blog posts

• A dram good idea – turning whisky waste into sustainable packaging

  Aug 22, 2025 9:00 am

  Source: University of Dundee, 8/11/25

  Arbikie Distillery has partnered with Dr Dongyang Sun, Edinburgh Napier University, and Dr. Wenbin Zhou, University of Dundee, to use mycelium, the root structure of fungi, and distillery by-products like spent grain to create durable, lightweight packaging. The material created is impact-resistant, fire-retardant, and fully compostable, offering an eco-friendly alternative to plastic. Over the next 10 months, the project team will focus on proof of concept, testing the material, and the design. Funded by Scotland Beyond Net Zero – a coalition of leading climate and sustainability experts from Scotland's universities – this project is one of 11 new research collaborations aimed at accelerating Scotland's transition to net zero. Each project involves cross-sector collaborations to address sustainability challenges in energy, finance, food, the built environment, natural systems, and transport.

• Researchers advance effort to turn spent coffee grounds into food packaging

  Aug 21, 2025 9:00 am

  Source: Oregon State University, 3/21/25

  Researchers from Oregon State and the Rural Development Administration in South Korea have made a key advance in turning spent coffee grounds into food packaging materials that can extend the shelf life of products. Their findings were published in the Journal of Food Science.
  
  An estimated 60 million tons of spent coffee grounds are generated worldwide annually. Most end up in landfills and release methane, a potent greenhouse gas. That has led researchers to study other uses for coffee grounds, such as incorporating them into biofuels, cosmetics, catalysts and composite materials, including concrete, and now food packaging materials. The researchers believe coffee grounds could be used to make different food packages, including sheets between sliced cheese, pads underneath fresh meat and pads in clamshell containers used to package strawberries.

• Solarcycle produces recycled glass test module with ‘peak performance’

  Aug 8, 2025 9:00 am

  Source: PV Tech, 8/4/25

  US solar PV recycling firm, Solarcycle, has produced a pilot module using 50% recycled glass from other decommissioned panels, which it says matches the performance of entirely new products. The company said that the "mini module", developed in partnership with Arizona State University's (ASU) Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, marks "a critical step toward a closed-loop solar manufacturing process."

• How Ben & Jerry’s is recycling food waste into energy

  Aug 5, 2025 9:00 am

  Source: PBS News Hour, 7/28/25

  It may sound like the stuff of sci-fi movies, but diverting food waste from the landfill and converting it into electricity has become a real thing. William Brangham visited Ben & Jerry's Vermont ice cream factory and the operations next door to find out how it works.

• Canadian researchers harness genetic mushroom variations to create packaging material

  Jul 31, 2025 9:00 am

  Source: Packaging Insights, 6/11/25

  Researchers at McMaster University in Canada have cultivated a mushroom species that can be used to produce a biodegradable material suitable for use in packaging.

• Golden opportunity to reduce toxic waste

  Jul 10, 2025 9:00 am

  Source: Flinders University, 6/27/25

  A major discovery by an interdisciplinary team of experts in green chemistry, engineering and physics at Flinders University in Australia has found a safer and more sustainable approach to extract and recover gold from ore and electronic waste. The glistening gold-extraction technique, unveiled in the leading global journal Nature Sustainability, promises to reduce levels of toxic waste from mining and shows that high purity gold can be recovered from recycling valuable components in printed circuit boards in discarded computers. 

  The new process uses a low-cost and benign compound to extract the gold. This reagent (trichloroisocyanuric acid) is widely used in water sanitation and disinfection. When activated by salt water, the reagent can dissolve gold. Next, the gold can be selectively bound to a novel sulfur-rich polymer developed by the Flinders team. The selectivity of the polymer allows gold recovery even in highly complex mixtures. The gold can then be recovered by triggering the polymer to “un-make” itself and convert back to monomer. This allows the gold to be recovered and the polymer to be recycled and reused.

• Recycled cements drive down emissions without slacking on strength

  Jun 25, 2025 9:00 am

  Source: Princeton University, 3/18/25

  Giving a second life to construction materials after demolition, engineers at the University of São Paulo and Princeton have developed an approach for recycling cement waste into a sustainable, low-carbon alternative that is comparable in performance to the industry standard. In addition to lowering the carbon intensity of the cement and concrete industry, the process could enable new uses for construction and demolition waste, of which concrete is a significant component. In 2018 in the United States, the total amount of construction and demolition waste was more than twice that of household waste. In their paper, published in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, the researchers demonstrated that mixtures containing up to 80% of this recycled cement were just as strong as conventional Portland cement by itself while generating a fraction of the carbon emissions.

• A new technology for extending the shelf life of produce

  Jun 11, 2025 4:00 pm

  Source: MIT, 5/21/25

  We’ve all felt the sting of guilt when fruit and vegetables go bad before we could eat them. Now, researchers from MIT and the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) have shown they can extend the shelf life of harvested plants by injecting them with melatonin using biodegradable microneedles. Refrigeration is the most common way to preserve foods, but it requires energy and infrastructure that many regions of the world can’t afford or lack access to. The researchers believe their system could offer an alternative or complement to refrigeration. For the open access version of their paper, see https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/159257.

• Behind Keurig’s bid to make coffee pods without plastic

  Jun 2, 2025 9:00 am

  Source: Trellis, 4/30/25

  Years of persistence and experimentation led to a biodegradable coffee pod that improves brewing performance. Keurig Dr Pepper backed the innovation once it proved both sustainable and appealing to consumers. Collaborating with customers and potential competitors were key for development.

• Study of velvet worm slime could revolutionize sustainable material design

  May 26, 2025 9:00 am

  Source: McGill University, 3/19/25

  A new discovery about the slime ejected by velvet worms could revolutionize sustainable material design, according to a study by McGill University researchers. Their findings outline how a naturally occurring protein structure, conserved across species from Australia, Singapore and Barbados over nearly 400 million years of evolution, enables the slime’s transformation from liquid to fibre and back again. It’s a discovery that could inspire next-generation recyclable bioplastics. 

• Eco-friendly aquatic robot is made from fish food

  May 13, 2025 9:00 am

  Source: École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 5/8/25

  An edible robot made by EPFL scientists leverages a combination of biodegradable fuel and surface tension to zip around the water's surface, creating a safe -- and nutritious -- alternative to environmental monitoring devices made from artificial polymers and electronics.
  

• A Greener Way to Read: Summer reading program helps the community—and the earth

  Jun 3, 2024 4:00 pm

  Source: American Libraries, 6/3/24

  Summer reading program prizes are a fun way to spark children’s participation. But those prizes often consist of nonrecyclable plastic items that—once the fun has worn off—end up as trash. Montgomery County (Md.) Public Libraries recently chose a greener, more community-focused way to get kids excited about books during their summer break.