Environment
Need some good news about the environment? The Optimist Daily is your go-to herald of positive environmental news, highlighting eco-friendly solutions and scientific progress around climate action, circularity, conservation, and more. Learn about everything eco in our Environment section.
This new fuel cell could revolutionize carbon capture technology
While hydrogen fuel cells have made news lately for their promise to produce clean, efficient energy, there’s a new a fuel cell that’s promising to make headlines. Researchers have created something called the direct carbon fuel cell that generates clean energy using solid carbon sources like Read More...
China's waste import ban has upended the global recycling industry
For years China was the world's top destination for recyclable trash, but a ban on certain imports has left nations scrambling to find new dumping grounds for growing piles of garbage. The decision was announced in July and came into force on January 1, giving companies from Europe to the United Read More...
This supermarket chain is going ‘plastic-free’ on all its own brand products
What we really need to tackle our plastic problem is for companies and governments to stop using plastics altogether when it isn’t necessary. The supermarket chain Iceland is showing that it’s possible to phase out the use of plastics completely after committing to eliminating plastic packaging Read More...
The EU is aiming to make all plastic packaging recyclable by 2030
Europeans produce 25 million tons of plastic waste annually and recycle less than 30 percent of it. This is a wildly unsustainable habit, one that will be targeted under a new policy declared by European Union regulators this week. Under the new policy, all plastic packaging on the EU market must Read More...
We could soon be using carbon emissions to produce plastic
Turning our waste into solutions is vital if we want to keep the planet healthy. A wonderful example of this comes from a group of researchers that have pinpointed the conditions needed to convert CO2 to ethylene, which is used to make most common plastics today. The positive effects of this could Read More...
James Dyson wants to use his vacuum technology to suck garbage from rivers
Dyson vacuum cleaners have been cleaning the floors of homes for years, but now the company’s founder wants to clean something much more important: Pollution-filled rivers. In a recent interview, James Dyson revealed he has sketched a design for a river barge that can harvest some of the waste Read More...
Campaign to make Scotland first plastic straw-free country in EU launches
The Sunday Mail has launched The Last Straw campaign which calls an end to plastic straws which pollute our sea and Read More...
Here’s something you don’t see every day: Snow in the Sahara Desert
On Sunday, snow fell in one of the most unlikely places on Earth. Typically the rolling sand dunes of the Sahara Desert are burning hot, but for a couple hours on Sunday, they were covered in a wonderful blanket of snow. Let’s just hope nobody uses this to ‘prove’ that global warming isn’t Read More...
Your next piece of jewelry could be made of recycled motherboards from Dell
Dell’s trash will soon be your treasure, now that the computing company is partnering with actress Nikki Reed to turn electronic waste into recycled gold jewelry. Known as the new Circular Collection, this jewelry line is made from the gold recovered from Dell computer motherboards, and Read More...
We need to recycle better. This infographic will teach you how to do just that
Just tossing items into the recycling bin and hoping for the best isn’t going to cut it anymore. It’s imperative that we all know what can and cannot be recycled if we want our recycling programs to work better for the environment. The good news is that learning the basics of recycling is quite Read More...