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    Cut trash with tiny trash cans

    We tend to associate the "everything bigger" approach with wastefulness -- oversized cars guzzle gas, McMansions drive up electricity bills, 72-ounce challenge steaks never get fully eaten. So it makes sense to think that downsizing trash cans might help downsize trash. That's what they're finding at Dartmouth College, anyway, where trash cans as small as quart-size yogurt containers (that's my ineptly 'shopped comparison above) are cutting down on waste.

    Jess Zimmerman Culture

  • Trashtivist: Where did the garbage go?

    I want to tell you stories about my gross garbage. I really do. But so far, there's just not that much of it.

    Chip Giller Culture

  • Trash trucks powered by trash gas reduce emissions by 80-90 percent

    Waste Management Inc. owns 1,000 trash trucks that run on natural gas, plus a bunch of landfills that are constantly pumping out natural gas as a natural product of the decomposition of organic waste. Closing the loop on this cycle is a no-brainer, but it took Waste Management a decade to perfect the technology required. Now they’ve got trash trucks that run on gas from the trash they carry.

    Christopher Mims Technology

  • WWF leaflet campaign reaches 285,142 people with one piece of paper

    As certified genius Mitch Hedberg once said, when someone hands you a flyer on the street, it's like they're saying "here, YOU throw this away." But the panda-suited chuggers in this World Wildlife Fund leaflet campaign are saying "here, YOU read this on your way up the escalator where it will be collected by another panda and distributed to the next person who will then bring it back down the escalator to be re-collected and re-distributed by the original panda." It's a little more complicated, but it involves a lot less waste. 

    Jess Zimmerman Culture

  • Half of the Bay Area's litter comes from fast food

    Fast food is already a lot like pollution -- it's bad for you, but it's more convenient than the alternative, so it's really really hard to get rid of. Also it shows up frequently on the sides of highways. Now, environmental nonprofit Clean Water Action has found that, at least in the San Francisco Bay area, these two dirty birds flock together. More than half of the litter in the four cities the group studied came from convenience foods at McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, Starbucks, and 7-11.

    Jess Zimmerman Health

  • California could ban Styrofoam

    Takeout in California will never be the same. The state's legislature is halfway to forbidding restaurants and vendors from packing their products in Styrofoam containers: the California Senate's on board, and the House is supposed to vote on the measure by the end of the summer. The problem (besides that Styrofoam is an evil, atmosphere-killing […]

    Sarah Laskow Health

  • Cup o’ woe: Ask Umbra on single-serve coffee alternatives

    Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dear Umbra, I work in an office of serious coffee drinkers. We have a Keurig single-cup coffee brewer that everyone loves because it allows them to choose their own roast and flavor. But all those little plastic K-Cups add up to lots of waste fast! Is there a more […]

    Ask Umbra® Culture

  • Van Jones on the economic injustice of plastic [VIDEO]

    Van Jones lays out a case against plastic pollution from the perspective of social justice in this TED talk.

    Grist staff Culture

  • Cups made of Jell-O are the unnecessary product du jour

    Today in why-is-this-thing-real news, we have party cups made of Jell-O.

    Holly Richmond Culture