Climate

Novoloop’s upcycled plastic takes a step closer to production

Climate /

Plastic recycling startup Novoloop has inked a deal with a major manufacturer to produce its upcycled thermoplastic polyurethane at commercial scale, TechCrunch has exclusively learned. The agreement helps nudge the Menlo Park-based Novoloop through the so-called “valley of death” that many climate tech startups must slog through.  Startups that depend on hardware are particularly susceptible […]

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Ganiga will showcase its waste-sorting robots at TechCrunch Disrupt

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Despite the well-known environmental benefits of recycling, it’s estimated that less than 10% of the world’s plastic gets recycled. Ganiga Innovation looks to bring that percentage up using AI-enabled robotic waste bins.   Italian startup Ganiga built three products to help better manage waste and recycling. The first is a fleet of robotic waste bins, called Hoooly, that use generative AI to determine what is trash and what is recycling and sort the waste accordingly. The second is a smart lid that

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Okosix will show its biodegradable plastic at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025

Climate /

Healthcare is awash in single-use plastics. In U.S. healthcare facilities alone, more than 2,800 tons of plastic packaging and products are thrown out every day.  Few people are more aware of this than Eddie Yu. Early in the pandemic, Yu founded a company that made disposable masks. One day, his niece was with him while

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U.S. government takes stake in Canadian lithium miner and its Nevada mining project

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The U.S. Department of Energy has taken equity stakes in Canadian company Lithium Americas and its Nevada mining joint venture with General Motors as part of a renegotiation of a federal loan. Under the new terms, the U.S. government will take a 5% equity ownership in Lithium Americas and a 5% ownership in the Lithium

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Battery startup Moxion went bankrupt. Now its founder is back to ‘finish what we started’

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Just over a year ago, Moxion Power closed its doors, adding its name to a list of high-profile bankruptcies that roiled the climate tech world in 2024. The portable battery startup had raised more than $110 million in a bid to replace diesel generators at festivals and construction sites, but even that wasn’t enough to

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Sila opens U.S. factory to make silicon anodes for energy dense EV batteries

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Sila, the battery materials startup, started operations Tuesday at its facility in Moses Lake, Washington. The factory, which will initially be capable of making enough battery materials for 20,000 to 50,000 EVs, is the first large-scale silicon anode factory in the West, and future expansion could fulfill demand for as many as 2.5 million vehicles.

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Commonwealth Fusion Systems books a $1B+ power deal for its future fusion reactor

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Commonwealth Fusion Systems has agreed to sell Italian energy company Eni more than $1 billion worth of power from its first fusion reactor. The power plant will be built outside of Richmond, Virginia, close to some of the highest densities of data centers in the country. The 400-megawatt fusion reactor, called Arc, is expected to

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Octopus Energy spins off its Kraken utility billing and AI platform

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British renewable energy provider Octopus Energy said this week that it’s spinning off Kraken, its tech platform for utilities, spurred in part by $500 million in committed annual revenue from other utilities and energy providers. An eventual Kraken IPO could be valued at $15 billion and could occur within a year, according to The Wall

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