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Recycling

Can plastic-eating bacteria help cut down on pollution?

by Stephen Beard
Oct 26, 2020
British and American researchers have developed a “super-enzyme” to reduce the cost and improve the efficiency of recycling of plastic waste.
Municipal workers clear plastic from a canal in Bangkok in June.
Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP via Getty Images
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Reimagining the Economy

Eliminating the concept of waste from the economy

by David Brancaccio and Daniel Shin
Aug 19, 2020
For architect William McDonough, an economy of the future is a "circular economy."
"If we're destroying the Earth, we have to ask ourselves, is this is our intention? And if it's not, perhaps we need a new design," architect William McDonough says.
David McNew/Getty Images
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California weighs measure on single-use plastic

by Sue Carpenter
Aug 6, 2020
The Circular Economy bill is supported by hundreds of organizations. But the California Chamber of Commerce opposes it.
The bill would require 75% of single-use plastic packaging in California to be reduced or recycled into something else by the year 2030.
Carl Court/Getty Images
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Who's responsible for the plastic waste in our waterways?

by Julie Grant
Nov 27, 2019
One Pennsylvania-based researcher says she wants companies that produce plastic that winds up as waste to be accountable for it.
Trash collected by plastic researcher Sherri Mason and her students dries out on screens, then they will catalog each piece, and input what they find in a database.
Julie Grant/The Allegheny Front
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RePlanet shuts down amid trying times for recycling industry

by Scott Tong and Associated Press
Aug 6, 2019
One of the largest recycling companies in California just declared insolvency and shut down all of its bottle and can redemption centers.
This RePlanet bottle and can redemption center, shown here on August 6, 2019, is one of two in Alameda, California. RePlanet recently declared insolvency and closed all of its centers in California.
Jon Gordon/Marketplace
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Is this the end of recycling?

by Kai Ryssdal and Bennett Purser
Mar 19, 2019
The Chinese economy could be killing recycling in the U.S.
An employee walks people through the recycling process at a closed loop plant in London, United Kingdom in 2010.
Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
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My Economy

Keeping the family recycling business afloat

by Sean McHenry
Nov 29, 2018
There have been rough years before, but this year may be the toughest.
SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images
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Poor recycling practices mean more is getting landfilled

by Jed Kim
Aug 3, 2018
China used to be a dumping ground for waste, but new policies have closed off the major market.
Workers sort contaminated and recyclable materials at the Puente Hills Materials Recovery Facility. 
Jed Kim/Marketplace
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For scrap brokers, the trade war is not "on hold"

by Kai Ryssdal and Maria Hollenhorst
May 21, 2018
One broker says he'll have to do "a lot of juggling" if China won' import U.S. scrap.
Scrap metal to be used in steel production is piled at the Zhong Tian (Zenith) Steel Group Corp. in 2016 in Changzhou, Jiangsu.
Kevin Frayer/Getty Images
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U.S. scrap exports to China just came to a screeching halt

by Kai Ryssdal and Maria Hollenhorst
May 11, 2018
One expert says the monthlong suspension could impact an estimated $400 million worth of trade.
A Chinese laborer sorts plastic bottles for recycling in Dong Xiao Kou village on the outskirts of Beijing.
FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images
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