Posts Tagged ‘Recycling’
Aquafil CEO talking about 100% recycled nylon and how Ray Anderson inspired him in 1997
November 28th, 2011![[del.icio.us]](http://www.interfaceflorcutthefluff.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/delicious.png)
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CO2 as a feedstock
October 24th, 2011Sustainability has traditionally been either about having genuinely less impact or greenwashing about making a positive difference.
Now, there a few revolutionary companies that are starting in the design board with the ultimate challenge: making good stuff by using bad stuff as raw materials.
This is one example.
A bunch of green chemists founded Novomer, a company focused on developing sustainable materials using CO2 and CO as a feedstock. Their CO2 feedstock based technology produces Polypropylene Carbonate (PPC) to use in applications such as ceramics, coating or packaging. Their CO feedstock arrives through alternative synthetic routes to succinic acid (for biodegradable plastcis) or acrylic acid (for diapers, detergents).
The urban mine
April 4th, 2011Precious metals and rare earths are the object of a new debate on scarcity.
There is increasing interest in the concept of the URBAN MINE, which is mining the precious metals and rare earths from mobile phones, other electronics, wind turbines, etc.
German Green MEP Reinhard Bütikofer is leading the EU on how Europe could develop an effective rare materials strategy, where recycling could be crucial.
Read more here: Recycling key to effective rare materials strategy
A mobile phone contains 100 times as much gold as gold ore (kg for kg). The problem is gathering them back…
One the biggest recycling plants in Europe is Umicore. They take back from mobile phones to catalysts.
Umicore recently said: “One ton of mobile phones contains from 300 to 350 grams of gold” and “one fifth of cobalt can also be recycled in this way”.
Download the EU’s critical raw materials report here
Urban mining is usually a nice resource on this topic. See post on Europe’s waste leakage.
Mission Zero Challenge: sourcing recycled raw material
November 12th, 2010In our latest Mission Zero Milestones report, we talk about challenge number 1 : Sourcing recycled raw materials to make sustainable, closed loop products.
Replacing our virgin, petrochemically derived fibers with recycled fibers is one of the biggest challenges we are facing to achieve our Mission Zero™ goals. The transition to recycled fibers is complex, access to post consumer recycled nylon is limited and costly.
We need to change our materials, which means we need to change our supply chain.
We’re working closely with our nylon suppliers, and are pioneering a recycling system for old carpet to produce new materials.
Our recycling program, ReEntry, proves the power of this partnership. In the last two years we’ve greatly expanded our access to recycled nylon, and if we are successful here, all of the nylon we use will be postconsumer recycled nylon.
