 10 years will determine the fate of the planet for the next thousand". "A decade doesn't seem long, but humankind has an outstanding record of being able to solve the unsolvable," he says. "The future is ours to determine. And if we set our minds to it, nothing is impossible." Winning initiatives The Republic of Costa Rica was one of the winners on Sunday picking up the "Protect and Restore Nature" award for its efforts to protect forests, plant trees and restore ecosystems. "We receive this recognition with pride but humility, what we have achieved in this small country in Central America can be done anywhere," said Costa Rican President Carlos Alvarado. Indian company Takachar won the "Clean our Air" prize for the creation of a portable machine which turns agricultural waste into fertiliser so that farmers do not burn the waste and cause air pollution The other winners included Coral Vita, from the Bahamas, for a project to grow coral in tanks, 50 times quick than coral normally grows. Also Read | UK: Conservative MP dies after getting stabbed multiple times; Suspect arrested The northern Italian city of Milan won the "Food Waste Hubs" award for collecting unused food and giving it to people who need it most. The "Fix our Climate" laureate went to a joint Thai-German-Italian team for the AEM Electrolyzer, which uses renewable energy to make clean hydrogen by splitting water into its constituent elements. Each of the finalists -- chosen by experts from more than 750 nominations -- will be given help from companies to develop their projects. Prince William announced that the 2022 edition of the Earthshot Prize will be held in the United States. In a BBC interview this week, William took a potshot at wealthy space tourists, for neglecting problems closer to Earth, while his father and grandmother have also weighed in this week on climate change. Opening the Welsh legislature in Cardiff on Thursday, the 95-year-old monarch was overheard upbraiding world leaders who "talk" but "don't do" enough about the planetary crisis. The queen complained that not enough leaders had confirmed their attendance at COP26, with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi among the key players in doubt. Royal double standards ? William's father, long-time environmentalist Prince Charles, meanwhile told the BBC that he worried the leaders coming would "just talk", rather than implement "action on the ground". However, campaigners alleged climate hypocrisy from the royal family, which is Britain's biggest landowner, including large tracts of Scotland given over to hunting and farming. Also Read | 'Russian Nobel Prize?': Russia labels Bellingcat and other journalists as 'foreign agents' Last weekend, TV presenter and environmentalist Chris Packham led a children's march to Buckingham Palace in London to deliver a petition with more than 100,000 signatures asking the queen to rewild royal lands. "If they were to do so it would be a very powerful message that would resonate with people all over the world," he said. The Earthshot Prize, launched in October last year, was inspired by US president John F. Kennedy's "Moonshot" project in the 1960s to put a man on the moon.

India's recycling project bags Prince William's earthshot environment prize

Shot of coffee and teachings of climate: Gaza cafe promotes recycling

A surprising mixture of waste and high fashion comes together in a newly established recycling space in the Russian capital of Moscow.

Moscow museum shows off recycling fashion

Scientists in the UK have genetically engineered used plastic bottles into vanilla flavouring (vanillin) to&nbsp;make recycling more attractive and tackle global plastic pollution.

Vanillin&nbsp;is the molecule responsible for the characteristic smell and taste of vanilla. It is used in food and cosmetics, and is an industrially important platform chemical. Traditionally, it is extracted from the vanilla plant, but global demand far outweighs supply from natural sources.

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is one of the most widely used types of plastic. Most existing recycling technologies degrade it into&nbsp;second-generation plastic materials.

Research duo&nbsp;Stephen Wallace and Joanna Sadler from the&nbsp;University of Edinburgh&nbsp;used genetic engineering to create a strain of&nbsp;E. coli&nbsp;that converts terephthalic acid into vanillin.&nbsp;

Wallace believes&nbsp;''Instead of simply recycling plastic waste into more plastic, what our system demonstrates for the first time is that you can use plastic as a feedstock for microbial cells and transform it into something with higher value and more industrial utility.''

Sadler is unsure if vanillin derived directly from waste would meet regulatory standards for food consumption but envisages it would be suitable for cosmetics or other applications as a bulk chemical.

Their modified&nbsp;E. coli&nbsp;produces enzymes to convert terephthalic acid to vanillin through an oxidation, a methylation and two reduction steps. These enzymes were introduced to the cell on plasmids, which Wallace describes as ‘circular pieces of DNA that are effectively an instruction book for the chemistry you want that cell to do.’

Adding such a large number of non-native enzymes to&nbsp;E. coli&nbsp;proved to be a big challenge.

''When you start introducing new enzymes you are putting a lot of stress on the cell, and at some point, it will become unhappy with the amount of work you are asking it to do. This poses various biological hurdles,'' explains Sadler.

Through careful optimisation of reaction conditions and media, eventually they found a sweet spot where each of the enzymes was able to play its part in the biocatalytic transformation of terephthalic acid to vanillin.Unfortunately, getting the cell to carry out the transformation was only half of the battle.

''Whole cell biocatalysis has a lot of benefits, but a huge challenge is physically getting the substrate into the cell so that the chemistry can happen,''&nbsp;says Sadler.

To overcome this, they added small amounts of alcohol that essentially poke holes in the cell membrane to increase its permeability. Another complexity was that vanillin itself is toxic to their new strain of E. coli.

To mitigate those toxicity issues, they removed the product from the reaction mixture in situ by extracting it into oleyl alcohol. With optimised conditions in hand, the team directly converted a waste plastic bottle, picked off a street in Edinburgh, to vanillin in a one-pot process.

According to&nbsp;Wolfgang Streit, an expert in microbial plastic degradation at the University of Hamburg, Germany ''This is a very promising and timely study demonstrating that terephthalic acid can be implemented into a biotechnological process.''

''They outline a clear strategy for biological up-cycling of PET waste into a single value-added small molecule. Since vanillin has the potential to serve as a platform chemical compound, this makes a significant contribution to the emerging field of microbiological plastic recycling.''

Meanwhile, Zeynep Cetecioglu, a researcher in the field of microbial waste valorisation at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden, calls the work quite an important step not only for creating biorefinery hubs in cities, but also for a more sustainable society.

Plastic waste is a big problem for all the world and the need is to find a solution to remove or dispose it. This study has taken a step further and successfully converted the compound of plastic waste to a high-value chemical.

Aside from the useful transformation, Wallace says their research ''completely changes the perception of plastic waste as a problematic end product into a utilisable feedstock for modern industrial biotechnology.''

Scientists in the UK have genetically engineered used plastic bottles into vanilla flavouring (vanillin) to make recycling more attractive and tackle global plastic pollution.

Scientists in the UK have genetically engineered used plastic bottles into vanilla flavouring (vanillin) to make recycling more attractive and tackle global plastic pollution. Vanillin is the molecule responsible for the characteristic smell and taste of vanilla. It is used in food and cosmetics, and is an industrially important platform chemical. Traditionally, it is extracted from the vanilla plant, but global demand far outweighs supply from natural sources. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is one of the most widely used types of plastic. Most existing recycling technologies degrade it into second-generation plastic materials. Research duo Stephen Wallace and Joanna Sadler from the University of Edinburgh used genetic engineering to create a strain of E. coli that converts terephthalic acid into vanillin. Wallace believes ''Instead of simply recycling plastic waste into more plastic, what our system demonstrates for the first time is that you can use plastic as a feedstock for microbial cells and transform it into something with higher value and more industrial utility.'' Sadler is unsure if vanillin derived directly from waste would meet regulatory standards for food consumption but envisages it would be suitable for cosmetics or other applications as a bulk chemical. Their modified E. coli produces enzymes to convert terephthalic acid to vanillin through an oxidation, a methylation and two reduction steps. These enzymes were introduced to the cell on plasmids, which Wallace describes as ‘circular pieces of DNA that are effectively an instruction book for the chemistry you want that cell to do.’ Adding such a large number of non-native enzymes to E. coli proved to be a big challenge. ''When you start introducing new enzymes you are putting a lot of stress on the cell, and at some point, it will become unhappy with the amount of work you are asking it to do. This poses various biological hurdles,'' explains Sadler. Through careful optimisation of reaction conditions and media, eventually they found a sweet spot where each of the enzymes was able to play its part in the biocatalytic transformation of terephthalic acid to vanillin.Unfortunately, getting the cell to carry out the transformation was only half of the battle. ''Whole cell biocatalysis has a lot of benefits, but a huge challenge is physically getting the substrate into the cell so that the chemistry can happen,'' says Sadler. To overcome this, they added small amounts of alcohol that essentially poke holes in the cell membrane to increase its permeability. Another complexity was that vanillin itself is toxic to their new strain of E. coli. To mitigate those toxicity issues, they removed the product from the reaction mixture in situ by extracting it into oleyl alcohol. With optimised conditions in hand, the team directly converted a waste plastic bottle, picked off a street in Edinburgh, to vanillin in a one-pot process. According to Wolfgang Streit, an expert in microbial plastic degradation at the University of Hamburg, Germany ''This is a very promising and timely study demonstrating that terephthalic acid can be implemented into a biotechnological process.'' ''They outline a clear strategy for biological up-cycling of PET waste into a single value-added small molecule. Since vanillin has the potential to serve as a platform chemical compound, this makes a significant contribution to the emerging field of microbiological plastic recycling.'' Meanwhile, Zeynep Cetecioglu, a researcher in the field of microbial waste valorisation at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden, calls the work quite an important step not only for creating biorefinery hubs in cities, but also for a more sustainable society. Plastic waste is a big problem for all the world and the need is to find a solution to remove or dispose it. This study has taken a step further and successfully converted the compound of plastic waste to a high-value chemical. Aside from the useful transformation, Wallace says their research ''completely changes the perception of plastic waste as a problematic end product into a utilisable feedstock for modern industrial biotechnology.''

Vanilla from used plastic bottles? Scientists brew valuable chemical from junk

As the leaders of the G7 begin to arrive at the South western tip of the UK, their likenesses have also appeared on the side of the Cornish coast in trash. Artists Joe Rush and Alex Wreckage created the sculpture nicknamed "Mount Recyclemore" of the leaders of the G7 out of electronic waste to highlight the huge amount of tech and gadgets that goes unrecycled globally each year.

Artists create giant e-waste 'Mount Recyclemore' sculpture of G7 leaders

Refusing to be treated as a garbage pit, Turkey is banning the import of most plastic waste in the country.

A recent investigation revealed that several items of garbage, being presumed to be British recycling, were left to be dumped on beaches and roadsides of Turkey.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/science/what-if-space-junk-and-climate-change-become-the-same-problem-386124" hreflang="en">What if space junk and climate change become the same problem?</a>

The investigation was conducted by Greenpeace, whose experts visited 10 sites in the southern city of Adana in March and found several British companies’ packaging in illegal waste mountains, beaches, roadsides and other locations.

Researchers found packaging from Tesco, Lidl, Marks &amp; Spencer, Asda, Co-op, Sainsbury’s, Poundland, Spar, etc — all of which are British supermarkets — left in bags or simply dumped in the shape of small hills.

It has been revealed that the UK has been treating Turkey as a garbage pit and has been extensively exporting its waste to Turkey, even though the latter’s recycling rate is only 12 per cent. The export of plastic waste from the UK has increased towards Turkey since 2018 when China banned all imports.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/science/meet-climate-changes-latest-offering-to-earth-zombie-wildfires-386102" hreflang="en">Meet climate change's latest offering to Earth - 'Zombie wildfires'</a>

Turns out, the UK is not the only country mistreating Turkey as a dumping ground. Other European countries have also been exporting their plastic waste to Turkey, although the UK and EU have rules against exporting waste to countries that do not have a high recycling percentage.

Making sure nobody treats the country as a dumping ground anymore, the Turkish government has announced plans to ban the imports of plastic waste from all countries. The ban includes polythene plastic waste but excludes pet plastic bottles.

"People have been appalled to see images of UK household waste dumped and burned in Turkey. The UK government must put a stop to our plastic waste impacting other countries. We need a complete ban on all plastic waste exports and legislation to make UK companies reduce the amount of plastic they produce in the first place," Sam Chetan-Welsh, political campaigner at Greenpeace UK said.

Refusing to be treated as a garbage pit, Turkey is banning the import of most plastic waste in the country. A recent investigation revealed that several items of garbage, being presumed to be British recycling, were left to be dumped on beaches and roadsides of Turkey.

Refusing to be treated as a garbage pit, Turkey is banning the import of most plastic waste in the country. A recent investigation revealed that several items of garbage, being presumed to be British recycling, were left to be dumped on beaches and roadsides of Turkey. Also read | What if space junk and climate change become the same problem? The investigation was conducted by Greenpeace, whose experts visited 10 sites in the southern city of Adana in March and found several British companies’ packaging in illegal waste mountains, beaches, roadsides and other locations. Researchers found packaging from Tesco, Lidl, Marks & Spencer, Asda, Co-op, Sainsbury’s, Poundland, Spar, etc — all of which are British supermarkets — left in bags or simply dumped in the shape of small hills. It has been revealed that the UK has been treating Turkey as a garbage pit and has been extensively exporting its waste to Turkey, even though the latter’s recycling rate is only 12 per cent. The export of plastic waste from the UK has increased towards Turkey since 2018 when China banned all imports. Also read | Meet climate change's latest offering to Earth - 'Zombie wildfires' Turns out, the UK is not the only country mistreating Turkey as a dumping ground. Other European countries have also been exporting their plastic waste to Turkey, although the UK and EU have rules against exporting waste to countries that do not have a high recycling percentage. Making sure nobody treats the country as a dumping ground anymore, the Turkish government has announced plans to ban the imports of plastic waste from all countries. The ban includes polythene plastic waste but excludes pet plastic bottles. "People have been appalled to see images of UK household waste dumped and burned in Turkey. The UK government must put a stop to our plastic waste impacting other countries. We need a complete ban on all plastic waste exports and legislation to make UK companies reduce the amount of plastic they produce in the first place," Sam Chetan-Welsh, political campaigner at Greenpeace UK said.

Not a garbage pit: Turkey bans import of plastic waste after UK's increased export percentage

After working for years at a recycling center in the Shetland Islands, at the northernmost reaches of the British Isles, Paul Moar is used to helping the public get rid of unwanted items.

But when an older man walked into the recycling center in Lerwick, the capital of the archipelago in the North Atlantic, carrying two large bags heaving with old photograph slides, he quickly realized that this intended trash might be worth keeping.

In the bags, he found a wealth of old pictures of the Shetland Islands taken in the 1960s and ’70s — old farmers shearing sheep by hand, views of dirt roads winding between small stone houses, and fishers rowing small dinghies ashore.

“My jaw hit the ground,” said Moar, a local history buff. “Some of them were these amazing snapshots into island life, and other ones were just scenic photos,” he said. “But I knew I’d stumbled on a little bit of treasure.”

In the days since, Moar has worked on digitizing the 300 images, tracked down the photographer and shared dozens of the pictures online. There, they have proved a sensation for residents of the islands, which have a population of just 22,000 or so, who have helped piece together when they were taken, identified the people in the photographs and shared their own memories of the islands.

In the process, they’ve become an unexpected bright spot in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic and restrictions that have left people feeling isolated.

“I certainly was in the right place at the right time,” Moar said, adding that the photographs offered a rare, intimate glimpse into everyday life decades ago in an island community.

“I think it’s giving people a little ray of light, you know, at a dark time,” Moar said. “It’s been lovely, not just to save the photos, but to see people enjoying it as much as they have.”

Through a neighbor, Moar reached out to Nick Dymond, the local resident who dropped off the bags and who took the photographs, and with his permission, uploaded a number of the images to a Shetland memories Facebook group.

Overnight, dozens of people were leaving messages and helping to identify the people featured, chiming in with notes on family homes and sharing memories of places they spent time as children.

“That must be 40 years ago when we were so young!” wrote Gillian Okill, after someone tagged her in one of the pictures.

“My dad’s boat on the right, named after me,” Mairi Thomson wrote alongside a photograph of the harbor.

“If only those days were back again,” Frank David Simmons wrote about one image, where he shared memories of farming with limited machinery.

One member of the Facebook group where Moar first shared the images said it was “giving everyone such a boost in these dark times.”

Moar said his own passion for the history of the islands — where his family can trace ancestors back to the 1400s — was what had initially drawn him to save the pictures.

The rugged Shetland Islands sit about 110 miles north of mainland Scotland, some 190 miles west of Norway. More than half of the islands’ residents live within 10 miles of Lerwick, and the rest are scattered in communities across 16 other inhabited islands — though there are around 100 small islands in total in the archipelago.

Dymond, 77, was surprised by the fuss over his old photographs but said in a phone interview that he was happy that others were able to enjoy them.

“I was just doing a clear out,” he said of his decision to take them to the dump. “I had these three large boxes of slides in my very small house for, well, 30 years or close to it.”

Dymond was a prolific photographer who loved to document his travels, including to places such as India, Kenya and Russia, but he said he had never made the switch to digital and no longer had the slide projector to view his old pictures.

“I can’t do anything with them, and I’ve already seen all the things that I’ve taken photographs of,” he said with a chuckle. “But I realized other people are enjoying them.”

Dymond is originally from Bedford, England, but in the 1960s, he made his home on the Shetland Islands. He first moved to Fair Isle, the southernmost island in the group, and in the 1970s, he began leading bird and wildlife tours in the summers. He served as a warden for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, a charity, and later wrote a book on birding in the islands.

Dymond said that viewing the photographs was a journey back into small moments of his life that he had not thought of in some time.

“There’s ones that sort of bring back memories for me in a personal way,” Dymond said of the images. “And it’s a bygone era. Some people won’t know who the people in the photographs are, and they are trying to find out, and there are a few that I don’t know either.”

One of his favorites is a photograph of a farmer kneeling to feed a lamb, taken on the tiny island of Fetlar, which had a population of just 100 during the seven years that Dymond lived there. He recognized the man, Lollie Brown, a neighbor, who died years ago.

“He was just a wonderful man,” he said. “That was a great reminder for me.”

Dymond gave permission for the slides to be donated to the Shetland Museum and Archives, and Moar plans to take them there once the site reopens after coronavirus restrictions ease.

Moar said he hoped they could serve as a reminder of the simplicity of life on the islands.

“Life is slower here,” he said. “But these old photos are certainly a window into a past era where life was, people would say, more real and more tangible.”

After working for years at a recycling center in the Shetland Islands, at the northernmost reaches of the British Isles, Paul Moar is used to helping the public get rid of unwanted items.

After working for years at a recycling center in the Shetland Islands, at the northernmost reaches of the British Isles, Paul Moar is used to helping the public get rid of unwanted items. But when an older man walked into the recycling center in Lerwick, the capital of the archipelago in the North Atlantic, carrying two large bags heaving with old photograph slides, he quickly realized that this intended trash might be worth keeping. In the bags, he found a wealth of old pictures of the Shetland Islands taken in the 1960s and ’70s — old farmers shearing sheep by hand, views of dirt roads winding between small stone houses, and fishers rowing small dinghies ashore. “My jaw hit the ground,” said Moar, a local history buff. “Some of them were these amazing snapshots into island life, and other ones were just scenic photos,” he said. “But I knew I’d stumbled on a little bit of treasure.” In the days since, Moar has worked on digitizing the 300 images, tracked down the photographer and shared dozens of the pictures online. There, they have proved a sensation for residents of the islands, which have a population of just 22,000 or so, who have helped piece together when they were taken, identified the people in the photographs and shared their own memories of the islands. In the process, they’ve become an unexpected bright spot in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic and restrictions that have left people feeling isolated. “I certainly was in the right place at the right time,” Moar said, adding that the photographs offered a rare, intimate glimpse into everyday life decades ago in an island community. “I think it’s giving people a little ray of light, you know, at a dark time,” Moar said. “It’s been lovely, not just to save the photos, but to see people enjoying it as much as they have.” Through a neighbor, Moar reached out to Nick Dymond, the local resident who dropped off the bags and who took the photographs, and with his permission, uploaded a number of the images to a Shetland memories Facebook group. Overnight, dozens of people were leaving messages and helping to identify the people featured, chiming in with notes on family homes and sharing memories of places they spent time as children. “That must be 40 years ago when we were so young!” wrote Gillian Okill, after someone tagged her in one of the pictures. “My dad’s boat on the right, named after me,” Mairi Thomson wrote alongside a photograph of the harbor. “If only those days were back again,” Frank David Simmons wrote about one image, where he shared memories of farming with limited machinery. One member of the Facebook group where Moar first shared the images said it was “giving everyone such a boost in these dark times.” Moar said his own passion for the history of the islands — where his family can trace ancestors back to the 1400s — was what had initially drawn him to save the pictures. The rugged Shetland Islands sit about 110 miles north of mainland Scotland, some 190 miles west of Norway. More than half of the islands’ residents live within 10 miles of Lerwick, and the rest are scattered in communities across 16 other inhabited islands — though there are around 100 small islands in total in the archipelago. Dymond, 77, was surprised by the fuss over his old photographs but said in a phone interview that he was happy that others were able to enjoy them. “I was just doing a clear out,” he said of his decision to take them to the dump. “I had these three large boxes of slides in my very small house for, well, 30 years or close to it.” Dymond was a prolific photographer who loved to document his travels, including to places such as India, Kenya and Russia, but he said he had never made the switch to digital and no longer had the slide projector to view his old pictures. “I can’t do anything with them, and I’ve already seen all the things that I’ve taken photographs of,” he said with a chuckle. “But I realized other people are enjoying them.” Dymond is originally from Bedford, England, but in the 1960s, he made his home on the Shetland Islands. He first moved to Fair Isle, the southernmost island in the group, and in the 1970s, he began leading bird and wildlife tours in the summers. He served as a warden for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, a charity, and later wrote a book on birding in the islands. Dymond said that viewing the photographs was a journey back into small moments of his life that he had not thought of in some time. “There’s ones that sort of bring back memories for me in a personal way,” Dymond said of the images. “And it’s a bygone era. Some people won’t know who the people in the photographs are, and they are trying to find out, and there are a few that I don’t know either.” One of his favorites is a photograph of a farmer kneeling to feed a lamb, taken on the tiny island of Fetlar, which had a population of just 100 during the seven years that Dymond lived there. He recognized the man, Lollie Brown, a neighbor, who died years ago. “He was just a wonderful man,” he said. “That was a great reminder for me.” Dymond gave permission for the slides to be donated to the Shetland Museum and Archives, and Moar plans to take them there once the site reopens after coronavirus restrictions ease. Moar said he hoped they could serve as a reminder of the simplicity of life on the islands. “Life is slower here,” he said. “But these old photos are certainly a window into a past era where life was, people would say, more real and more tangible.”

A glimpse of a bygone life on Scottish islands, plucked from the trash

It's a monster of a sailing boat which was presented on Tuesday (January 26) in Paris which aim is to clean plastic from the ocean. French skipper Yvan Bourgnon and his NGO 'The SeaCleaners' presented a model of a boat that self-recycles collected plastic trash from seas.

French sailor vows to take on ocean's trash with his 'Manta'

Trash collected from Mount Everest is set to be transformed into art and displayed in a nearby gallery to highlight the need to save the world's tallest mountain from turning into a dumping site.

Nepal to turn Everest trash into art to highlight mountain’s garbage blight

Green activists Kim Yona and Lee Dong-I use the bottle caps to make a tube-squeezing device - something they hope consumers will find useful and be able to keep, rather than toss out after just one use.

South Korean "sparrows" try to cap surge of throwaway plastic

Environment friendly: Sweden's ReTuna Mall is world's first second-hand mall

If all countries were to aggressively tighten regulations relating to plastic use, it would still be really hard to recycle 50 per cent of all of the plastic waste in 10 years time. A report by Jefferies Financial Group Inc recently shed light on the ghastly reality of plastic recycling.

With climate activism and environment protection becoming the key discourses of mainstream politics over the last few years, clubbed with ever-accelerating global warming, combating the menace of plastic could prove to be tougher than it seems.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/thailand-ushers-2020-with-ban-on-plastic-bags-271459">Thailand ushers 2020 with ban on plastic bags</a>

According to the report, “given the very low rates of recycling we see today, we believe that even with much tighter regulation, it’s unlikely that global recycling rates could reach 50% by 2030”.&nbsp;

With more pressure on governments and leaders than ever before, they will be forced to toughen the regulatory rules. Companies with a market valuation of $3.5 trillion or more are expected to be hit by bans and taxes to fight plastic pollution.

<h6><img alt="plastic" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="949d0cf9-6286-4788-a50e-5244f30bcd2a" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/Untitled%20design%20%281%29_77.jpg" /> 
Plastic waste is seen floating on a sewage canal in Port-au-Prince, on January 30, 2020 | AFP 
&nbsp;</h6>

Plastic pollution continues to plague the global environment. Almost all of the eight billion tonnes of plastic that was ever produced still continues to exist, in some form in the environment. According to Jefferies, most of this ends up in landfills.

Plastic is extremely durable and resistant to degradation, which makes it impossible to break down completely. This ensures that the material lasts for centuries.

BloombergNEF reported that the world is increasing regulations on single-use plastics.

China, which accounts for a major chunk of plastic use, recently announced that it would ban single-use plastics in public places like shopping malls and in food delivery services.

Singapore recycled four per cent of its plastic waste in 2018, and then passed a law this week to enforce stricter rules on certain categories of plastic waste across its borders, as reported by the Straits Times.

Recently, multiple countries in the African region limited the manufacturing of plastic and tried to contain the consumption of the material by levying taxes.

<h6><img alt="yyy" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="1958c7f2-699b-4529-9ed9-3ca00fa63a09" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/Untitled%20design%20%282%29_57.jpg" /> 
Compacted plastic bags are stored in a yard in Berlin on February 5, 2020, before being recycled | AFP 
&nbsp;</h6>

Additionally, starting January 1, France banned plastic plates, cups, and cotton buds with the goal of eradicating all single-use plastic items by 2040.

Other countries like Thailand and New Zealand have enforced bans or restrictions on single-use plastic bags. Indonesia is also expected to enforce the ban starting in June 2020.

However, the United States recycles barely 10 per cent of the plastic, with Europe following suit at 30 per cent on average.

Asian-Pacific countries, with the largest market in packaging, may be blamed for the plastic waste in oceans, the report said.

According to the report, more plastic is burnt than recycled. More effort is needed on behalf of governments to curb plastic.

“The impact of plastics leaking into the environment, polluting oceans, and entering the food chain could potentially be almost as big a concern for civil society as climate change”, the report added.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/plastic-in-oceans-to-outweigh-fish-china-to-ban-single-use-plastic-bags-and-straws-275644">Plastic in oceans to outweigh fish: China to ban single-use plastic bags and straws</a>

If all countries were to aggressively tighten regulations relating to plastic use, it would still be really hard to recycle 50 per cent of all of the plastic waste in 10 years time.

If all countries were to aggressively tighten regulations relating to plastic use, it would still be really hard to recycle 50 per cent of all of the plastic waste in 10 years time. A report by Jefferies Financial Group Inc recently shed light on the ghastly reality of plastic recycling. With climate activism and environment protection becoming the key discourses of mainstream politics over the last few years, clubbed with ever-accelerating global warming, combating the menace of plastic could prove to be tougher than it seems. Also read: Thailand ushers 2020 with ban on plastic bags According to the report, “given the very low rates of recycling we see today, we believe that even with much tighter regulation, it’s unlikely that global recycling rates could reach 50% by 2030”. With more pressure on governments and leaders than ever before, they will be forced to toughen the regulatory rules. Companies with a market valuation of $3.5 trillion or more are expected to be hit by bans and taxes to fight plastic pollution. Plastic waste is seen floating on a sewage canal in Port-au-Prince, on January 30, 2020 | AFP Plastic pollution continues to plague the global environment. Almost all of the eight billion tonnes of plastic that was ever produced still continues to exist, in some form in the environment. According to Jefferies, most of this ends up in landfills. Plastic is extremely durable and resistant to degradation, which makes it impossible to break down completely. This ensures that the material lasts for centuries. BloombergNEF reported that the world is increasing regulations on single-use plastics. China, which accounts for a major chunk of plastic use, recently announced that it would ban single-use plastics in public places like shopping malls and in food delivery services. Singapore recycled four per cent of its plastic waste in 2018, and then passed a law this week to enforce stricter rules on certain categories of plastic waste across its borders, as reported by the Straits Times. Recently, multiple countries in the African region limited the manufacturing of plastic and tried to contain the consumption of the material by levying taxes. Compacted plastic bags are stored in a yard in Berlin on February 5, 2020, before being recycled | AFP Additionally, starting January 1, France banned plastic plates, cups, and cotton buds with the goal of eradicating all single-use plastic items by 2040. Other countries like Thailand and New Zealand have enforced bans or restrictions on single-use plastic bags. Indonesia is also expected to enforce the ban starting in June 2020. However, the United States recycles barely 10 per cent of the plastic, with Europe following suit at 30 per cent on average. Asian-Pacific countries, with the largest market in packaging, may be blamed for the plastic waste in oceans, the report said. According to the report, more plastic is burnt than recycled. More effort is needed on behalf of governments to curb plastic. “The impact of plastics leaking into the environment, polluting oceans, and entering the food chain could potentially be almost as big a concern for civil society as climate change”, the report added. Also read: Plastic in oceans to outweigh fish: China to ban single-use plastic bags and straws

All plastic ever produced still exists in the environment: Report

Thanks to recycling, the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu, located in southeastern Peru, has found a circular economy and sustainability that will lead to salvation in the face of the threat posed to this UNESCO World Heritage Site by tourism and the waste it generates.

Machu Picchu sees recycling as the path to environmental salvation

<h1>The small hands of Moroccan recycling</h1>

<figure><img alt="File 20170519 12263 vvjzz7" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/170165/width754/file-20170519-12263-vvjzz7.jpg" />
<figcaption>A wastepicker working in the streets of Casablanca. (Photo Pascal Garret, July 2013) <a class="source" href="http://www.bab-el-louk.org/">www.bab-el-louk.org</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></figcaption>
</figure>

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/benedicte-florin-348742">B&eacute;n&eacute;dicte Florin</a>, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/universite-francois-rabelais-de-tours-2282">Universit&eacute; Fran&ccedil;ois-Rabelais de Tours</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/mustapha-azaitraoui-369200">Mustapha Azaitraoui</a>, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/universite-hassan-ier-3095">Universit&eacute; Hassan Ier</a>

This article is based on a series about recycling documented in the 2017 book <a href="http://www.pressesdesciencespo.fr/fr/livre/?GCOI=27246100106200">What to do with leftovers? Re-employment in Accumulation Societies</a>. The photographs by <a href="http://www.bab-el-louk.org/">Pascal Garret</a>, sociologist and freelance photographer, who collaborates with social scientists on the theme of waste recovery and recycling.

<hr />
Casablanca, Morocco, summer 2016. With constant heat often above 30&deg;C, garbage can quickly suffocate the four millions inhabitants of this city. But as visitors navigate through the second-largest city of the Maghrebian region, small hands are making sure that large quantities of waste do not pile up on landfills by offering them new life.

These men and women belong to populations that anthropologist Delphine Corteel and sociologist St&eacute;phane Le Lay (<a href="https://www.cairn.info/travailleurs-des-dechets--9782749214368.htm">ERES, 2011</a>) have called &ldquo;waste workers&rdquo;.

Despite their tremendous and tiring work, they remain excluded from the Moroccan society because of the uncleanliness of their work, and the nature of their living spaces.

They live on the margins of legal urban areas, in slums and makeshift houses, which are regularly demolished or threatened by real estate and urban projects. While working in the streets, they are often victims of violence either committed by the authorities or other inhabitants.

We conducted interviews with many members of this community <a href="https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01249663">from 2011</a>. Our objective was to show that these waste collectors, sorters, semi-wholesalers, recyclers and transporters often consider their work as a real profession and believe that their role is essential, especially given that environmental issues have never been higher on the agenda.

According to our multi-site surveys, more than a third of Casablanca&rsquo;s household waste would escape rejection from landfills.

Far from presenting an image of misery and exclusion, we wish to portray this population free from the stigma that usually accompanies activities linked to waste.

<figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/170162/area14mp/file-20170519-12226-tpm669.jpg"><img alt="" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/170162/width754/file-20170519-12226-tpm669.jpg" /></a>

<figcaption>Overview of one part of a waste recycling area in Casablanca, Lahraouine. In the background, you can see the social housing district of Attacharouk. (Photo Pascal Garret/MuCEM, January 2015)</figcaption>
</figure>

Situated on the outskirts of Casablanca and in a topographic depression, the Lahraouine district remains virtually invisible from the outside. Most workers live in neighbouring douars (slums) where running water is absent and electricity is supplied by generators or illegal connections.

Several real estate projects have put pressure on the city to revamp the <a href="http://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2015/04/15/casablanca-construit-son-reve-de-place-economique-internationale_4616523_3212.html">district and get rid of its slums</a>. As the waste collectors do not owner their lands and there&rsquo;s no rehousing project, they live in fear of eviction.

<figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/170167/area14mp/file-20170519-12231-td08us.jpg"><img alt="" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/170167/width754/file-20170519-12231-td08us.jpg" /></a>

<figcaption>A bouar returning from his tour in the outskirts of Casablanca. (Photo Pascal Garret, May 2016)</figcaption>
</figure>

This bouar (the word is derived from the French word &eacute;boueur for garbage man) returns from the city with a cart filled with his daily collection. But the increasing number of containers buried in the affluent neighbourhoods of Casablanca reduces access to this waste resource.

More often than not, the bouara (plural for bouar) have to limit their work to open bins in working-class neighbourhoods. They are also more tolerated in these areas than in the city&rsquo;s central districts or middle-upper class areas. In the latter, police can harass them, even arrest them and confiscate their donkeys and carts.

<figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/170277/area14mp/file-20170522-25068-19nhlyf.jpg"><img alt="" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/170277/width754/file-20170522-25068-19nhlyf.jpg" /></a>

<figcaption>Inside view of a gelssa of Lahraouine. (Photo Pascal Garret, April 2017)</figcaption>
</figure>

The gelssas (a term derived from the verb gels, which means sit down in darija, the language of the Maghreb region) are enclosures of various sizes surrounded by palisades (metal sheets, tarps, boards or dried waste that form a kind of wall) where the bouara centralise their harvest after each city tour.

Their collection is sold by weight and consists mainly of cardboard, plastics, metals, glass, fabrics and vegetable waste. Valuable objects, after changing hands several times, will eventually end up in one of the city&rsquo;s flea markets (joutiya). Nothing that can be used is left behind.

<figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/170280/area14mp/file-20170522-25041-9c0nul.jpg"><img alt="" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/170280/width754/file-20170522-25041-9c0nul.jpg" /></a>

<figcaption>A worker sorting waste in a gelssa specialised on plastic materials. (Photo Pascal Garret, May 2016)</figcaption>
</figure>

The bouara of Casablanca can make about &euro;20 daily, but many must rent their equipment (cart and animal) from their bosses for &euro;2.

Some gelssas are versatile sorting and recycling sites (plastics, wood, metal, rags), where materials are sorted by type. Others specialise in a particular material, as is the case below for plastic.

<figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/170282/area14mp/file-20170522-25076-jox0vi.jpg"><img alt="" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/170282/width754/file-20170522-25076-jox0vi.jpg" /></a>

<figcaption>There is no electricity in the gelssas and this machine is powered by a generator. (Photo Pascal Garret, April 2017)</figcaption>
</figure>

After collection and sorting, some materials have to be compacted and crushed to take up less space, which adds value. The materials will then be sold to informal sector wholesalers or to the formal sector through pick-ups or trucks sent to carry the waste.

<figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/170279/area14mp/file-20170522-25076-9jjyyc.jpg"><img alt="" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/170279/width754/file-20170522-25076-9jjyyc.jpg" /></a>

<figcaption>Women sorting plastic waste. (Photo Pascal Garret, May 2016)</figcaption>
</figure>

In Lahraouine, we have not seen many women in the gelssas. Among the 3,000 active waste-recyclers we roughly counted, the majority are young men and we estimated that there were only 500 to 600 women. They are only assigned to sorting tasks.

The <a href="http://www.hcp.ma/Etude-d-Impact-de-la-crise-mondiale-sur-l-economie-marocaine_a867.html">economic crisis in Morocco</a> has led to an increase of waste workers in Casablanca.

<figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/170286/area14mp/file-20170522-25008-1jbpntt.jpg"><img alt="" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/170286/width754/file-20170522-25008-1jbpntt.jpg" /></a>

<figcaption>The sheds of waste collectors are themselves made with waste. (Photo Pascal Garret, January 2015)</figcaption>
</figure>

Waste collectors come, for the most part, from the countryside to escape poverty. Some of them originate from very remote villages in the eastern regions of Casablanca.

Many, especially youngsters, come and go according to agricultural cycles. <a href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2016/10/17/poverty-has-fallen-in-the-maghreb-but-inequality-persists">Nearly 19% of Morocco&rsquo;s agriculturally dependent rural population</a> still lives in poverty or in danger of becoming impoverished. These seasonal workers are hosted by relatives in the douars of Lahraouine or live in sheds inside gelssas.

<figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/170285/area14mp/file-20170522-25041-wjvqkj.jpg"><img alt="" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/170285/width754/file-20170522-25041-wjvqkj.jpg" /></a>

<figcaption>The boss of a gelssa posing with his horse. (Photo Pascal Garret, January 2015)</figcaption>
</figure>

This boss of a gelssa employs several waste collectors. He owns a few carts pulled by a donkey or a horse, and is a &ldquo;middle-income earner&rdquo;.

There is a very strong hierarchy in the world of recycling. At the lower level are the simple bouara and women who sort and earn low incomes. At the end of the higher range are the bosses of large gelssas who own one or more trucks and plastic crushers.

Gelssas bosses are very familiar with the cost and value of materials on the market and keep themselves updated through the internet or their mobile phones. They know exactly where, to whom and when to sell to get the maximum benefit from their wares.

<figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/170288/area14mp/file-20170522-25027-1l4gh1j.jpg"><img alt="" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/170288/width754/file-20170522-25027-1l4gh1j.jpg" /></a>

<figcaption>A waste collector at work in the Mediouna dump. (Photo Pascal Garret/MuCEM, January 2015)</figcaption>
</figure>

Situated about 20 kilometres south of Greater Casablanca, <a href="https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01524893">the Mediouna&rsquo;s landfill</a> receives nearly 3,500 tons of household waste each day, brought in by the trucks of waste-recycling companies.

At this site, which should normally mark the end of life for Casablanca&rsquo;s waste, some 600 illegal waste collectors extract about 1000 tons of materials daily that will be re-injected into the informal and formal recycling circuit.

The business of recycling factories and export wholesalers depends heavily on the activities of street collectors or the Mediouna landfill from whom they buy recovered materials at a lower cost. Secondary raw materials produced by the formal sector of the economy are largely derived from the work of these hidden workers.

Blurring the borders, this small world of informal workers is thus &ndash; directly or indirectly &ndash; well inserted in the economic chain on every level: local, regional, national and even international. The PET brought in by waste collectors, for example, is exported to China.

Many of them have also fully understood and integrated environmental arguments. One, called Mustapha, told us in an interview in 2013:

<blockquote>
We contribute to the economy of Morocco. It is thanks to us that this waste is recycled instead of being simply buried or burned. This is our livelihood, it&rsquo;s our survival and it makes our community live
</blockquote>

This wholesaler even tried to create an association for the waste collectors of the Lahraouine district in order to get them officially acknowledged and organised. But so far he has faced indifference or opposition from the authorities.

His failure highlights the perpetual stigma attached to the profession of waste collecting. It also shows their isolation and relegation to the spatial and social margins of the economic capital of Morocco.

Yet, <a href="http://globalrec.org/en/">elsewhere in the world</a>, innovative experiments, mobilisation of reclaiming communities and associations are signs that integration, access to social rights and, more broadly, recognition or informal waste collectors are possible.

<hr />
<img alt="The Conversation" height="1" src="https://counter.theconversation.edu.au/content/74878/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" width="1" />B&eacute;n&eacute;dicte Florin and Pascal Garret also collaborated for the <a href="http://www.mucem.org/programme/exposition-et-temps-forts/vies-dordures">Vies d&#39;ordures, waste economics exhibition at the Museum of Civilisation of Europe and the Mediterranean (MuCEM, Marseille)</a>, March 22 to August 14 2017.

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/benedicte-florin-348742">B&eacute;n&eacute;dicte Florin</a>, Ma&icirc;tre de conf&eacute;rences, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/universite-francois-rabelais-de-tours-2282">Universit&eacute; Fran&ccedil;ois-Rabelais de Tours</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/mustapha-azaitraoui-369200">Mustapha Azaitraoui</a>, Enseignant-chercheur en g&eacute;ographie humaine, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/universite-hassan-ier-3095">Universit&eacute; Hassan Ier</a>

This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-small-hands-of-moroccan-recycling-74878">original article</a>.

The small hands of Moroccan recycling A wastepicker working in the streets of Casablanca. (Photo Pascal Garret, July 2013) www.bab-el-louk.org, CC BY-NC-ND Bénédicte Florin, Université François-Rabelais de Tours and Mustapha Azaitraoui, Université Hassan Ier This article is based on a series about recycling documented in the 2017 book What to do with leftovers?

The small hands of Moroccan recycling A wastepicker working in the streets of Casablanca. (Photo Pascal Garret, July 2013) www.bab-el-louk.org, CC BY-NC-ND Bénédicte Florin, Université François-Rabelais de Tours and Mustapha Azaitraoui, Université Hassan Ier This article is based on a series about recycling documented in the 2017 book What to do with leftovers? Re-employment in Accumulation Societies. The photographs by Pascal Garret, sociologist and freelance photographer, who collaborates with social scientists on the theme of waste recovery and recycling. Casablanca, Morocco, summer 2016. With constant heat often above 30°C, garbage can quickly suffocate the four millions inhabitants of this city. But as visitors navigate through the second-largest city of the Maghrebian region, small hands are making sure that large quantities of waste do not pile up on landfills by offering them new life. These men and women belong to populations that anthropologist Delphine Corteel and sociologist Stéphane Le Lay (ERES, 2011) have called “waste workers”. Despite their tremendous and tiring work, they remain excluded from the Moroccan society because of the uncleanliness of their work, and the nature of their living spaces. They live on the margins of legal urban areas, in slums and makeshift houses, which are regularly demolished or threatened by real estate and urban projects. While working in the streets, they are often victims of violence either committed by the authorities or other inhabitants. We conducted interviews with many members of this community from 2011. Our objective was to show that these waste collectors, sorters, semi-wholesalers, recyclers and transporters often consider their work as a real profession and believe that their role is essential, especially given that environmental issues have never been higher on the agenda. According to our multi-site surveys, more than a third of Casablanca’s household waste would escape rejection from landfills. Far from presenting an image of misery and exclusion, we wish to portray this population free from the stigma that usually accompanies activities linked to waste. Overview of one part of a waste recycling area in Casablanca, Lahraouine. In the background, you can see the social housing district of Attacharouk. (Photo Pascal Garret/MuCEM, January 2015) Situated on the outskirts of Casablanca and in a topographic depression, the Lahraouine district remains virtually invisible from the outside. Most workers live in neighbouring douars (slums) where running water is absent and electricity is supplied by generators or illegal connections. Several real estate projects have put pressure on the city to revamp the district and get rid of its slums. As the waste collectors do not owner their lands and there’s no rehousing project, they live in fear of eviction. A bouar returning from his tour in the outskirts of Casablanca. (Photo Pascal Garret, May 2016) This bouar (the word is derived from the French word éboueur for garbage man) returns from the city with a cart filled with his daily collection. But the increasing number of containers buried in the affluent neighbourhoods of Casablanca reduces access to this waste resource. More often than not, the bouara (plural for bouar) have to limit their work to open bins in working-class neighbourhoods. They are also more tolerated in these areas than in the city’s central districts or middle-upper class areas. In the latter, police can harass them, even arrest them and confiscate their donkeys and carts. Inside view of a gelssa of Lahraouine. (Photo Pascal Garret, April 2017) The gelssas (a term derived from the verb gels, which means sit down in darija, the language of the Maghreb region) are enclosures of various sizes surrounded by palisades (metal sheets, tarps, boards or dried waste that form a kind of wall) where the bouara centralise their harvest after each city tour. Their collection is sold by weight and consists mainly of cardboard, plastics, metals, glass, fabrics and vegetable waste. Valuable objects, after changing hands several times, will eventually end up in one of the city’s flea markets (joutiya). Nothing that can be used is left behind. A worker sorting waste in a gelssa specialised on plastic materials. (Photo Pascal Garret, May 2016) The bouara of Casablanca can make about €20 daily, but many must rent their equipment (cart and animal) from their bosses for €2. Some gelssas are versatile sorting and recycling sites (plastics, wood, metal, rags), where materials are sorted by type. Others specialise in a particular material, as is the case below for plastic. There is no electricity in the gelssas and this machine is powered by a generator. (Photo Pascal Garret, April 2017) After collection and sorting, some materials have to be compacted and crushed to take up less space, which adds value. The materials will then be sold to informal sector wholesalers or to the formal sector through pick-ups or trucks sent to carry the waste. Women sorting plastic waste. (Photo Pascal Garret, May 2016) In Lahraouine, we have not seen many women in the gelssas. Among the 3,000 active waste-recyclers we roughly counted, the majority are young men and we estimated that there were only 500 to 600 women. They are only assigned to sorting tasks. The economic crisis in Morocco has led to an increase of waste workers in Casablanca. The sheds of waste collectors are themselves made with waste. (Photo Pascal Garret, January 2015) Waste collectors come, for the most part, from the countryside to escape poverty. Some of them originate from very remote villages in the eastern regions of Casablanca. Many, especially youngsters, come and go according to agricultural cycles. Nearly 19% of Morocco’s agriculturally dependent rural population still lives in poverty or in danger of becoming impoverished. These seasonal workers are hosted by relatives in the douars of Lahraouine or live in sheds inside gelssas. The boss of a gelssa posing with his horse. (Photo Pascal Garret, January 2015) This boss of a gelssa employs several waste collectors. He owns a few carts pulled by a donkey or a horse, and is a “middle-income earner”. There is a very strong hierarchy in the world of recycling. At the lower level are the simple bouara and women who sort and earn low incomes. At the end of the higher range are the bosses of large gelssas who own one or more trucks and plastic crushers. Gelssas bosses are very familiar with the cost and value of materials on the market and keep themselves updated through the internet or their mobile phones. They know exactly where, to whom and when to sell to get the maximum benefit from their wares. A waste collector at work in the Mediouna dump. (Photo Pascal Garret/MuCEM, January 2015) Situated about 20 kilometres south of Greater Casablanca, the Mediouna’s landfill receives nearly 3,500 tons of household waste each day, brought in by the trucks of waste-recycling companies. At this site, which should normally mark the end of life for Casablanca’s waste, some 600 illegal waste collectors extract about 1000 tons of materials daily that will be re-injected into the informal and formal recycling circuit. The business of recycling factories and export wholesalers depends heavily on the activities of street collectors or the Mediouna landfill from whom they buy recovered materials at a lower cost. Secondary raw materials produced by the formal sector of the economy are largely derived from the work of these hidden workers. Blurring the borders, this small world of informal workers is thus – directly or indirectly – well inserted in the economic chain on every level: local, regional, national and even international. The PET brought in by waste collectors, for example, is exported to China. Many of them have also fully understood and integrated environmental arguments. One, called Mustapha, told us in an interview in 2013: We contribute to the economy of Morocco. It is thanks to us that this waste is recycled instead of being simply buried or burned. This is our livelihood, it’s our survival and it makes our community live This wholesaler even tried to create an association for the waste collectors of the Lahraouine district in order to get them officially acknowledged and organised. But so far he has faced indifference or opposition from the authorities. His failure highlights the perpetual stigma attached to the profession of waste collecting. It also shows their isolation and relegation to the spatial and social margins of the economic capital of Morocco. Yet, elsewhere in the world, innovative experiments, mobilisation of reclaiming communities and associations are signs that integration, access to social rights and, more broadly, recognition or informal waste collectors are possible. Bénédicte Florin and Pascal Garret also collaborated for the Vies d'ordures, waste economics exhibition at the Museum of Civilisation of Europe and the Mediterranean (MuCEM, Marseille), March 22 to August 14 2017. Bénédicte Florin, Maître de conférences, Université François-Rabelais de Tours and Mustapha Azaitraoui, Enseignant-chercheur en géographie humaine, Université Hassan Ier This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

The small hands of Moroccan recycling

A school in Paraguay, South America, is bringing together underprivileged kids to learn music. The school is located in Cateura,&nbsp;a suburb that grew out of Paraguay&#39;s largest dump.

Now, however, Cateura&nbsp;is fast gaining a reputation as a hothouse for musical talent.&nbsp;What&rsquo;s most impressive is that the youth orchestra there plays instruments made from discarded rubbish. Impoverished children from Cateura, who are members of the orchestra, play violins built over oven trays and guitars made from dessert dishes.&nbsp;

The orchestra gives youngsters a chance to transcend the squalor of their slum through the music of Mozart, Vivaldi and even Sinatra.&nbsp;

<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/O4GnT1iWJ8c?list=PLmWa9ZZLlCjt0Jlg7kN3JBNX4LH1sRsGh" width="970"></iframe>

 
&nbsp;

Children from one of Paraguay's poorest regions are changing their lives through music

A school in Paraguay, South America, is bringing together underprivileged kids to learn music. The school is located in Cateura, a suburb that grew out of Paraguay's largest dump. Now, however, Cateura is fast gaining a reputation as a hothouse for musical talent. What’s most impressive is that the youth orchestra there plays instruments made from discarded rubbish. Impoverished children from Cateura, who are members of the orchestra, play violins built over oven trays and guitars made from dessert dishes. The orchestra gives youngsters a chance to transcend the squalor of their slum through the music of Mozart, Vivaldi and even Sinatra.

Video: 'Recycled orchestra' turns garbage into gold

recycling

Recycling, News on Recycling, stories on Recycling, articles on Recycling, Recycling stories at Wion, Recycling news, Recycling latest news