Students at the University of Cape Town have created the first ever bio-bricks made of human urine. They mixed last night?s liquids with sand and bacteria to unlock calcium carbonate (a bonding agent) in the urine. The mixture is placed in moulds and hardens (surprisingly) at room temperature. Creating useable bricks out of urine is clever, but doing it without the usual energy-intensive firing process is outstanding. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-26/cape-town-university-researchers-make-bricks-from-urine/10432766
A 2023 start-up aiming to make recycling convenient and accessible to all is about to go national. The aim is to provide people with a home pick-up option for some of the "trickier" items the normal recycling bins can't handle - including soft plastics. https://wastemanagementreview.com.au/recyclesmart-goes-national/
A Kyushu University study (2021) estimated there were 24.4 trillion pieces of microplastics in the world's upper oceans or roughly 30 billion 500-ml plastic water bottles. Microplastics are tiny, toxic and very hard to remove from the environment. But researchers in the US have discovered that some Natural Deep Eutectic Solvents (NADES) can attract and bind microplastics, making it easier to remove them from the environment. And the N in NADES is key - natural - in this instance, think extracts from plants. https://www.research.uky.edu/news/researchers-develop-eco-friendly-magnet-battle-microplastics
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Jonathan Chrimes