waste
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How do you calculate your plastic footprint?
Companies are on board with reporting their carbon usage, but what about the amount of plastic they produce? It's a different sort of problem than carbon emissions, but although the negative impacts of humanity's plastic habit have been known for years, the amount being used is only increasing.
This fall, the Hong Kong-based Ocean Recovery Alliance is moving forward with its Plastic Disclosure Project, which will ask companies to calculate and disclose their "plastic footprints," just as they report their carbon footprints. -
Sing along to this awesomely cheesy theme song for energy wasters
The musical "Seein' the Light" was written in 1978, but nothing has really changed: People still deny there's a fuel or climate crisis, and they still put on their Serious Thespian black turtlenecks and sing about it. The guy singing is kind of super-intense — he regularly goes 20 seconds or more between blinks — […]
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Holy sheet! Ask Umbra on printers
Inkjet? Laser? What’s an eco-conscious person to use when hard copy is a necessity? Ask Umbra spells it out for you.
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Toilet 2.0 will turn waste into energy, fertilizer, and clean water
Think poop is funny? Well, it’s DEADLY SERIOUS. Here are the unsavory facts about poor sanitation infrastructure, according to the Gates Foundation: 2.6 billion lack access to safe toilets. Food and water that's come in contact with waste leads to 2.5 billion cases of diarrhea in children each year, and 1.5 million of them die as a result. People with diseases connected to poor sanitation fill half of the hospital beds in the developing world. So the Gates Foundation is trying to polish this turd by developing the next generation of toilet.
If you watch the video above (which you should! It's funny!), you'll find that the Gates Foundation is taking a cheeky approach to publicizing its new campaign to design "Toilet 2.0." -
Phoenix park will turn dog poop into light
Another point for dogs in eternal battle of cats vs. canines: While cats are bad for the environment, dog poop could help cut carbon costs. In Phoenix, a local dog park is trying to capture methane gas from dog waste and burn it in the park’s lamps.
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Critical List: It’s hot; 2.7 million Americans work in clean energy
It's hot. It's hot. It's hooooottttt.
You want green jobs? Here are your green jobs: 2.7 million Americans are employed in the clean energy economy, according to a new report from the Brookings Institution.
But that could all end with a drop-off in government subsidies across the world. -
Land of the freegan, home of the brave
For a freegan, the world is a grocery store, and everything is marked 100 percent off. I go dumpster diving with a few intrepid New Yorkers who are living the freegan dream.
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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.
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America's first no-packaging grocery store coming to Austin
Within the next year, Austin, Texas, could be home to In.gredients, a grocery store that eliminates the paper and plastic containers that most food comes in. Instead, the zero-packaging store will offer most of its wares in bulk bins. (Some products will be “packaging-light” instead, with recyclable containers.) Customers can bring their own boxes and bottles or borrow compostable ones from the store, weigh them, and fill them with goodies. This includes beer (bring your own growler!) and cleaning products.