We May Soon Be Able to Power Our Smartphones With Single-Use Plastic Bags

The Sustainable City, an eco-friendly housing development in Dubai, has installed a new electronic waste (e-waste) collection point in the community. The 24-hour e-waste drop-off station is built by Efate, an Emirati company involved in electronic and electrical waste management. Residents and the public can drop their used electronics at this station, where they will be collected and taken to a recycling facility and separated. Electronics in working condition will be donated to charity. Efate says it will also attempt to refurbish and repair items whenever possible and hand them out for free to those in need. After disassembly, useful components that contain vital raw materials are reused in manufacturing new products while unserviceable parts are crushed without causing any harmful emissions, it adds.

UK-based fintech company Twig has launched a free banking app that allows users to trade their things for instant cash. By doing so, the company aims to contribute to the circular economy and ensure that items don’t make it to landfill. The process is fairly simple. All customers need to do is install the app and upload their unwanted possessions. Twig’s AI-powered algorithm then proceeds to calculate how much the things are worth. As soon as users accept the offer, they can cash out their items. The process aims to reduce the uncertainty, waiting, and irritation that is normally associated with selling unwanted items. 

This project-based course will explore the connection between environmental conservation and poverty reduction. Learn how to develop entrepreneurial solutions for challenges where the environment and livelihoods are sometimes at odds — like deforestation, overfishing, waste management, and agriculture.  Readings, case studies and expert insights from Mark Tercek, CEO of The Nature Conservancy; Vien Truong, CEO of Green for All; and Michael Kobori, Vice President of Sustainability for Levi Strauss & Co. will guide you as you generate solutions to an environmental challenge of your choosing.

It seemed like a good idea at the time. In the early 1970s, a group of fishermen organized a campaign to dump 2 million used auto tires into the Atlantic Ocean, about a mile off the coast of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., between two living coral reefs.  The goal was to build an artificial reef that would promote sea life. But it had the opposite effect: The mass of tires became an underwater blight.  William Nuckols, with Coastal America, the federal office that is helping coordinate a cleanup of the tires, says the original goal was a good one.  “The original intention,” Nuckols says, “was to try to provide a fish habitat and add to the natural coral reefs that were there.”