Circular economy solution could prevent millions of tonnes of e-mobility waste

A circular economy enables us to restore natural ecosystems while still accelerating business and financial objectives. With 90% of CEOs seeing sustainability as important to success and 66% of consumers paying more for sustainable brands, the circular economy might be closer than we think—and it often starts in the supply chain.
Let’s look at a few examples. IKEA is on a journey to become more circular. Back in 2017, it developed its first designing for circularity guide, which helped define IKEA’s circular design. The results in the past few years have been impressive. In financial year 2019, the retail giant gave 47 million products a second life, 38 million products were resold through the as-is specialty shop, and more than 9 million products have been repacked back to the shelf.
Read the full article at: connectedworld.com

Scientists have developed a hardened wood material that, when sharpened, is three times sharper than a stainless steel dinner knife, according to the new study on the work. The research comes from the University of Maryland’s Teng Li and a team that developed a new method to generate extremely hard wood. Among other things, the development may lead to more sustainable building materials.  Wood contains between 40- and 50-percent cellulose, with the rest of the material compromised of binders called lignin and hemicellulose. While cellulose has a greater strength-to-density ratio than materials like metal and ceramic, the binder materials make wood overall weaker than man-made counterparts.