Circularity
Understanding the value of a circular economy and identifying circular solutions are essential to changing our world for good. Circularity, or the zero-waste principle of keeping materials in a closed loop and away from landfills and incinerators, is the future. Find out about the latest innovations and solutions accelerating the transition towards a circular economy in the articles here from The Optimist Daily.
This sustainable solar panel can go on buildings or your clothes
When you see the new sunlight-absorbing material developed by Carvey Ehren Maigue, an engineering student from the Philippines, the colors might remind you of the Aurora Borealis. In fact, Auroras were what inspired Maigue when he named his new game-changing material, AuREUS. This is a new Read More...
100 percent renewable energy could prevent natural disaster blackouts
With storms growing in intensity the world over, such as Storm Eunice in Europe, solutions for enduring extreme weather are greater than ever. Adapting energy grids is particularly important to avoid blackouts. Recent research shows, fortunately, that switching entirely to renewable energy Read More...
These refugee-owned businesses are flourishing
Contrary to popular belief, refugees actually benefit their host nation’s economies according to a study compiled from 30 years of data. Refugee-founded businesses have an enormous potential to invigorate economies, increase job opportunities, and reduce public spending. The Entrepreneurial Read More...
UK man has a plan to reduce glass waste
Lately, and for obvious reasons, there’s been a lot of attention on figuring out what to do with all the plastic clogging up our oceans and waterways. While solving this problem is obviously important, the plastic issue also highlights an overarching problem, not necessarily with hard-to-recycle Read More...
Female-led start-up Novoloop figures out how to upcycle plastic waste
A new, female-led US-based start-up, Novoloop, has an exciting announcement— they’ve come up with an effective solution to problematic polyethylene (aka the regular everyday plastic that’s polluting our planet). Scientists and Novoloop founders Jeanny Yao and Miranda Wang have been working Read More...
UK households get paid to curb daily energy use
Households in the UK could soon be paid to curb their electricity usage for a certain time of day (during peak usage hours) under a new scheme to help reduce energy bills while pushing for a zero-carbon power supply system. Starting in this past week, the trial for this plan, led by Octopus Read More...
This is how old batteries could help plants grow
Properly recycling our used batteries is key to preventing toxic waste from polluting the environment. With that said, recycling rates in Australia are quite discouraging, with about 97 percent of alkaline batteries ending up in landfills. A company called Envirostream wants to change that by Read More...
Precision fermentation: The food evolution to watch
Providing our readers with planet-saving tips and products is something we're passionate about at The Optimist Daily. With climate change lingering over humanity's head, people want to make changes in their everyday lives to slow this process as much as possible. This was apparent by the boost in Read More...
This tasty blue soda has no food coloring and captures CO2
We’ve previously talked about the benefits of spirulina. Considered a superfood, blue-green algae have been touted for its high nutritional value. And although it has become popular as a supplement among wellness-focused people, the algae still hasn’t reached mainstream adoption. That may Read More...
Reusable pallets make the UK construction industry greener
Wasted wooden pallets are a huge problem in construction. In the UK alone, the construction industry goes through 18 million wooden pallets every year (the production of which requires a total of 6,000 acres of forestry), and most of them are used only once! At a time when it’s becoming Read More...