Salt-loaded BioBullets kill zebra mussels by passing as food

Invasive freshwater zebra mussels are a problem in many areas, clogging structures such as water intake and water treatment pipes as they rapidly reproduce. A new technology could help, by getting them to eat "eco-friendly" poison disguised as food.

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Nike’s bug-eyed sneakers split into three pieces for recycling

Nike looks to make shoe recycling simpler with its new ISPA Link, a glue-less sneaker that quickly separates into three pieces to presort itself for recycling. The company hopes to scale the program to make sneaker recycling a more universal concept.

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Recycled soot coating captures solar heat better than graphene

Engineers in the US and Mexico have developed a way to use soot from emissions to improve solar thermal devices. The coatings are not only cheaper to produce but more efficient than using materials like graphene, while reducing pollution.

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Brilliant Planet plans cheap, gigaton-scale carbon capture using algae

Direct air carbon capture is currently far too costly – but this London company says it can do it at enormous scale for a tenth the price, using engineered algal blooms in ponds located near desert coastlines. Oh, and it'll de-acidify the ocean, too.

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Elon Musk’s Carbon Removal XPrize dishes out $1M milestone awards

An XPrize competition designed to develop solutions to the mounting levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has progressed to its next phase, with 15 teams from around the world each awarded US$1 million to continue developing their technologies.

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IPCC report leaves door ajar to prevent worst impacts of climate change

The last chapter in a trio of reports from the UN's top climate scientists has landed, with the authors noting some reasons for optimism, mounting an argument that the window is still open for meaningful action to limit warming to around 1.5 °C.

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Food processing wastewater may find use as farmed seaweed fertilizer

The processing of foods typically generates a lot of wastewater, which has to be cleaned up before being released back into local waterways. According to new research, however, that water could first be put to use as a very effective fertilizer for farmed seaweed.

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Sawdust-based material could be an eco-friendly alternative to EPS foam

While all non-recyclable plastics aren't very eco-friendly, expanded polystyrene foam is particularly problematic, as it's bulky and often used in disposable packaging. It could be replaced by a new biodegradable material, however, made from sawdust.

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MIT system assigns unwanted tree forks to use in load-bearing structures

Wood is becoming an increasingly popular building material, but the timber is harvested mainly just from the long, straight trunks of trees. Aiming to reduce waste, an MIT team has developed a method of also using a tree's load-bearing junctions.

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UN endorses historic global resolution to “End Plastic Pollution”

In what is being hailed as a historic day, global leaders at the UN Environmental Assembly have endorsed a first-of-a-kind resolution that addresses the full lifecycle of plastic, with the goal of reducing its growing impacts on the natural world.

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