Recycling
A campaign to eliminate plastic straws is sucking in thousands of converts
It started so innocently. A kid ordered a soda in a restaurant.<p>“It came with a plastic straw in it,” Milo Cress recalled. He glared at the straw for a while. “It seemed like such a waste.”<p>Not only did Cress yank the plastic from his drink, but he also launched a campaign, “Be Straw Free,” targeting …
Natural History MuseumsAustralians hoarding 23 million unused mobile phones
In the pockets and handbags of Australians today lie 16 million smartphones.<p>Every two to three years those phones are replaced, meaning around five …
Mobile Technology'Super tip' to tackle expensive burden of recycling in country WA
Three West Australian country shires are planning to build a 'Super Tip' near Mount Barker to store recyclable materials.<p>Denmark, Albany and …
South-east AsiaThe Trash Incinerator Industry Is Trying To Tank A Massive Renewable-Energy Effort
A tiny trade group threatens to kneecap the biggest attempt yet to get cities to reject President Trump's Paris accord withdrawal.<p>Advocates for the trash-incineration industry are trying to sink an effort to get nearly 1,500 cities behind 100 percent renewable energy, according to an email obtained …
Renewable EnergyA Better Way To Recycle Dirty Aluminum Foil
The EPA says Americans threw away more than 1.5 million tons of aluminum products in 2012. Some of that probably could have been recycled, although anyone who’s had to toss a wad of aluminum foil because it was covered in pizza sauce and cheese knows it can be hard to recycle.<p>Fortunately, chemists …
EngineeringRecycling Solutions That Won't Detract from Your Decor
Trash cans and recycling bins can take up a lot of space, especially if you have to sort your recyclables into different containers. All those bins …
DIYBlue Sphere Corporation: Will Pragmatism Win Out In The Waste-To-Energy Sector?
Blue Sphere Corporation's Charlotte facility is up and running, with another in Johnston, RI on the way.<p>The four recently acquired facilities in …
EnergyComeback Kids: This Company Gives Old Wind Turbine Blades A Second Life
At 16 years old, Fenner Wind Farm, near Syracuse, New York, is one of the oldest wind farms in the United States. While the towering wind turbines …
Wind FarmDesign for Change Empowers Children to Shape the World Around Them
Adults often feel the need to educate children with the material of their own choosing. While we encourage classroom creativity in in the forms of …
Avant-gardeDC hopes grants, high-tech bins helps curb growing rat population
WASHINGTON — Warmer winters apparently have been great for D.C.’s rat community, and District officials hope to change that.<p>Mayor Muriel Bowser …
Plastic Water Bottles Might Have Poisoned Ancient Californians
You've heard the PSA: Recycle that plastic water bottle, or else archaeologists will be digging it up thousands of years from now. What you probably …
Natural History MuseumsCity of Vancouver inches towards ban on coffee cups, foam containers
View photos<p>More<p>The City of Vancouver is looking to reduce the number of coffee cups, plastic bags, and take-out containers cluttering up the city's …
Canadian NewsNew Type of Biodegradable Plastic Made from Prawn Shells is the Future
We are excited to hear that more and more green alternatives to plastic bags are being developed, but this alternative takes the cake. Furthermore, …
Better bedfellows: how mattress manufacturers are stopping the waste
Social enterprise Soft Landing is joining forces with bed manufacturers in a push to recycle mattress parts and divert it from landfill<p>It doesn’t matter how deep you bury an old mattress, eventually it will rise to the surface to snag soccer players with its rusty coils or bog vehicles as they sink …
New technology quickly turns food waste into fuel
A new technique for turning food waste into a source of energy uses a two step process that extracts all of the energy from the waste and does so …
Sustainability3 Climate-tackling Social Entrepreneurs Recycling Carbon Emissions In Our Air
Earlier this month, President Trump announced his intent to pull the United States out of the United Nations Paris Climate Agreement. Signed by 195 nations in late 2015, this agreement was established to curb global temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius to avoid irreversible damage to the …
ClimateThis Innovative Artist Uses Trash to Create Sculptures That Show Plastic Taking Over Our World
Around the world, 300 million tons of plastic are produced each year. Of this figure, only an estimated 12 to 15 percent is recycled, which stands in …
New York proposes changes to solid waste regulations
New York regulators are taking public comments on proposed changes to solid waste management rules.<p>The Department of Environmental Conservation …
What would happen if everyone recycled?
The world would look a lot different if everyone recycled. Most likely, it would be cleaner and make more use of available resources. Landfills would shrink tremendously. Recycling plants would be an epicenter of activity.<p>“As a society, if everyone recycled we will have moved from a linear ‘take, …
Greenhouse Gas EmissionsThese Yoga Pants Are Reincarnated From Coffee Grounds And Crab Shells
The yogawear company RumiX makes every piece of clothing it sells from materials that would otherwise end up in a landfill or the ocean.<p>For many yogis, achieving balance has to do with much more than just nailing the one-legged tree pose. It often has to do with more existential questions of being …
YogaThis Startup Is Making India's Garbage Its Business
Throughout the modern era of waste collection, Indians haven’t been asked to pull all kinds of things from their trash cans for a supposedly higher purpose than burial at the dump. Everyday, their garbage heads for a giant compost pile somewhere — but then what?<p>Transitioning away from the old …
Waste ManagementBehold the daring, water-free future of the modern toilet
Eleonore Rartjarasoaniony – a 47-year-old mother, daughter and small-shop owner in Madagascar’s capital Antananarivo – stands in the middle of her yard, watching two young men in colourful overalls and rubber boots service her new waterless Loowatt toilet, which replaced her pit latrine a few …
Big IdeasHer recycling project faced long odds in Lebanon. Still, she persisted.
In a country whose inability to collect its garbage has, at times, made headlines, a feisty octogenarian has been running a recycling project for …
Middle EastTurning rags into riches
Experts are calling for greater recycling of unwanted clothing to prevent pollution and reduce the consumption of resourcesThough Chen Yang enjoys …
ChinaNew recycling method could prevent tons of waste
A plant near Huntington in Cambridgeshire has begun commercial operations to recycle plastic aluminium laminate, which is increasingly used by …
UK NewsA State in India Has Turned 1,600 Tons of Plastic Trash Into 620 Miles of Road
In light of the current plastic waste crisis, recycling and reusing this omnipresent, but threatening, material is one of the biggest tactics we can …
Tamil NaduMicrowaves and microbes turn household waste into biodegradable plastic
It would be better to find a way of turning our domestic waste into something more environmentally friendly and one hope lies in using microwaves and …
BiologyValhi says court blocks sale of radioactive waste disposal plant
Valhi (VHI -3.5%) discloses that a U.S. District Court issued an order blocking the sale of its Waste Control Specialists subsidiary to …
Judge blocks merger of nuclear-waste disposal companies
A federal judge in Delaware has blocked a Utah-based nuclear waste disposal company from buying a Texas-based competitor.<p>The judge on Wednesday ruled …
City of San Diego Expands Curbside Recycling
The City of San Diego is expanding its curbside recycling program within city limits, adding polystyrene food service containers to the lineup. “By …
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