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You may not know it, but you’re probably drinking recycled water right now. But water from "Fracking?" The process uses as much water as the entire cities of Chicago or Houston, but can it be made safe to drink?

It takes between 70 and 140 BILLION gallons of water to frack 35,000 wells a year at the industry’s current pace.

While the recycled water can’t be cleaned up enough for drinking or growing crops, it can be cleaned of chemicals an rock debris and used to frack additional wells, which could sharply cut the costs that energy companies face securing and disposing of the water. read more

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With concerns about the possible health and environmental effects of oil dispersants in the Deepwater Horizon disaster still fresh in mind, scientists have created a new dispersant made from edible ingredients that both breaks up oil slicks and keeps oil from sticking to the feathers of birds (NOTE: Subscribers can still listen to these shows) And With 1.3 billion tons of food trashed, dumped in landfills and otherwise wasted around the world every year, other scientists are studying ways to change food waste into a key ingredient for making plastics, laundry detergread more

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A rating system developed to promote sustainable roadway construction has awarded its first official certification to a project that incorporates porcelain from recycled toilets. The newly widened sidewalk also incorporates more than 400 recycled toilets.

Greenroads spokesman Jeralee Anderson says, "It’s a big milestone for us. They said: ‘Yeah, I think we can do something with that. ‘We’ll throw it through the crusher and see what we come up with.’" What they came up with was what the project engineers call "poticrete." The project ended up using about 5 tons of toilets.
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It’s the ultimate recycling?the litter that is thrown out of car and truck windows becomes the new pavement for these vehicles to drive on?although we aren’t actually throwing our old computers out the car window.

Discarded electronic circuit boards can now be converted into an asphalt “modifier.” The material makes high-performance paving material asphalt that is cheaper, longer lasting, and more environmentally friendly than conventional asphalt.

Researcher Zhenming Xu noted that millions of tons of electronic waste pile up each year, in the form of printed circuit boards used in personal computers, cell phones, and other electronic gear. They all contain toxic metals such as lead and mercury and pose a difficult disposal problem.
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