Quote from Steve on June 23, 2021, 7:27 am

I was reading an article this morning how engineered bacteria could clean up oilsands pollution and mining waste. The author is Vikramaditya G. Yadav an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering and the School of Biomedical Engineering and Director of the Master of Engineering Leadership in Sustainable Process Engineering at the University of British Columbia (UBC). Although not the main topic of the article, he mentions that manufacturing electric vehicles isn't environmentally friendly. He said, "Widespread adoption of electric vehicles could reduce carbon emissions from the transportation sector by nearly 50 per cent. Unfortunately, mining the metals used in electric vehicles damages the environment."

Widespread adoption of electric vehicles could reduce carbon emissions from the transportation sector by nearly 50 per cent. Unfortunately, mining the metals used in electric vehicles damages the environment.

The manufacture of a single electric vehicle generates 250,000 kilograms of mining waste and 150,000 litres of an extremely toxic liquid called acid rock drainage, a major threat to the environment owing to its potentially devastating effect on rivers, streams and aquatic habitats.

If his microbial solutions to do away with tailings ponds entirely, it could also be employed to eliminate waste from companies manufacturing the vehicles. There isn't any mention of the cost associated with this new technology, so the next challenge might be to get manufactures to adapt this process to their operations.