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A critical component of plastics waste, polyvinyl chloride, is tough to recycle efficiently and sustainably owing to its high chlorine content. Now, research shows how to convert polyvinyl chloride mixed with polypropylene, at room temperature, into chlorine-free hydrocarbons.
The goal to achieve urban water sustainability is likely to be hindered by current regulations in China. Setting holistic, flexible and ecologically benign pollutant discharge standards can help China’s efforts to shape a more sustainable wastewater management approach.
Upcycling of mixed plastics containing polyvinyl chloride is challenging. This study reports a strategy to co-upcycle polyvinyl chloride with polypropylene to obtain dechlorinated liquid hydrocarbons at high yields at room temperature without the use of external hydrogen or noble metal catalysts.
Reshaping the currently energy-intensive municipal wastewater treatment (MWT) practices is urgently needed. This study systematically assessed the energy recovery and saving potential of different technologies, providing valuable guidance for future optimizations of MWT practices.
How revenues from a carbon price are returned to society may affect public support for the adoption of such a policy. In an experiment with a large sample of the German population, public support for a carbon price is assessed for five different revenue recycling schemes.
Seeking environmental justice requires vast amounts of written law and armies of lawyers to enforce and navigate them fairly. Sustainability research must incorporate data and insights on these laws from legal scholars to better understand the impacts of competing claims for human use and ecosystem health
Environmental law is a function of both regulations and the lawsuits that happen because of, or in the absence of, those regulations. Surveying the characteristics of climate-related lawsuits can help us to understand not just who is suing who, but whether the regulatory and legal system is working as intended.
Climate lawsuits can cause direct changes in corporate behaviour, but market impacts are less understood. This study examines 15 years of litigation to find how much stock values fall when lawsuits are filed or resolved.
Environmental law is shaped by litigation outcomes as much as by legislation. This study examines nearly 30,000 civil suits and court decisions over 34 years to help reveal their influence on the legal and environmental landscapes of the United States.
The transformation of polyolefins into value-added chemicals could help mitigate plastic pollution, but control of the product distribution is challenging. Now, a catalyst- and solvent-free, temperature-gradient thermolysis process enables the upcycling of polyolefins into detergents, with control of the chain lengths.
The controllable conversion of plastic wastes to products with tailored molar mass would facilitate waste valorization but remains challenging. This study presents a catalyst- and hydrogen-free temperature-gradient thermolysis strategy to achieve this goal.
Forests are subject to natural and human-induced disturbances, which can be important in shaping their form and function. In this study, the authors examine the landscape patterns of global forest disturbance and their drivers to better inform sustainable forest management and policy.
Soil processes involved in agricultural practices emit considerable levels of nitrous oxide, which detrimentally contribute to climate change. This study explores strategies to reduce nitrous oxide emissions while maintaining crop productivity in the US maize–soybean rotational cropping system.
Innovative educational methods can be difficult to spread across universities and instructors. This study examines the best routes to rapidly scale new methods in sustainability education.
Sustainable coexistence with wildfire requires overcoming vicious cycles that trap socio-ecological systems in maladaptive states. A carefully coordinated programme of innovation, education and governance, the ‘wildfire adaptation triad’, is essential for escaping maladaptation across national, community and individual scales.
Alternative extraction methods are urgently needed for a sustainable supply of rubidium. Now research presents a ripening-coupled strategy for efficient rubidium extraction with low energy consumption.
Sustainably extracting rubidium (Rb), a valuable critical metal, from alternative sources remains challenging. Here the authors report a crystal ripening microextraction strategy that allows efficient Rb extraction from potassium chloride salts, with large environmental and economic benefits.
The transition towards a sustainable food system that enhances the adoption of healthy diets globally is an urgent challenge. A study shows how the EAT-Lancet diet requirement could be met through sustainable agricultural strategies reducing land and water constraints.
