Topic description and stories

Plants in a greenhouse

Sowing seeds for sustainability

17 Jul 2024

Finding homes for used toasters, recycling batteries and inspiring a fondness for secondhand fashion are just three of the sustainability challenges...

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Plastic Fantastic Cambridge

13 Mar 2024

Cambridge University Association Football Club (CUAFC) will wear a design that copies the match kit from their 1905 Varsity fixture with Oxford for...

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Mountain Recycling's waste recycling facility. Credit: Mountain Recycling

Cambridge introduces precision technology approach to recycling in first for UK Higher Education

28 Jun 2023

The University of Cambridge aims to increase waste recycling from around 50% to 80% by reducing the number of different bins used by staff and...

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Solar-powered reactor for converting plastic and greenhouse gases into sustainable fuels

Solar-powered system converts plastic and greenhouse gases into sustainable fuels

09 Jan 2023

Researchers have developed a system that can transform plastic waste and greenhouse gases into sustainable fuels and other valuable products – using...

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The 'P' word

16 Jan 2020

How do we shift our 'take, make, throw-away' plastic world towards 'recycle, recover, re-use'? It's time for blue-sky thinking plus practical...

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'Upcycling' crowned Cambridge Dictionary's Word of the Year 2019

05 Nov 2019

Cambridge Dictionary has named 'upcycling', the activity of making new items out of old or used things, as its Word of the Year 2019.

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'Extreme sleepover #19' – Living beside Uruguay’s ‘Mother Dump’

30 Sep 2016

In a new podcast, Patrick O’Hare describes his time with the clasificadores – the families who scavenge Montevideo’s pungent ‘wastescape’ to recover...

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UK steel can survive if it transforms itself, say researchers

15 Apr 2016

A new report from the University of Cambridge claims that British steel could be saved, if the industry is willing to transform itself.

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A crumpled paper ball

University spin-out wins green award

27 Aug 2014

University of Cambridge spin-out Reduse, which has developed a technology to remove print from paper allowing it to be reused several times before...

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Landfill site in Poland. The toolkit aims to encourage manufacturers to consider reusability, reparability and recycling at every stage of a product’s lifecycle, from design to the point of disposal.

Circular argument for a sustainable future

17 Sep 2013

A new online toolkit for manufacturers and retailers has been released to enable users to pinpoint areas in which their businesses could be made both...

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Filaments of dissolved material, stirred by turbulence

Stirring versus mixing: how turbulence affects the recycling role of the oceans

01 Nov 2012

Microscopic organisms living in the ocean play a key role in sustaining life. New research has shown how oceanic turbulence affects the ability of...

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A forest

Use a laser, save a tree

14 Mar 2012

Laser un-printers that can remove toner from scrap paper so that it can be used again may be coming to an office near you in the future, results from...

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