You might compost religiously. You might recycle everything your city can handle. But even the most environmentally conscious individual might have trouble responsibly disposing the ubiquitous food wrapper. These crinkly, colorful sheets that come with our granola bars and potato chips can contain so many different materials mixed together (plastic, aluminum, paper, etc.) that recycling […]
Plastic is moldable, durable, and its versatility means it’s everywhere and in everything from computers to medical devices. Its benefits are impossible to deny, but our relationship to this marvelous material is ultimately an unhealthy one. We undervalue and overuse plastic and in turn overdispose of it. Our plastic addiction has created a dilemma that […]
By Danielle Corcione I thought I knew what garbage looked like. Then I arrived in Bangalore, the third-largest city in India. There was trash almost everywhere you looked. Plastic bottles, food packaging and other waste that could’ve potentially been recycled contaminated the landscape, even in people’s front- and backyards. When I’d ride into the city […]
By Daniel Ross All that glitters ain’t gold, or so the old adage goes. And when it comes to the glitter used in everyday cosmetics, specialty make-up, hair products and party paraphernalia, the negative effects on human health and the environment are indeed far from golden. “They really do get into everything, and despite their […]
Flint, Michigan doesn’t just have a water problem—it has a water bottle problem. Ever since the 2014 lead contamination crisis, city residents have had no choice but to turn to bottled water for their daily H2O needs. The state is required to give each Flint resident 14 bottles daily, and when you multiply that with […]
Greenpeace has launched a global campaign for an Antarctic sanctuary, covering 1.8 million square kilometers (approximately .7 million square miles) of ocean, to protect whales, penguins and other wildlife. Following a failure to agree on strong marine protection in the East Antarctic, Greenpeace has called for governments to show “greater vision and ambition” in the […]
By Jennifer Chu Discarded plastic bottles could one day be used to build stronger, more flexible concrete structures, from sidewalks and street barriers, to buildings and bridges, according to a new study. MIT undergraduate students have found that, by exposing plastic flakes to small, harmless doses of gamma radiation, then pulverizing the flakes into a […]
Chilean President Michelle Bachelet signed a bill Wednesday that prohibits the sale of single-use plastic bags in 102 coastal villages and towns in a bid to stop the build-up of ocean plastic and to “[take] care of our marine ecosystems.” An estimated eight million tons of plastic trash gets dumped into our oceans each year, […]
In the second edition of its Sea of Distress report released Tuesday, Greenpeace found that some foodservice industry players—especially Sodexo, Aramark, and Compass Group—have taken important steps toward protecting the oceans and workers at sea. While the majority of the fifteen companies assessed in the report failed again, there are signs that some companies are […]
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