From Guest Blogger Dixie Somers: Innovations in Recycling and Waste Treatment

Everyone is concerned about the future of our environment, and rightly so. Landfills are filling up and some have even leaked dangerous chemicals to the surrounding landscape. Cost and time are often factors that bar some people from participating in protecting the future of our world, so let’s take a look at some modern techniques that will soon be used to help make saving the earth both simple and affordable.

Plastic-Eating Bacteria

Polystyrene—also known as Styrofoam—is made of petroleum-based components. This ubiquitous plastic is the bane of environmentalists due to its slow decomposition rate. In Folsom, California, a group of students have come up with a device they’ve named the Polystyrenator. This proposed tool would utilize the styrene-oil-eating bacteria Pseudomonas putida as a “digester” to convert polystyrene waste into a biodegradable plastic which would be much easier on the environment.

Printing

As the price of owning a personal 3D printer has fallen over the past decade, the idea of ordinary people creating the bulk of their own daily tools and products has come closer to reality. Home manufacturing of goods would save on costs of packaging, labor, storage and shipment. Additionally, some companies that produce 3D printers are even looking into ways of creating devices that can be fed plastic waste that ordinarily would have gone to a recycling facility, and using it to create objects. The path from consumer-to-recycling-to-consumer would be a much shorter and more efficient one.

Compost Technology

Gone are the days when your only option of composting was to wait several months for plant matter to break down. Appliance company Whirlpool has developed the Zera Food Recycler, a rectangular, space-efficient indoor composting device. This innovative appliance uses convection in order to turn food waste into usable compost in about a day. Such a quick turnover rate puts organic composting within the reach of anyone– including that procrastinator in your home who claims it’s too cold to go out to the compost heap. Other companies, such as Ware Disposal, specialize in solid waste recycling.

Progressive Legislation

Governments are in a unique position to encourage responsibility at the personal level, and with great results. Since 2005, Germany, Greece, Austria, and many countries in the U.K. Have succeeded in reducing waste by up to 60% due to legislation. And in 2016, many states in the U.S. Voted to ban plastic grocery store bags which are a common trash item found outdoors.

With all of these options available, our world will become a cleaner, healthier place to live. Be on the lookout in the news for more ways that the environment will be cleaned up in the future.