Initially designed for military and civil security use for emergency lighting, glow sticks have applications as varied as camping lights and night-fishing lures. Yet, you’ll most often see them dangling from the wrists of 7-year-olds at birthday parties or brandished on nightclub dance floors. They’ve become almost synonymous with celebrations like Independence Day, Halloween, and music festivals. But after the […]
Headphones, earbuds, and chargers have become essential accessories for many of us. Because we go through so many of these accessories, they can add up to a lot of e-waste that contains plastic, metal, rubber, magnets, wiring, and chemicals. None of these materials are good for the environment — whether they end up in landfills or as litter. They need […]
Here at Earth911, we’re often asked, “Is shredded paper recyclable?” The answer is, “Yes, but … .” Paper consists of fibers. The longer the fiber, the more valuable the paper is during the recycling process. As paper is recycled over and over, the fibers become shorter and therefore less valuable. Eventually, it must be downcycled into tissue or toilet paper. […]
Recycling helps us reduce waste and reuse valuable resources. By minimizing the need to extract or mine new materials as well as the waste we send to landfills, recycling helps lower greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change. Understanding how the recycling process works and how recycling workers do their jobs can help consumers recycle better — and protect […]
Dan Smythe, vice president of retail and hospitality at EPAM Continuum, an influential technology and business strategy consultancy, discusses the findings of the Consumers Unmasked 2 survey, which examined changing spending habits and sustainability preferences during the pandemic. He reports that people are actively considering companies’ environmental and social impacts when making purchasing decisions. For example, 46% of survey respondents […]
Erin Levine, resource recovery manager at World Centric, a Rohnert Park, Calif.-based manufacturer of 100% compostable tableware and food packaging, joins Mitch Ratcliffe to discuss California’s mandatory composting law, SB 1383. After passage in 2016, the new law, known as the Short-lived Climate Pollutant Reduction Strategy, went into effect on January 1, 2022, after five years of preparation. SB 1383 […]
Rayansh Bhavit is a member of Edison, N.J.-based RecycleMyBattery.org, a youth-led program that has collected 150,000+ batteries for recycling. Rayansh recently contributed an Earth911 article about the organization’s National Battery Day activities to encourage people to recycle batteries on February 18th. He and the 150 kids who’ve participated in RecyleMyBattery have collected more than 150,000 batteries of various sizes, which […]
From an environmental standpoint, the fashion industry is wearing a very bad look. Globally, 40 million tons of textiles are sent to landfills or incinerated every year and the fashion industry is responsible for over 8% of total greenhouse gas emissions. There are a lot of ways to make your wardrobe sustainable, but eventually, you’ll have to dispose of some old […]
Rayansh Bhavit decided to be an environmentalist in the second grade. He started helping run a network of battery recycling drop-boxes that have recovered almost 150,000 batteries since 2019 through RecycleMyBattery.org, a group of more than 150 kids. The Edison, New Jersey, group, which is sponsored by Call2Recycle.org, was founded by Nihal Tammana in 2019. They’ve placed bins in local […]
Recycling isn’t the same as it used to be. A few years ago, China accepted much of the world’s plastic, textile, and paper recycling. But in 2018, China tightened restrictions on what it would accept due to the high level of contaminated material sent by the U.S. Now, it’s time for the United States to take responsibility to recycle these […]