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Stories Tagged as

Plastics

How do waste plants pick through all our unsorted recyclables?

by Caleigh Wells
Aug 14, 2023
Single-stream recycling is convenient for consumers, but difficult for recycling companies. It requires a long and complicated process to make trash valuable.
The pile at the beginning of the day represents some of the recyclables from roughly 5 million daily consumers.
Caleigh Wells/KCRW
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French company is recycling used face masks into useful objects

by John Laurenson
Jun 10, 2022
The company takes used and discarded symbols of the pandemic and turns them into items such as coat hangers and classroom rulers.
Plaxtil co-founder Jean-Marc Neveu with used face masks in the factory where they are transformed.
John Laurenson
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Even if we manage to stop using oil as fuel, plastics made from oil will be harder to give up

by Andy Uhler
Mar 24, 2022
Plastics are regarded as "Plan B" for the fossil fuel industry.
It's cheaper to make more plastic than recycle it. And that's what the oil industry is relying on as we move toward electric options.
Phillippe Lopez/AFP Getty Images
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In Mexico City, a plastics ban prompts debate over women's access to tampons

by Rodrigo Cervantes
Apr 20, 2021
Women's rights advocates say the plastics ban leaves low-income women with few options.
Shelves filled with female sanitary products in Mexico City show no tampons as a result of the single-use plastic ban restricting them.
Rodrigo Cervantes
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How billiards created the modern world

by Dan Weissmann
Apr 3, 2015
Early promoters needed a substitute for ivory billiard balls. Result? Plastics.
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A small UK company with big graphene dreams

by Stephen Beard
Jul 28, 2014
The wonder material isolated a decade ago has yet to live up to its promise.
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Dow: Time for an industry built by plastics to move on

by David Weinberg
Dec 3, 2013
Dow Chemical says it’s shifting away from the commodity chemical market so much so that it may drop 'Chemical' from its name.
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Chemical and plastics industries love fracking

by Reid R. Frazier
Nov 29, 2013
Cheap natural gas has made the U.S. one of the cheapest places to make plastics.
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Plastic's fantastic for thieves in California

by Sarah Gardner
Nov 26, 2012
Thieves steal millions of dollars of plastic pallets and milk cases from businesses. Sold to recyclers, the plastic is then used to make new pallets and milk cases.
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Easy Sustainability Answers

What do those numbers on the bottoms of plastic containers mean? Which numbers are the easiset to recycle?

by Adriene Hill
Jul 22, 2010
Easy Answer: The numbers on the bottom of plastic bottles let you know the type of plastic they're made of. The easiest to recycle are numbers 1...
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