Artwork stating 'Education Destroys Barriers', 'We Demand Treatment', and 'I Need A Chance'

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  • Do plastic bag taxes or bans curb waste? 400 cities and states tried it out.

    Across the world, countries are reckoning with its astounding single-use plastic bag waste by instituting legislation that taxes or all-out bans them. Research has shown that taxing the bags has been a more effective strategy with less unintended consequences, as banning often leads to a sharp increase in thicker plastics or paper bags. In places that have instituted the tax, they’ve seen a 40 percent decrease in usage, and arguably more importantly, a cultural shift away from single-use plastics.

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  • A New Generation of Students Is Teaching Us How to Reduce E-Waste

    The company, iFixit, is training college students to repair electronics and then create manuals so that others can do the same. The company has helped students make more than 30,000 guides and reaches 1.5 million users every month. iFixit partners with colleges and universities to with the hopes of teaching students about the importance of sustainable engineering.

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  • 'Plastic recycling is a myth': what really happens to your rubbish?

    After decades of recycling plastic, the world is now coming to terms with the waste industry it has created, and seeking more sustainable models. One promising model is material recovery facilities, like England’s Green Recycling, that has invested in an AI sorting machine to help humans more efficiently and accurately find materials that can be recycled. While a costly model of sustainability, new strategy proposals are emerging that can help the world make this change possible.

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  • Return to Nature

    A movement for "green burials" - burials that allow bodies to decompose naturally and without chemical preservatives - addresses climate change contributors in the funeral and burial realm. Green burials are a cost-effective and finite resource-saving way for families to lay loved ones to rest in a natural environment.

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  • What do you do with a derelict Center Parcs? Map out a waste-free world

    Abandoned buildings can become spaces for economic innovation and experimentation. An abandoned resort spa in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, now houses BlueCity, an ecosystem of sustainable enterprises. The initiative aligns with The Netherland’s 2050 circular strategy, which aims to reduce waste and implement circular design into the economic. At BlueCity, the businesses are leaders in sustainable innovations, from brewers that share byproducts with bakers to companies that recycle plastic.

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  • Citizens of the Week Gaye Harley and Jamie Powell

    In Wilmington, Delaware, Gaye Harley repurposes her hospital's operating room wraps, the oversize sheets of synthetic material used to package instruments, into portable maps for the homeless. Instead of disposing of the materials, she has urged the hospital to recycle them into nearly 100 mats and counting. They have also used the mats to make tote bags, which they distribute with donated socks, also to the homeless.

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  • Improving our own environment

    Pennsylvania’s Perkiomen Watershed Conservancy has built a grassroots base of volunteers that help clean up the local environment. Through education at schools and summer workshops, outreach projects, and asking volunteers to recruit new people, the Conservancy saw over 1,000 volunteers at its annual stream cleanup event. While the organization is still trying to figure out how to retain volunteers for long-term projects, the response to immediate projects has been overwhelming.

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  • Oregon Rethinks Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: Life After the Chinese Import Ban

    After China stopped buying recycling near the end of 2017, Oregon faced mounting piles of mixed recycling that seemed bound for the landfill--a move that might have been illegal under Oregon law. Instead, the state's recycling industry made adjustments, including limiting the types of items to be recycled and using local processing plants instead of Chinese ones.

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  • Less Trash, More Schools — One Plastic Brick at a Time

    The recycling economy is helping Ivory Coast overcome a building shortage and create jobs. The Fighting Women, a community organization in Abidjan, collect plastic waste to resell to manufacturers. In partnership with UNICEF, the Columbian company, Conceptos Plásticos purchases plastic waste from the Women and recycles it into bricks, which are used to construct classrooms.

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  • Bring Containers, Leave Your Guilt at Home

    Package-free shopping encourages more sustainable consumption. In Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cleenland offers package-free household products, including shampoo and cleaners. Customers use their own containers and pay by weight. Asking consumers to pay more attention helps reduce waste generated by packaging and contributes to municipal zero waste strategies.

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