Good News Notes: “Whitten Family Farm in Winthrop is launching a food waste collection service for anyone generating food scraps in Potsdam, Massena, Winthrop and Brasher Falls. The food scraps will be converted to compost at their farm, providing a resource for local growers while stimulating the community. “We provide buckets and bins to residents,…
Tag: methane
Cutting animal agriculture buys time to get off fossil fuels: study
Good News Notes: “Eliminating animal agriculture over the next 15 years would effectively stop global warming in its tracks – largely halting the increase of greenhouse gases for the next 30 years, according to a recent study in PLOS Climate. The largest contributor to that decrease in heating would be a massive expansion in prairie, forest and…
Climate Change Improvements from Eating Less Meat
Good News Notes: “Not everyone needs to be a vegan to help combat climate change, but reducing meat consumption is both good for the planet and good for individual health, according to two national/international groups creating awareness of climate change impacts related to food consumption, as well as advocating for fair treatment of animals. Animal…
Pratt students create compostable Strøm water filters from food waste
Good News Notes: “Pratt Institute graduate students Charlotte Böhning and Mary Lempres have designed a collection of carbon water filters made completely without fossil fuels, using waste from their own kitchens. The four-piece range, called Strøm, includes a sustainable substitute for Brita filter cartridges, purifying sticks that can be added into cups or bottles and a self-cleaning pitcher and carafe. Traditional…
Israeli start-up devises way to convert used nappies into green plastics
Good News Notes: “UBQ Materials is researching a way for turning common household waste into sustainable plastics. The Tel Aviv based start-up is set on developing a material out of the likes of paper, mixed plastics, food residue and dirty diapers that could serve as a substitute to conventional plastic, wood and concrete. This material…
Nonprofit FoodCycle LA makes sure excess donated food does not go to waste, using ChowMatch app to route food to those who need it
Good News Notes: “Food insecurity exploded during the pandemic. Many who had never been to a food bank, suddenly couldn’t survive without one. So then why is 40% of the food we produce just dumped in the trash? “Back last March, both husband and wife lost their job on the same day. And they were…
This start-up has developed a way for businesses to quickly compost food waste
Good News Notes: “When food waste goes to landfill it releases methane, a greenhouse gas more potent than carbon dioxide. One way to make sure your leftovers aren’t left to rot like this is to put them to use by turning them into compost. Properly composting food waste can significantlyreduce the amount of methane it…
We found methane-eating bacteria living in a common Australian tree. It could be a game changer for curbing greenhouse gases
Good News Notes: “Trees are the Earth’s lungs – it’s well understood they drawdown and lock up vast amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But emerging research is showing trees can also emit methane, and it’s currently unknown just how much. This could be a major problem, given methane is a greenhouse gas about…
New catalyst converts methane into methanol at room temperature
Good News Notes: “Methanol has wide-ranging potential as a cleaner fuel for powering advanced automobiles or producing plastic materials or other chemicals, and recently we’re seeing how the production side of things could prove a boon for the environment, too. Scientists at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) have now found a catalyst that allows the methane in natural…
How America’s least sustainable city learned to love recycling
Good News Notes: “From Arlo Guthrie, who wrote a seven-minute song about taking out the garbage, to Shel Silverstein’s Sarah Sylvia Cynthia Stout, who drowned in her own garbage, our society has long struggled with the excesses of its own existence. Today, Americans hold the title of biggest trash producers in the world, at 6.5…