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

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  • Public Shaming and Even Prison for Plastic Bag Use in Rwanda

    Plastic bag litter is a serious problem across Africa and around the world, choking waterways, killing livestock and wildlife when ingested, and causing environmental damage. Rwanda is one of the few nations in the world to completely ban single-use plastic bags, but they take enforcement of the ban to a sometimes controversial extreme, with punishments that can even include jail time. The measures do appear to be working, however, where the clean streets and countrysides of Rwanda stand in stark contrast to the heavily-littered land of neighboring countries.

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  • Abandoned at Burning Man, bicycles now head for Houston and the Caribbean

    Many argue that the Burning Man festival has become an exclusive and wasteful indulgence for the wealthy - an opinion that was exacerbated this year when thousands of perfectly good bicycles were left among the debris in the desert. But a few enterprising individuals and organizations saw an opportunity to aid the victims of hurricanes Irma and Maria by rescuing, fixing, and transporting the abandoned bikes to communities where many people had lost all other forms of transportation, stifling their recovery efforts. Now hope is being restored for some, two wheels at a time.

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  • Cameroon cleanup lets flood-hit residents sleep with "both eyes closed"

    The neighborhood of Nkolbikok in Cameroon was facing a trash collection problem. With garbage accumulating regularly in the streets, water drains were being blocked causing severe flooding when it would rain. To help reduce the likelihood of flooding, community members started Tam Tam Mobile, a resident-run daily trash pickup and removal service.

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  • Wasted Bread Is Being Brewed Into Craft Beer

    To the two social entrepreneurs who founded nonprofit Feedback, the massive amounts of food waste being tossed into landfills in the UK and USA each year was a mounting challenge that required a creative solution. So they founded Toast Ale, a craft brewing company that not only reduced food waste by using unwanted bread from bakeries to brew their ales, but helps bring awareness to the issue through the brand, which is growing in popularity.

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  • ‘Upcycling' Ocean Plastic Trash Comes into Fashion

    When global oil prices drop, so do incentives to recycle plastic materials, and even more plastic debris and trash ends up collecting in our oceans and ecosystem. An alternative solution in the form of "up-cycling" is helping to combat plastic pollution, as nonprofits and do-gooders who gather beach and ocean trash partner up with companies and retailers to produce desirable products crafted from materials collected out of the oceans.

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  • This N.H. town couldn't ‘bear' it any longer — so it passed an ordinance

    A number of towns across northern New England struggled with furry invaders ripping into trash bins and dumpsters, which not only scattered litter and left a big mess, but increased the risk of dangerous encounters between humans and bears. When educational initiatives and voluntary compliance proved ineffective, Lincoln passed an ordinance requiring residents and businesses to secure their garbage - or face a fine. The bylaws have proven to be the most effective method for deterring the hungry forest critters.

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  • Ghost Gear Busters: Paying Fishers to Collect Derelict Nets, Traps

    "Ghost gear" describes the nets, lines, and other debris lost off the back of commercial fishing boats in staggering amounts each year, and it spells death for hundreds of thousands of marine animals and birds who get tangled in it. Previously, there was little financial incentive to pull this litter back out of the water, but a new public-private partnership called Fishing For Energy is paying fishers to gather up ghost gear and help recycle it, as well as developing new technologies to prevent bycatch and educating communities about the issue.

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  • Conservation Meets Corrections

    There are currently 2.3 million people incarcerated in the United States. According to rainforest ecologist Nalini Nadkarni, that's a lot of brainpower and potential sitting unused. It was this thought that inspired the start of the Sustainability in Prisons Project (SPP). As a collaboration between the Washington State Department of Corrections and The Evergreen State College, SPP aims to bring science and education within the walls of confinement – all while promoting the conservation of both plant and animal species.

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  • How Vienna Conquered Its Own Filth

    With the staggering amounts of garbage produced by modern lifestyles, waste disposal is becoming an increasingly difficult challenge for communities around the world. Vienna has tackled the trouble of trash with an innovative system, channeling the heat from incineration to warm homes and provide hot water, recovering reusable items from the waste stream and selling them in a special shop, and proactively educating the populace about how to reduce waste.

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  • A second life for waste

    Students are paving the path for a more sustainable and environmentally conscious future in Azerbaijan. In a state that doesn't sort its garbage, this group of student-volunteers started "Papillon," a project aimed at up-cycling discarded waste into useful and aesthetic interior decorations and accessories.

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