recyclers

For now, though, solar recyclers face significant economic, technological, and regulatory challenges. Part of the problem, says NREL’s Curtis, is a lack of data on panel recycling rates, which hinders potential policy responses that might provide more incentives for solar-farm operators to recycle end-of-life panels rather than dump them.Another problem is that the Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure—an EPA-approved method used to determine whether a product or material contains hazardous elements that could leach…

The idea of upcycling plastic waste into even more valuable products is a meritorious one, but some forms of the material lend themselves to this process better than others. Polystyrene lays at the more problematic end of the spectrum, but a team of Virginia Tech researchers is hoping to change this with a novel method that turns it into a product of relatively high value. Polystyrene is the main component of Styrofoam and is light, buoyant, water-resistant and rigid. This makes it a popular material for everything from…