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McDonald’s shareholders will vote today on whether to ban plastic straws
McDonald’s shareholders are casting ballots today on a small change that could have big implications for the environment and investor activism: Whether to ban plastic straws at its restaurants....
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The world will finally have to confront its massive plastic problem now that...
Since the 1950s, when the world was first introduced to the flexible, durable wonder of plastic, 8.3 billion metric tons of it has been produced. Plastic doesn’t biodegrade, so technically, all of...
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Even if the US never used a plastic straw again, it would barely make a dent
Americans supposedly use 500 million plastic straws every day—or not. It turns out that the math behind that figure was done by a nine-year-old in 2011. But, let’s say—for the sake of argument—that as...
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Marie Kondo’s key to happiness: boxes
Perhaps it’s not entirely surprising that Marie Kondo has a rather geeky obsession with boxes. The winsome 33-year-old organization guru who preaches a mindful method for purging clutter called...
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A major US city will start drinking its own sewage. Others need to follow.
It’s possible, a few decades from now, humans living in water-scarce places will find it ridiculous that we spent centuries just flushing away our watery sewage. Didn’t we know we could have been...
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Could NYC solve its trash problem with underground trash cans?
When the Hague decided to fix its curb-trash problem, it found a solution underground. In 2009, the Netherlands city began installing trash bins under the sidewalk, and as of 2017 had 6,100 such units...
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It would take 100 pees to make the world’s first human-urine brick
Bricks play a crucial role in the construction industry, add a distinct aesthetic to homes, and now can also be made of human urine. On Oct. 24, the world’s first “bio-brick” grown from human urine was...
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This clever Halloween tradition makes your clutter disappear
My brother-in-law and his family invented a simple, genius Halloween tradition: Every year, they collect “used but perfectly good” toys to add to the bowl they present to trick-or-treaters. New Yorkers...
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Do not be fooled: There is nothing eco-friendly about a silver straw
You can’t use a plastic straw anymore without looking like an environmental libertine who doesn’t care about sea turtles. Everyone knows that. But please do not buy a silver straw. I hesitate to even...
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After China, Southeast Asia is also detoxing from imported plastic trash
After serving as the world’s scrap collector for decades, China’s decision to ban imports of almost all plastic waste last year upended the world’s recycling habits, and left developed countries...
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India’s two-million-tonne e-waste problem has deadly consequences
The world produces 50 million tonnes of electronic and electrical waste (e-waste) per year, according to a recent UN report, but only 20% is formally recycled. Much of the rest ends up in landfill, or...
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Scientists put an iPhone in a blender to find out what mobile phones are...
In a recently-published video, geology lecturer Arjan Dijkstra dons a white lab coat and a protective face shield, drops an iPhone 4S into a blender, and pulverizes it. Dijkstra wasn’t taking out his...
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Your cotton tote is pretty much the worst replacement for a plastic bag
If you’re trying to contribute as little as possible to the two global calamities of climate change and the swirling gyres of forever-materials slowly filling our oceans, there’s a useful formula to...
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Can something good come out of India’s worsening e-waste problem? Apparently...
India’s mounting pile of old smartphones, laptops, and refrigerators could create over half-a-million jobs. By 2020, the country’s electronic waste management sector is set to create 450,000 direct...
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China is forcing the world to rethink recycling
This story is part of an ongoing series on how China is reshaping our world. The global recycling system is broken. Just don’t blame China.…
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Your “biodegradable” plastic bag might not actually biodegrade
At this point, images of plastic waste-filled landscapes have managed to reach and horrify much of the general public. Plastic bag bans are proliferating in response. Now, bags made from alternative,...
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You have the power to save endangered species
Today is Endangered Species Day, which is hardly cause for celebration, as ideally no such occasion would exist. This is not an ideal world, however. That was clear earlier this month when the UN’s...
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The Lagos entrepreneurs championing recycling as a way of life
The idea to convert trash to saleable products struck Olamide Ayeni-Babajide while on a trip to Dubai where she bought home décor made out of corn husk. Recognizing the dollar value of Lagos’s trash,...
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Taiwan, the home of bubble tea, prepares for its plastic straw ban
Bubble tea is ubiquitous in Taiwan, but so are the thick, colorful straws used to slurp the drink. That’s not stopping the country from joining a growing number of places across the world implementing...
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“What kind of rubbish are you?”: China’s first serious trash-sorting rule is...
Shanghai’s residents are reeling from the mandatory trash-sorting rules their city just adopted as China works toward beefing up its recycling rates. Starting Monday (July 1), individuals and...
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