December 25, 2022

ZDNet: This 3D printing system converts waste sawdust into stunning wooden lamps and guitars

ZDNet: This 3D printing system converts waste sawdust into stunning wooden lamps and guitars. “In the build box, an inkjet print head drops a water-based binder onto the surface of the sawdust and the two substances meld into each other. The printhead simultaneously injects a water-based ink that mimics practically any wood grain you would want, including rosewood, zebrano, ebony and mahogany, among others. Deposits of the binder and injection of the ink is done layer by layer, as per the contours of the rendering dictated by the 3D software.”

Other Things I Think Are Cool 0
December 21, 2022

SlashGear: How To Use An Old Android Phone As A Digital Photo Frame

SlashGear: How To Use An Old Android Phone As A Digital Photo Frame. “When you have an old Android phone, you typically hand it down to a younger relative, sell it, or trade it in somewhere so it won’t add to the pile of growing electronic waste around the world. But what if your phone’s really ancient and no one wants to use it anymore? No, don’t just put it back inside your drawer. Instead of letting it collect dust, you can repurpose it as a digital picture frame.”

Useful Stuff 0
November 11, 2022

DCist: New Website Helps D.C. Residents Reuse, Rather Than Toss Out

DCist: New Website Helps D.C. Residents Reuse, Rather Than Toss Out. “Remember the three Rs? Not reading, writing and arithmetic — but reduce, reuse and recycle. D.C. has a goal to start doing a lot more of these three things: the city aims to go ‘zero waste’ by 2032, keeping 80% of waste out of landfills and incinerators. The District has just launched a new website to aid residents with R #2. It’s called Reuse DC, and includes an interactive map of places in the region where you can repair, donate, or shop for second-hand items.”

New Resources 0
October 11, 2022

SlashGear: 8 Best Uses For Old Webcams

SlashGear: 8 Best Uses For Old Webcams. “These newer cameras offer more than just photo and video capability, as they are also packed with AI technology, automatic setting adjustment, and better and wider fields of view. There is no denying that modern webcams have made great strides since their introduction a couple of decades ago. If that’s the case, you’re probably thinking that there’s no need to keep an old webcam around. After all, what could you use it for? Well, it actually has a wide range of creative and practical applications, from keeping your home safe to making awesome art videos.”

Useful Stuff 0
July 21, 2022

The Verge: Today I learned Amazon will recycle small electronics for free

The Verge: Today I learned Amazon will recycle small electronics for free. “If you have a flip phone that you haven’t used in over a decade, or maybe even a broken tablet, Amazon will pay for a shipping label that you can use to send it in to get recycled. Apparently, this recycling program has been a thing for a while now, but several of us at The Verge never even knew about it until we saw this tweet from journalist Dave Zatz, and thought it might be a good idea to spread the word.”

Useful Stuff 0
June 15, 2022

Core77: Plaxtil Recycles Used Face Masks Into School Supplies

Core77: Plaxtil Recycles Used Face Masks Into School Supplies. “French company Plaxtil has used their technology to recycle used face masks into school supplies. Millions of discarded masks have been collected, sanitized, broken back down into plastic and molded into protractors, rulers and triangles for geometry classes.” And given away for free.

COVID-19 0
May 22, 2022

Slashgear: 12 Best Uses For Old Laptops

Slashgear: 12 Best Uses For Old Laptops. “If you’re the kind of person who just can’t seem to let go of old tech, don’t despair, but do check on your closet-dwelling laptop. There’s a chance that the chemical reactions in the battery have gone rogue, resulting in an explosion or a fire just waiting to happen. Multiple manufacturers have experienced swelling batteries over recent years and that’s a concern, even if your laptop hasn’t been plugged in for some time. Once you’ve ensured your old laptop isn’t plotting your imminent demise, you can start considering what you want to do with it.”

Useful Stuff 0
March 28, 2022

HackADay: Used Facemasks Turned Into Rapid Antigen Tests With Injection Molding

HackADay: Used Facemasks Turned Into Rapid Antigen Tests With Injection Molding. “Here’s a little eye-opener for you: next time you’re taking a walk, cast your eyes to the ground for a bit and see how far you can go without spotting a carelessly discarded face mask. In our experience, it’s no more than a block or two, especially if you live near a school. Masks and other disposal artifacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have turned into a menace, and uncounted billions of the things will be clogging up landfills, waterways, and byways for decades to come. Unless they can be recycled into something useful, of course, like the plastic cases used for rapid antigen tests.”

COVID-19 0
January 31, 2022

The Graphene Council: Tonnes Of Used Face Masks To Be Turned Into Energy

The Graphene Council: Tonnes Of Used Face Masks To Be Turned Into Energy. “Researchers say that during the coronavirus pandemic people on the planet started using more than 130 billion masks every month, which turn into hundreds of tonnes of polymer waste. When burned it emits toxic gases, so the task of recycling this waste is particularly urgent. Scientists at NUST MISIS, together with their foreign colleagues, have developed a new technology for producing cost-effective batteries from used masks, where waste drug blister packs are also used as a shell. Thus, medical waste forms the basis for creating batteries; all that needs to be procured is graphene.”

COVID-19 0
August 17, 2021

BBC: Just how hard is it to recycle a jumbo jet?

BBC: Just how hard is it to recycle a jumbo jet?. “Thanks to the pandemic and the subsequent collapse in air travel, around a quarter of the world’s passenger jets remain idle – parked at airports and storage facilities while their owners decide what to do with them. Some of those aircraft will never fly again.”

COVID-19 0
May 24, 2021

USC News: Got old sneakers and wine corks to recycle? This USC grad student has an app for that

USC News: Got old sneakers and wine corks to recycle? This USC grad student has an app for that. “Friends and classmates were initially confused about why someone with more than a decade of experience in the oil industry would want to make a recycling app. [Akhtan] Tumyshev gives the credit to his mother, who headed the environmental department of an oil company in Kazakhstan. She traveled the country to visit different oil fields and take soil, air and water samples to monitor pollution levels. Young Akhtan would tag along on some of those trips. The experiences instilled him with a sense of environmental responsibility, he said.”

Research & Opinion 0
March 23, 2021

PR Newswire: Facebook and The Recycling Partnership Launch Free Digital Tool, Online Community to Boost Easier, Improved Household Recycling (PRESS RELEASE)

PR Newswire: Facebook and The Recycling Partnership Launch Free Digital Tool, Online Community to Boost Easier, Improved Household Recycling (PRESS RELEASE). “Through a special program within the personalized Facebook Messenger experience, people in Atlanta and Fort Worth can find out if and how to recycle common items like plastic bottles, cardboard, and metal as well as learn more about the recyclability of less commonly recyclable items… The Recycling Partnership intends to expand the experience to additional U.S. communities later this year as it launches a national database that includes accurate recycling information, including accepted materials for thousands of communities nationwide.”

Around the Search & Social Media World 0
February 5, 2021

IT Pro Today: Responsibly Recycling Computers in the Age of COVID-19

IT Pro Today: Responsibly Recycling Computers in the Age of COVID-19. “Typically, companies pay certified recyclers to take their used electronic devices, which then recover some rare-earth metals and remove some toxic parts from them before sending what remains to landfills. There are many nonprofit organizations, however, that will take used computers and laptops, replace any failed or failing parts, install a new operating system (usually a desktop Linux distribution but sometimes Windows) after wiping the hard drive, and give them new life with students, seniors or economically distressed families – which keeps them out of landfills for another five years or so. This can be a win-win for companies, because by doing so they not only avoid the expense of the traditional recycling process, but also pick up a tax deduction in the process – while helping alleviate the digital divide that’s been rapidly growing during the pandemic.”

COVID-19 0

The ResearchBuzz Firehose is regular RB content presented as individual posts.
For digest-type posts a couple of times a day, please visit ResearchBuzz.

Want to know how to best use the Firehose for content discovery?
Check out this handy article.

Get RB Firehose Via EMail

Enter your email address to subscribe to ResearchBuzz Firehose and get a firehose of new posts straight to your email.

Join 2,018 other subscribers

Recent Posts

Popular Posts

Latest ResearchBuzz Gizmos