The constant stream of new models, products and processes that are helping organizations extend the useful life of resources and materials while reducing, repurposing and ultimately eliminating waste in all its forms
With approximately 9 billion people in the world today, society consumes and discards more and more each year, with no signs of slowing down. Culturally, we’ve begun to embrace and adopt recycling as a solution to our modern waste habits and an opportunity to keep designing, using and producing recyclable materials. But what if those recyclable materials are not in fact being recycled? Well, then we’re right back where we started, aren’t we?
Organic matter produced during brewing and coffee roasting processes is becoming a farming and gardening staple as an effective, low-cost alternative to commercial fertilizer and feed for a growing contingent of farmers and gardeners in Maine, according to the Bangor Daily News.As more of the state’s ubiquitous microbreweries are finding ways to make their operations more sustainable, they’ve realized repurposing their spent grains as fertilizers eliminates waste, while simultaneously benefitting local farms and gardens.
The Eco Laundry Company, the world’s first certified B Corp dry cleaner and laundry service franchise, has announced a strategic partnership with famed denim heavyweight G-Star RAW. As part of the partnership, The Eco Laundry Company will offer free dry cleaning for life for any piece of clothing from G-Star’s RAW for the Oceans collection, a clothing line curated by Pharrell Williams and made with fabric spun from recycled ocean plastic.
As concerns over bulging landfills abound, a diverse and growing group of innovators across the country are looking for new ways to transform trash into something less wasteful.The Minnesota Twins and Eco-Products, for example, recently partnered to reduce the waste generated at Target Field through a new effort to divert fans' trash from the landfill by turning it into fertile soil.Eco-Products, which makes single use foodservice products made from renewable and recycled resources, is supplying hundreds of thousands of compostable cups, plates, trays, utensils and straws at Target Field. Virtually all packaging used at Target Field will be either compostable or recyclable, the company says.
"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete." ~Buckminster FullerSeems the hippies and the father of the geodesic dome were on to something sustainable in the 1960s when they modeled shared living spaces and bartered goods. Turns out those behaviors truly are easier on the planet and better for the soul.
Nearly 15 years ago, John Fullerton left a two-decade career at JP Morgan in pursuit of meaning. Fullerton was disillusioned with the direction of mainstream finance; he saw a once principled culture yielding to the ferocious competition in deregulated capital markets, where economic brawn increasingly trumped civility.In his search for a new path, Fullerton soon discovered the profundity of interrelated ecological, economic and social crises afflicting the world. His most startling realization, he writes, “was that the modern scheme of economics and finance — what Wall Street ‘geniuses’ (like me) practiced so well — formed the root cause of these systemic crises.”
Facebook announced new benefits for its contract workers this week; the company will require contractors to pay employees a $15 minimum wage and provide benefits, including 15 paid days off and $4,000 paid parental leave.“Taking these steps is the right thing to do for our business and our community,” COO Sheryl Sandberg wrote in the post.Facebook’s decision is indicative of two important trends affecting the modern workplace: the proliferation of the 1099 economy and the growing pressure on companies to better compensate contractors.
According to Communicating the Circle: Are circular economy communication strategies starting to connect? — a white paper published by Go Circular — a majority of circular economy professionals (61 percent) believe corporate circular economy communication strategies would benefit from such a definition.
Nestlé is investing in technology to help reduce the amount of water it uses in California at the five water bottling plants and four facilities where food or petcare products are manufactured.Work is underway to transform the Nestlé milk factory in the city of Modesto into a ‘zero water’ factory, meaning the plant will not use any local freshwater resources for its operations.The project is expected to save nearly 63 million gallons of water each year, equivalent to 71 percent of absolute withdrawals in 2014. Around $7 million has been invested in the project, which is due to be completed by the end of 2016, the company says.
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation and Granta Design have launched new indicators which, for the first time, enable companies to assess how well a product or company performs in the context of a circular economy. The new Circularity Indicators measure the extent to which the material flows of a product or company are restorative. In doing so, they will enable companies to measure their progress in making the transition from linear to circular models, and to identify areas of further opportunity.
Food wasted by consumers is an enormous economic problem and countries should ensure excess food is given to the hungry instead of being thrown away, according to agriculture ministers from the Group of 20 leading countries, as reported by Reuters.The ministers were meeting for a two-day meeting in Istanbul that focused on problems of food security and nutrition, such as the impact of global warming. Reducing food waste could improve food security, the they concluded.
Three Purdue students and a graduate have launched a startup called Atlas Energy Systems, that has found a way to turn nuclear waste into its own source of energy, according to The Purdue Exponent. The project that started in an apartment as a prototype held together with Scotch tape has gone on to win the Indiana Clean Energy Challenge.
A recent report commissioned by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) estimates the ocean’s value at $24 trillion, making it the world’s seventh-largest economy. The annual “goods and services” it provides, such as food, rounds out to about $2.5 trillion, a value that the report warns is at risk due to overfishing, pollution and climate change.
Just in time for graduation season, REPREVE recycled fibers will be used in Oak Hall graduation gowns at more than 1,100 colleges and universities across the country. Since the introduction of REPREVE, nearly 60 million plastic bottles have been recycled into Oak Hall GreenWeaver gowns worn by more than 2.2 million students, the brand says. REPREVE is made from recycled materials, including plastic bottles, and each graduation gown is made from around 27 bottles. During the spring 2015 graduation season alone, more than 300,000 students around the nation will graduate wearing Oak Hall REPREVE-based gowns, using more than 8 million recycled plastic bottles. Participating schools include Duke, Yale, University of Alabama and Notre Dame, to name a few.
Disneyland Resort has been recognized by the EPA with the 2014 Food Recovery Challenge Award, for its zero-waste efforts and the highest percent increase in food recovery of any theme park in the nation.In 2012, Americans threw away nearly 35 million tons of food — more than any other type of material being put in landfills. As wasted food decomposes in a landfill, it generates methane, a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that wasted food costs America more than $165 billion annually and that the average family of four throws away $1,600 worth of food each year.
Preserve, producer of sustainable consumer goods with a focus on creating closed loop products using recycled plastic, today announced the launch of Preserve 2 Go — a durable, reusable clamshell container designed for use in food services.Developed to “transform the takeout food experience and to provide an avenue for a more sustainable, eco-friendly system”, Preserve 2 Go could help eliminate the unnecessary waste of millions of disposable to-go containers.
Spring cleaning this year just got a little easier: On Saturday, May 2nd, donating old clothes will be a breeze thanks to a partnership between Goodwill and Uber. Donors can open the Uber app on Saturday, select the GIVE option at the bottom of the screen and request a pickup for their donations to be delivered directly to their local Goodwill, free of charge.
To coincide with Earth Day, the New York City Council, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Alliance for Climate Education (ACE) and Global Kids held a joint press conference this morning on the steps of New York City Hall to push for statewide climate education for K-12 schools in New York. Resolution 0375-2014 calls for climate education to be included in the New York State school curriculum and it currently has 21 of the 26 needed sponsors to pass.
In honor of Earth Day this week, both Brad Pitt and Sheryl Crow are using their star power to back initiatives aimed at helping responsibly build affordable housing for those in need, while bringing awareness to the importance of textile recycling.First, Pitt’s non-profit, Make It Right — which builds sustainable, affordable homes, buildings and communities for people in need — kicked off a partnership with American Eagle Outfitters to recycle used and unwanted denim into building materials for affordable homes.
Upwards of 100 million tons of plastic are manufactured annually across the globe. That’s 200 billion pounds of new material on-market every year, ready to be thermoformed, laminated, foamed and extruded into billions of products and packages. In the past decades it has been widely adopted by industry, and plastic has become one of the most ubiquitous and versatile materials in the world – and, subsequently, one of the most difficult to reliably collect and recycle.