Artwork stating 'Education Destroys Barriers', 'We Demand Treatment', and 'I Need A Chance'

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  • Tackling a notorious waste problem in Africa's largest informal community

    Kibra Green, a grassroots organization in Kenya, mobilizes the young people in the community to clean up their neighborhood. At times, the group has as many as 500 participants for a community-wide clean up. Yet, a lack of steady funding and socioeconomic barriers for volunteers to regularly contribute to the group has made it difficult to scale the organization.

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  • Beach Cleanups Prove Popular And Purposeful During Pandemic

    Since single-use plastic usage has increased since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations in Hawaii are planning beach cleanup events to pick up the plastic waste. Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii’s first beach cleanup event since the start of the pandemic drew 150 registrations in less than a day. 808 Cleanups is growing its adopt-a-site program where households identify a beach, waterway, or trail they’d like to regularly clean up. Coordinating a large number of volunteers while maintaining social distancing guidelines has been difficult to navigate.

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  • Can social enterprise fix Pakistan's waste problem?

    Two organizations in Pakistan are working to tackle the country’s waste problem. Saaf Suthra Sheher in Islamabad set up partnerships with offices and schools to process their dry waste like plastics and glass. TrashIt, a Karachi-based group, collects organic waste from vegetable sellers and restaurants and then processes and sells it as compost. Although the two organizations can only process so much of the waste produced in cities, they argue that until an effective municipal waste collection system is implemented, they can educate individuals and businesses about how to recycle properly.

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  • Chile's greenest town? What Finland can learn from La Pintana

    The Chilean town of La Pintana recycles and reuses everything in a circular economy which repurposes items that otherwise go to waste. La Pintana has reduced carbon emissions by 80 percent and is committed to minimizing waste despite the high costs of the programs.

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  • Tech startups want to reinvent the bulk aisle—grocery's most glorious, affordable, unwieldy section. That's going to be harder than it looks.

    The bulk food aisle in grocery stories - where dry goods are weighed and put in containers that consumers can bring from home - is getting more attention as tech solutions arise to revamp this shopping experience. From SmartBins to MIWA, solutions typically involve using technology to track weight more efficiently and cleanly while generating data on consumer habits. These solutions help consumers save money, have a higher profit margin for companies, and reduce waste in the process.

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  • “Ladies First!”: Women fight against solid waste dumping in this Himachal Pradesh village

    A group of women volunteers, known as the Mahila Mandal, from Sudher in India are fighting against the dumping of garbage in their village and the pollution and potential negative health effects that come with it. Despite daily household and farm work, the group has been pressuring authorities through demonstrations and protests to clean up the solid waste dumping site.

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  • Baltimore Social Enterprises Turn Abandoned Homes into High-End Furniture and So Much More

    In Baltimore, a successful social enterprise collaboration involves employing formerly incarcerated people to deconstruct valuable old wood from abandoned homes, preparing the wood for production, then turning the wood into high-end furniture. The initiative has expanded by working with the U.S. Forest Service to repurpose fallen wood from around the country, and it has already found a new life for wood for at least 90 homes.

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  • Can You Recycle That? An AI Bot Can Let You Know

    Can I Recycle This operates via social media profiles where, on Amazon Alexa and Facebook, the AI bot “Green Girl” tells people what materials can or cannot be recycled, helping avoid contamination of legitimate recyclables. The bot responds to descriptions and pictures with recommendations based on the user’s location. The company also takes questions on Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat, but answers come from staff and interns, not "Green Girl". Being only on social media limits accessibility, particularly for older generations, and the startup has only developed information for 10 cities in its databases.

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  • Renaissance Mill

    After a paper mill in Oregon closed abruptly, a venture capitalist swooped in, bought the place, and reopened it as the first paper mill in the United States to produce paper using wheat pulp. Through a partnership between a pulp plant in Washington state, the Willamette Falls Paper Company is using the leftover material from wheat farmers to turn it into a product that reduces agricultural waste, carbon emissions, and the need to cut down trees.

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  • A Second Life for Flowers

    Horticultural therapy – a mix of art therapy, wellness activity, and a way to reuse viable flowers – is gaining popularity amongst hospitals and nursing homes due to its nature-centric therapeutic benefits. Although medical research is limited, some studies have shown that it can have a positive impact on one's mood and participants have expressed sentiments such as, "It relaxes me. Just holding the flowers takes me away from my situation."

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