Compost piles are prepped for screening at the Tulare Lake Compost plant. Researchers say that natural fertilizers created from sewage sludge are an increasing source of wind-blown microplastics.

FAIRBANKS, Alaska -- Environmental consultant Michael Pollen remembers standing on a pile of sewage sludge composting outside the Fairbanks treatment plant on a November day in 1997. The temperature ...

Austin has a sludge problem. Several years after a buildup of compost led to persistent fires, costing at least $3 million and taking more than a month to extinguish, city officials are keen to hire a ...