A garbage dump fire is seen smouldering across the bay from the city of Iqaluit on July 9, 2014.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
Priority should be given to improving municipal solid waste management in First Nation communities because they currently lack financial resources, infrastructure and solid waste diversion programs.
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Plastic waste is a huge problem. To fix it, we need systemic change, not just a focus on picking it up or recycling plastic once it becomes rubbish.
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Over 170 countries have endorsed a resolution to negotiate a plastics treaty that’s much more precise than the Paris climate change agreement.
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Our new technology to recycle food waste into prebiotics uses no toxic chemicals and no fossil fuels.
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Glass is produced from sand, is easy to recycle, and can be used to make concrete without any complex processing.
Plastic trash floating on the Buriganga river in Dhaka, Bangladesh,
Jan. 21, 2020.
Munir Uz Zaman/AFP via Getty Images
Representatives of 175 countries voted to start developing a global treaty to reduce plastic waste. Treaties addressing mercury, long-range air pollution and ozone depletion offer some lessons.
Tech companies do not make it easy or affordable to get products repaired.
iJasper/Shutterstock
Tech companies still make it difficult to get gadgets repaired.
Encouraging recycling is part of the low-tech approach to life.
PxHere
The principles of the low-tech movement offer a solution to overconsumption and rising emissions.
It’s unrealistic to expect that people can make enough money from collecting bottles to start their own business.
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In South Africa, the work of ensuring plastic bottles are recycled lies with consumers and volunteers instead of the large industry polluters.
Lightening aeroplanes’ loads helps to reduce their emissions.
TobiasRehbein/Pixabay
Using recycled plastic to wire planes could reduce their emissions while cutting down on waste from the 3-D printing industry.
When in doubt, throw it out – but not in the recycling bin.
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Tossing something into your recycling bin that can’t be processed does more harm than good.
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These shows treat the symptoms of overconsumption but not the causes.
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It’s not just about finding bargains.
When people have to pay for every bag of trash they throw out, they produce less waste.
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When governments want people to do less of something, one way to make that happen is to charge them for doing it. That’s the idea behind pay-as-you-throw waste policies.
Plastic debris on a beach on Lanai, a sparsely populated Hawaiian island.
Matthew Koller
An estimated 8 million metric tons of plastic waste enters the ocean each year – equivalent to dumping in a garbage truckload of it every minute. A new report calls on the US to help stem the deluge.
The environmental footprint of milk containers varies substantially.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward
In Canada, milk is available in jugs, cartons, bags and glass bottles. A new analysis reveals which type of container has the smallest environmental footprint — from container production to disposal.
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Aluminium is hugely useful, but energy-intensive to produce. What if we didn’t have to smelt any more?
The greenest buildings are those that exist already.
Danist Soh on Unsplash
One-tenth of global emissions result from the production and supply of building materials – and the construction process itself.
Allotments were popular in the 1970s and are now busy again.
Air Images/Shutterstock
Allotments and repairing old clothes are just aspects of 1970s life that are making a comeback.
The burden of dealing with plastic waste tends to fall on the shoulders of developing countries.
Tom_Crew/Pixabay
Women and girls in low-income countries are disproportionately likely to be affected by the plastic waste that’s flooding our planet.