Despite environmental education topics in curricula, not all children are aware of the elements that endanger the planet or actively involved in taking care of the environment.
Packaging for consumer products represents a large share of U.S. solid waste, and barely half of it is recycled.
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Maine and Oregon have enacted laws that require makers of consumer product packaging to pay for recycling or disposing of it. Will other states follow?
The environmental footprint of reusable containers may not be as light as we think.
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Reusable containers may have to be reused many times to offset their negative environmental impacts - improving recycling infrastructure could be the answer.
Plastic pollution is one of the defining problems of our century.
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Construction and demolition creates more waste than any other sector, but much of it can be recycled. However, public resistance to setting up new plants stands in the way of a sustainable market.
A Chevron oil refinery in Richmond, California.
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New research found lots of incentives to chuck out working solar panels and replace them with new ones. This may be creating huge amounts of unnecessary waste.
Consumer decisions could play a critical role in dealing with climate change. A study gauging perceptions was published May 13, 2021.
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Lucca Henrion, University of Michigan; Joe Árvai, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences; Lauren Lutzke, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, and Volker Sick, University of Michigan
A large-scale survey asked people exactly that. One use of recycled carbon dioxide stood out.
Waste reclaimers do a far more effective job of collecting waste for recycling in Johannesburg.
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Waste reclaimers save South African municipalities up to R748 million a year in landfill space. Without them, the country’s recycling economy would not exist.
From larger-than-life Lego blocks to bird-nest inspired structures, researchers are finding innovative ways to reuse and recycle the plastic we throw away.
Mountains of plastic.
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Some plastic sent overseas for recycling ends up as pollution, or goes up in toxic smoke. But there are steps we can take to ensure our waste is processed as intended.
The pandemic’s supply crunch led to more reuse and decontamination techniques that can save money and reduce waste.
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