My early experience growing up in West Africa influenced my desire to promote fair trade principles. I see it as my moral obligation and duty. Through this work, the women and children of my communities can receive the equal opportunities that they rightfully deserve. That is why my fair-trade beauty company, Alaffia, exists today. From a young age, I’ve carried […]
Humans create a lot of waste, but when you throw something away, how much do you know about where it goes or how it’s handled? This article is the second in a five-part series that explores what happens to the tons of materials we discard. Around half of the garbage generated in the United States ends up in the landfill […]
A few simple mental habits such as knowing how to quickly pick the foods with the least carbon impact, can help you make big strides in your personal sustainability. In this Earth911 Quiz, you’ll be presented a set of foods and asked to order them by their CO2 emissions, from most CO2 to least. We’re using the BBC’s annual estimates […]
We’ve heard of life hacks. How about a hack for making a difference? Make one small tweak to something you do every day — searching the internet — and you can help protect the earth’s ecosystems and provide assistance to those in need. All you have to do is use a different search engine. Surprised? You’re in good company. Most […]
Tom Jeffries and Tom Kelleher met at Rutgers University in the 1970s while studying industrially useful microbes. Jeffries went on to run a yeast genomics program at the U.S. Department of Agriculture; Kelleher spent decades in the biomedical industry, working with biologics like insulin, which are produced by genetically modified microbes in giant, fermenting vats. In 2007, the two reunited […]
When I was a little girl, I liked to spend the night with my grandmother. Her apartment, like ours, was railroad style, consisting of five rooms lined up with one leading into the next. In the middle was the little room where I slept. The only thing I didn’t like about that room: it smelled of the mothballs my grandmother […]
Braces, expanders, headgear, retainers, and eventually, dentures. Over a lifetime, that’s lots of metal, plastic, and even precious metals and hazardous materials in our mouths. Except for the occasional broken retainer, most of our dental appliances are removed at the clinic. Where do they all go? Hazardous Waste Unfortunately, most of what lives in our mouths is worse than garbage […]
Beijing met state air quality standards for the first time in 2021, though it still faces high levels of pollution as it prepares to host the 2022 Winter Olympics. “The improvements are real … and happening across the industrial belt surrounding Beijing, as well as in much of the rest of the country,” Lauri Myllyvirta, lead analyst at the Center […]
Synthetic fragrance is added to products ranging from laundry detergent, household cleaners, and air fresheners to personal care products that come in contact with your skin and hair. Whether you’re bothered by a fragrance sensitivity or you just don’t want to announce your presence to everyone’s nose, you can find sustainable brands that carry fragrance-free personal care products. On average, […]
Watching butterflies and birds or spotting a rabbit contribute as much to enjoyment of the summer garden as the plants themselves. When winter comes, we often forget about the garden and the wildlife that loves it. But while we are cozy indoors, the animals we enjoyed watching all summer are still out there trying to survive. How can you make […]