Messy business: Polluted ‘biosolids’ derail recycling of human waste
Recycling always sounds like a good idea unless what you are recycling has become dangerously toxic.
Waste
Why we worship waste
Most of us are taught from childhood that waste is bad. But society actually worships waste as a sign of wealth and power.
The Waste
I’ve found it difficult to find a job that does not produce more waste than goods, that does not contribute to pollution and degradation of our planet, and that does not perpetuate social systems of domination and violence.
Nothing wasted: Industry as an ecosystem
When we learn from the way nutrients are constantly broken down and repurposed in natural systems, we find opportunities for a circular economy everywhere.
Share Catch Chile’s waste reduction bus – how behaviour change, new infrastructure and different business models are cutting waste
This is the story of the potential for a rapid transformation of the waste crisis illustrated by one social enterprise in Chile, and its work to encourage people in communities and in industry to produce less waste and to recycle more.
What a Waste
Why not make the economy circular, with waste from one process feeding into other production processes, thus dramatically reducing the need both for resource extraction and for the dumping of rubbish? We should mimic nature: it’s a central ideal of the ecology movement, with roots in indigenous wisdom worldwide.
Putting Things Back where They Should Be – Managing Waste in Naivasha Town
James Kagwe, who runs a waste management collective called ‘Waste to Best’ in Naivasha Town in Kenya’s Rift Valley. His path has taken him from flower growing to street clean-ups, waste collection and waste management.
The toxic price of convenience
The desire to make our lives maintenance-free often creates unintended environmental and health consequences. Every decision to transfer a maintenance task to a chemical substance only complicates the goal of creating a healthy environment.
The High Cost of an Easy-Care, Low-Maintenance World
By abandoning the duty of maintenance we owe to the objects in our lives, we are distancing ourselves from the physical world and essentially sending the entropy elsewhere for someone else to deal with, whether human or non-human.
The Garbage-loving Environmentalist
In exploring these ideas, Lise tells an accessible and engaging story that you just can’t help but put your hands on.
Efficiency Is Not the Enemy of Resiliency
On a simplistic level, efficiency is maximum (or optimal) output with minimum waste.
Competing Visions of Sustainability: Scarcity or Abundance?
In this essay I explore how assumptions of nature’s Scarcity and Abundance underlie our visions of sustainability, and our prescriptions for action.