The hidden global market behind recycling
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 22-Oct-2026 02:16 ET (22-Oct-2026 06:16 GMT/UTC)
Around 170–200 million tonnes of recyclable waste have crossed borders each year since 2010 with 10–13% of EU packaging recycling taking place outside the bloc between 2018 and 2021. A new CMCC study shows how mismatches between the materials countries need and the waste they generate help drive this trade – and why recycling policies can sometimes end up encouraging exports instead of domestic recycling.
Professor Yoonsu Park’s team in the Department of Chemistry automated the entire process from mixing raw materials to synthesis and analysis. The platform continuously produces compounds needed for drug development, showing the potential to increase production volume. The technology is expected to reduce the burden of repetitive experiments and help secure a wider range of drug candidates.
This review evaluates China's first basin-scale aquatic ecosystem monitoring pilot in the Yangtze River Basin and demonstrates that shifting from chemical water-quality compliance to integrated, classification-based ecosystem assessment can support measurable ecological recovery. The review shows how tailoring indicators and targets to distinct rivers, lakes, and reservoirs across the basin can help guide targeted restoration and produce tangible results.
A robot artificial intelligence (AI) system has been developed that can understand human instructions, predict what a scene will look like after an action, and then carry out the task. Rather than simply translating instructions into physical movements, the technology also uses the anticipated outcomes of those actions to control the robot.