1. United States

Recycled glass – turned into sand – is shoring up Louisiana marshlands. Glass Half Full Nola, a glass recycler started by two college seniors, has collected 3.2 million pounds of glass since 2020. The company supplies Tulane University researchers and its partners with a pulverized product, which in tests is nontoxic, can grow native grasses, and resists erosion.

Americans toss out 8 million tons of glass each year, less than a third of which gets recycled, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Tulane’s ReCoast initiative says that without a glass manufacturer nearby, turning the recyclables into new glass would be more capital and energy intensive than making sand. Some 40 tons of recycled sand inside burlap bags have already been used for wetland restoration at the Big Branch Marsh National Wildlife Refuge on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain. ReCoast plans to include the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans in future work.
Sources: Reasons to be Cheerful, Recoast, Nola

2. Brazil

Floating solar panels come with a benefit beyond renewable energy: reducing evaporation. In southern Brazil, researchers from the State University of Ponta Grossa and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette found that a 130-kilowatt floating photovoltaic system (FPS) on the Passaúna reservoir reduced evaporation by 60%.

“Freshwater scarcity is a significant concern due to climate change in some regions of Brazil; likewise, evaporation rates have increased over the years,” the researchers wrote in their paper. But by reducing the amount of surface water exposed to the sun, FPS can conserve water supply while generating energy. The one-third acre, 396-module FPS in the study covered only 0.01% of the reservoir. If it covered the entire surface, researchers estimate the amount of water saved would be equivalent to more than a year’s supply for at least 35,000 people.
Sources: PV Magazine Brazil, Energies 2022