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Drop your old clothes off at this store and its recycling machine will turn them into something new overnight

The Looop machine—a winner of Fast Company’s 2021 World-Changing Ideas Awards—cleans and shreds old fabric, spins it into yarn, and then knits into a new product. In a day.

[Photo: courtesy H&M]

By Adele Peters, Fast Company

Inside a glass box the size of a shipping container at an H&M store in Stockholm, customers can now drop off a worn-out T-shirt and watch as new technology begins to recycle it into a new garment. The machine, called Looop, developed by Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel in collaboration with the nonprofit H&M Foundation, cleans and shreds old fabric, spins it into yarn, and then knits into a new product that the customer can pick up the next day.

The whole process, which uses no water or chemicals, takes between five and eight hours. Customers use an app to choose the type of new garment they want—from a knit shirt to a baby blanket—and then leave the old clothing with attendants. The machine sterilizes the old clothing with ozone, then shreds it into smaller pieces that are filtered to remove dirt. Depending on how worn the old garment is, technicians might mix in new material to make the final product stronger. (The new product can only be as large as the recycled garment allows—if you recycle a pair socks, you won’t be able to make a baby blanket.) The process doesn’t dye fabric, but a mix of materials can also be used to make a new color; a white T-shirt could be combined with new red material to make a new pink sweater, for example. The strands of fiber are combined and spun together into threads that the machine can use to knit the new product, for a fee of around $17.

The technology—the winner of the experimental category in Fast Company’s 2021 World Changing Ideas Awards—could also potentially be used at a larger scale, although H&M and other brands are also experimenting with new approaches to fabric recycling that can create stronger textiles by avoiding the step of shredding old garments. The retailer wanted to use the in-store installation, designed by the creative agency AKQA, to educate consumers, demonstrating the potential of apparel recycling to customers and helping to explain the challenges of textile waste.

Right now, most used clothing ends up in landfills—especially fast fashion like H&M’s. Of the clothing that’s recycled, only around 1% of the material is made into new apparel. “It is crucial to reduce dependency on virgin resources, and Looop visualizes for customers how old textiles hold value,” says Pascal Brun, head of sustainability for H&M. “Getting customers on board is key to achieving real change and transforming our industry for the future.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Adele Peters is a staff writer at Fast Company who focuses on solutions to some of the world’s largest problems, from climate change to homelessness. Previously, she worked with GOOD, BioLite, and the Sustainable Products and Solutions program at UC Berkeley, and contributed to the second edition of the bestselling book “Worldchanging: A User’s Guide for the 21st Century.”

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Lithium prices soaring. Enough to match electric vehicle battery demand?

Braulio Lopez of Galaxy Resources lithium mining division carts halite concentrate at the Salar del Hombre Muerto, or Dead Man’s Salt Flat, an important source of lithium at around 4,000 meters (13,123 feet) above sea level on the border of the northern Argentine provinces of Catamarca and Salta, October 28, 2012. REUTERS/Enrique Marcarian/File Photo/File Photo

By Ernest Scheyder, Reuters

(Reuters) – Rising demand for lithium is stoking prices for the electric vehicle battery metal, fueling long-delayed expansions that still may not produce adequate supplies that automakers need to meet aggressive production plans.

Growing industry optimism from higher lithium prices is a change from last year when funding for mines and processing plants dried up during the pandemic.

Albemarle Corp, Livent Corp and other producers are scrambling to make more lithium, but some analysts worry the recent price jump will not spur a big enough expansion to meet a planned wave of new EV models by mid-decade.

Since January, General Motors Co, Ford Motor Co LG Energy Solution and SK Innovation Co, along with other automakers and battery parts manufacturers, have said they will spend billions of dollars on EV plants.

U.S. President Joe Biden has proposed spending $174 billion to boost EV sales and infrastructure. The European Union has similar plans, part of a rush to catch up with global EV leader China.

Those moves have helped an index of lithium prices jump 59 percent since April 2020, according to data from Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, a commodity pricing provider.

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Energy, paint, and lead management bills to be considered May 11 by the NJ Senate Environment and Energy Committee

The New Jersey Senate Environment and Energy Committee will meet at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, May 11, in Committee Room 4, 1st Floor, State House Annex, Trenton, NJ.

The following bills will be considered:

S697 (Ruiz / Turner) – Authorizes common law public nuisance suits regarding lead paint under State law; exempts Attorney General from certain aspects of public nuisance claims when pursuing lead paint actions.

S2605 (Smith / Bateman) – Directs BPU to establish utility-scale solar energy development program; modifies State’s renewable energy portfolio standards.

S3263 (Beach / Gopal) – Increases fee charged for New Jersey Waterfowl Stamp.

S3287 / A5121 (Singleton / Smith / Coughlin / Zwicker / Karabinchak) – Concerns provision of energy to certain manufacturing facilities by providing exemptions to certain energy-related taxes.

S3504 (Smith) – Requires all newly constructed warehouses to be solar-ready buildings.

S3618 (Pennacchio / Oroho / Bucco) – Makes a supplemental appropriation of $10 million for grants for certain lake management activities for recreation and conservation purposes.

S3667 (Smith / Bateman) – Codifies certain energy goals related to 2019 Energy Master Plan.

Due to the public health emergency, the State House Annex remains closed to visitors and members of the public will not be allowed to attend the meeting in person, unless properly registered to testify on a bill under consideration.

The public may monitor the committee proceedings on the New Jersey Legislature home page, at https: / / www.njleg.state.nj.us / . The committee will take in-person testimony on bills for those members of the public who properly register.

(The public may address comments and questions to Eric Hansen or Christina Denney, Committee Aides, or make bill status and scheduling inquiries to Pamela Cocroft, Secretary, at 609-847-3855, fax 609-292-0561, or e-mail: OLSAideSEN@njleg.org. Written and electronic comments, questions and testimony submitted to the committee by the public, as well as recordings and transcripts, if any, of oral testimony, are government records and will be available to the public upon request.)

If you are interested in registering your position with the committee, please fill out the Registration Form located on the New Jersey Legislature home page under the applicable committee heading. If you wish to testify, check the box ‘Do you wish to testify?’ on the form. The form must be submitted by 3:00 PM on Monday, May 10, 2021.

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Companies vying to complete $2B replacement of Newark Airport monorail

By Larry Higgs | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

In New Jersey environmental news today, four companies got a green light from the Port Authority Wednesday to draft proposals to replace the old Newark Liberty International Airport monorail with a “21st Century Air Train,” with a goal of starting construction in mid-2022.

Officials, including Gov. Phil Murphy, called it a significant step in honoring the authority’s October 2019 commitment to the governor after he called for a $2 billion replacement of the 25-year old monorail that connects the airport terminals and the Northeast Corridor rail line.

The four groups selected are consortiums of major construction companies, transit equipment builders and engineering companies.

“I am pleased that the Port Authority is moving forward with this critical development,” Murphy said in a statement. “This Request for Proposals is one of the initial milestones for this project to become a reality.”

The basic concept would replace the monorail with a new 2.5-mile elevated rail link that authority officials called a “critical component of the modernization” of Newark Liberty. It would serve the new Terminal One, which will replace Terminal A and a future replacement for Terminal B.

The four teams were qualified after a thorough technical review that included financial capability and past project experience, among other factors, officials said. The shortlisted candidates advance to the Request for Proposals phase.

The projected mid-2022 construction start is slightly off the schedule in February’s draft environmental assessment report that called for a first-quarter 2022 construction start with testing of the new system in the first quarter of 2025. Under that schedule, AirTrain would go in service in the first quarter of 2026 and the old monorail would be demolished.

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Recycling industry panelists say environmental justice and diversity must be priorities

By Megan Quinn/Waste Dive

Speakers at the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries’ April convention acknowledged the intricacies of environmental justice (EJ), racism, and diversity targets, offering suggestions on how to approach the topics during multiple panel discussions.

Experts stressed that recycling and waste companies have a particular responsibility to understand and address environmental justice, in part because many of their facilitiesare in lower-income communities or communities of color. As company leaders look for ways to be more involved in their communities, they must work to diversify and support their own workforces, too, they said.

ISRI’s board chair, Gary Champlin, acknowledged that the recycling industry has not always been as vocal about discussing EJ, partly because some recyclers may see the topic as a “sore spot.” This year, ISRI’s convention had multiple panels that specifically addressed EJ issues and diversity topics. “It’s essential that we all understand the goals of environmental justice and why it is so important, and to look not only at how it fits with our industry, but how it can be an essential part of our long-term growth,” he said.

Here are some takeaways from the conference:

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With Environmental Justice in mind, EPA expands toxic chemicals reporting requirement

By Pamela Goodwin and John Dixon, Saul Ewing law firm

Late last week, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced its latest environmental justice initiative aimed at expanding Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) reporting requirements to include additional types of chemicals and facilities.

Environmental Justice is intended to ensure fair treatment and involvement of people regardless of race, color, origin, or income in environmental regulation and enforcement.

The TRI is a publicly available database that includes information on toxic chemical releases and waste management activities.

The EPA announced its proposal to expand the list of chemicals covered by TRI reporting requirements, as well as public access to the database, in order to “advance Environmental Justice, improve transparency, and increase access to environmental information.”

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