Meet Mr Trash Wheel – and the other new devices that eat river plastic

Good News Notes: “The Great Bubble Barrier is just that – a wall of bubbles. It gurgles across the water in a diagonal screen, pushing plastic to one side while allowing fish and other wildlife to pass unharmed. The technology, created by a Dutch firm and already being used in Amsterdam, is being trialled in the Douro…

How to fight microplastic pollution with magnets

Good News Notes: “As a child, Fionn Ferreira spent hours exploring the coastline near his hometown of Ballydehob in south-west Ireland. But the more time he spent on the sheltered, shingle-strewn coves nearby, he grew increasingly shocked by the large amounts of plastic litter he found strewn across the beach and in the sea. “It…

Crisis averted after woman finds thousands of plastic balls in Lake Tahoe

Good News Notes: “An environmental crisis was narrowly averted after a woman found thousands of tiny polystyrene balls covering a beach on Tahoe’s north shore. Alison Toy, the education program manager for UC Davis’ Tahoe Environmental Research Center, was on a walk on Moon Dune beach when she came across the little white balls coating…

Goldman Environmental Prize Winner Inspired By Plastic-Bag-Eating Goats

Good News Notes: “For Gloria Majiga-Kamoto, her great awakening to plastic pollution started with goats. She was working for a local environmental nongovernmental organization in her native Malawi with a program that gave goats to rural farmers. The farmers would use the goats’ dung to produce low-cost, high-quality organic fertilizer. The problem? The thin plastic…

A Clever Robot Spies on Creatures in the Ocean’s ‘Twilight Zone’

Good News Notes: “THE GRANDEST MIGRATION on Earth isn’t the journey of some herbivore in Africa or a bird in the sky, but the vertical movement of whole ecosystems in the open ocean. All kinds of animals, from fish to crustaceans, hang out in the depths during the day, where the darkness provides protection from predators. At night, they…

Cameroon environmentalists tackle plastic pollution in Wouri River

Good News Notes: “Scientists estimate that four million tonnes of waste end up in the world’s oceans annually. The increase in plastic pollution can be linked to poor waste management. In an effort to solve the problem in Cameroon, the association Matanda Ecotour, or Friends of the Mangrove, has been collecting waste on the River Wouri. So far, the group…

Healthy Diet May Lower Relapse Risk After 1st Myelin Attack Signaling MS

Good News Notes: “A ‘prudent’ diet rich in fresh fruit, non-fried fish, whole grains, vegetables, and nuts may lower the likelihood of a relapse in people with a first demyelinating event, a major risk factor for multiple sclerosis (MS), a study in Australia suggests. While the researchers did not find a strong link between such a…