A crane carrying with melting steel at the blast furnace Schwelgern 2 at ThyssenKrupp steel mill in Duisburg , Germany (December 12, 2014).
Patrik Stollarz/AFP
Europe recycles 70% of its steel, but much is exported, turning what should be a circular process into a linear one. Instead, materials need to be circularity-ready the moment they’re manufactured.
A woman sorts plastic bottles at a workshop in Hanoi. The world is being overwhelmed by plastic waste, and companies should do more to address it.
EPA/LUONG THAI LINH
Sites like Agbogbloshie provides a valuable service. They offer opportunities for job creation, profit and cleaning up environments littered with waste.
Solid waste in Mulago, Kampala, 2010. The city’s residents have found ways to recycle waste into energy.
SuSanA Secretariat/Flickr
Yossi Sheffi, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
InterContinental Hotels Group plans to switch miniature toiletries for bulk products, but it isn’t likely to do as much for the environment as activists might think.
As recycling gets more complicated, Australia’s sorting plants are getting left behind.
AAP Image/James Ross
Australia’s recycling woes belong to everyone, from households to government to business. It’s time to stop pointing fingers and get to work on a solution.
China has put the onus back on Australia to take responsibility for our waste, and Germany has shown us the way with extended producer responsibility for construction and demolition waste.
Indonesia is not the only country to turn back contaminated waste.
FULLY HANDOKO/EPA/AAP
This year’s national conference of the Australian Marine Science Association is a plastic-free zone, as marine scientists aim to reduce the environmental burden of throwaway plastic.
As the population of the world’s cities grows, so too does resource and energy use as well as waste generation. We can combat these issues with a circular economy that uses nature as a template.
The Wheelabrator Waste to Energy Plant in Saugus, Massachusetts, has been burning trash to generate electricity since 1975.
Fletcher6/Wikimedia
Every year the US burns more than 34 million tons of garbage in incinerators. These plants are major pollution sources, and most are clustered in disadvantaged communities.