Tag sustainability

Image: Glass Half Full co-founders Fran and Max posing in front of blue barrels filled with wine bottles that will be crushed back into sand.

The Company Crushing Your Wine Bottles to Save Louisiana’s Coastline

Step one: get the glass. Step two: smash the glass. Step three: sort the glass. Step four: save the planet. An idea that began in a college dorm room with a bottle of wine has grown into a massive startup that is saving us from the world's sand shortage and saving Louisiana's shrinking coast. Here's how Glass Half Full is doing it.

Image: The couple who went a full year without buying groceries

No Groceries For a Year: One Couple’s Homegrown Journey

Could you go an entire year without going to the grocery store? Would you know the first thing about when to plant your tomatoes? What about raising your own livestock? Or foraging in your backyard? For most of us, living off the land would feel like a near impossibility, but for one Canadian couple, their inexperience became a source of inspiration. Their goal: go an entire year without buying anything from the grocery store.

Image: Coffee in a mug from the zero waste cafe, the foam swirled to look like a smiling face.

Zero Waste Cafes Offer the Pick-Me-Up We Need Right Now

Can’t survive without your morning coffee? From farm to cup, here are companies that are filtering the waste out of our coffee obsession, and making it easy to enjoy some java without hurting the environment.

Image: Three bins in a row, a green bin labeled compost, a red bin labeled waste, and a yellow bin labeled recycle

Want to Reduce your Waste? Here’s a Guide to Get You Started

If you’ve ever stood in front of an array of waste bins at the airport holding your empty coffee cup wondering “Is this garbage? Is this recycling? What do I do with this stuff?” and you desperately wanted to do the right thing but didn’t know what to do, this is the article for you. We’re going to break down what’s waste, what’s not, and what we can do to make waste a thing of the past.

Image: A person barbecuing in their backyard using fruit pulp logs.

Leftovers to Logs: Fruit Pulp Could Be the Fuel of the Future

There is a secret second life hiding out within almost every substance on earth, but today we’re zeroing in on an innovative way that one Argentinian couple is transforming fruit pulp. Want to know what they’re turning it into? We’ll give you a hint... it can warm your belly, your home, and your soul.

5 min read

Image: Mr. Trash Wheel on the Baltimore River at night, lit up by purple lights with the Baltimore skyline in the background.

Fixing Pollution Through Fun! How a Googly-Eyed Innovation is Cleaning Baltimore Harbor

With googly eyes and a beloved twitter account, Mr. Trash Wheel has become an icon in Baltimore Harbor. His story is helping us rethink the important role fun has in tackling some of the biggest problems we face!

Image: Golden Retriever laying on her back and smiling up at the camera.

Can You Compost Dog Poop? Reducing Your Dog’s Environmental Paw-Print

Every day, millions of little bags filled with dog waste make their way into landfills, releasing methane into the atmosphere and potentially harming our waterways. But a new program in NYC is turning this problem into a solution with the power of compost!

5 min read

100 Years of Recycling Clothing: Introducing Italy’s Textile Town

Don’t toss that old tee shirt! We’re traveling to the “Textile Town” in Italy where they’re recycling fabric to give new life to your old duds, and threading the needle to a brighter, more sustainable future.

5 min read

Image: A woman laughing, behind her are recycled clothes in a mall storefront.

Reduce, Reuse, ReTuna! The Swedish Mall Selling Only Recycled Goods

When you think of the mall you probably don’t think of it as a hub for environmental innovation. But in Sweden, one mall is taking the old and making it new again, combining a revolutionary recycling center with a reused, restored shopping experience.