One of the focus areas of the Basque Center for Materials, Applications & Nanostructures (BCMaterials) in Bilbao is the development of materials and devices for environmental prevention, monitoring and remediation in water and air that are compatible with sustainability and the circular economy. A successful collaboration with the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) has advanced the development of a greener and more efficient capture and separation technology for the recovery of metals from water, with a similar solution now under investigation for the capture of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.