The average American creates 4.3 pounds of trash per day. That’s 1,569 pounds a year. With numbers like this, it’s no wonder our landfills are overflowing and our planet is suffering. One of the major pitfalls of living in a…
Drink beer: turn beer bottles into sand to save the beaches
BY: ELIJAH BASSETT It’s become common knowledge that our businesses are ravaging the environment in all kinds of ways, but one that we might not think of too often is our sand. It’s easy to forget, but the fact is…
This is how a small Japanese town recycles, reuses or composts 83 per cent of all waste
The impacts of human industry and waste are largely only realized after the damage has been done. As they say, hindsight is 20/20. Yet remaining ahead of the curve, especially in terms of environmental issues, is critical. This was the…
These kids from a slum in Paraguay make beautiful music from recycled garbage
By: Jack M. “The world sends us garbage… we send back music.” Favio Chavez. The small town of Cateura is situated a few miles outside Paraguay’s capital city of Asunción, and for most of its existence, Cateura, with a population…
Cigarette butts are being recycled into backpacks
BY: Jack M. Environmental advocacy group Ocean Conservancy lists discarded cigarette butts as the number one piece of trash found on our roads, beaches, parks, and in oceans and lakes. And a report by National Geographic suggests that New York State…
This vending machine feeds starving stray animals in exchange for empty plastic bottles
BY: JESSICA BEUKER Istanbul, one of the world’s largest cities, is home to over 14 million people. It is also home to over 150,000 stray cats and dogs – a number that keeps increasing due to animal smuggling and lack…
Less than 1% of Swedish trash ends up in a landfill
BY: ZOE MELNYK It’s difficult to imagine a world without trash, but Sweden seems to be heading in the right direction with less than one per cent of its trash actually reaching landfills. When compared to the United States’ 34.5…
This 23-year-old New Yorker hasn’t produced any trash in over 2 years
BY: SINEAD MULHERN Want to ditch all that garbage you’ve been sending to the landfills? That’s what New Yorker Lauren Singer, 23, took on three years ago. Today she lives a trash free life. She has even started a company…
Repurpose This: A beginner’s guide to recycling on steroids
BY: KATY WILLIS Recycling only goes so far. Actually, it can cause environmental harm in its own right as chemical-heavy matter is melted and processed during recycling to form new items. That’s not to say you shouldn’t recycle; recycling is…