Imagine a lamp. Any lamp. Now imagine having to water it.
Dutch product designer Ermi van Oers created Living Light: plants that double as lights. Or lights that double as plants ? whichever way you prefer looking at it. The lights run on electricity generated by bacteria in the soil.
Healthier plants produce more energy. If you take care of it properly, the Living Light will produce up to 0.1 mW. Enough to use it as a night lamp, but not sufficient to properly light a room.
Imagine if we could use boulevard trees for powering street lights?
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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