no but genuinely I lose a little more patience for people who won't wear wool, leather, silk, or fur every day that I live in a world where plastic is increasingly the only damn kind of clothing you can find (or the only kind of fabric for sewing, even)
obviously, animal cruelty is horrible. I believe that even industries that rely on the deaths of animals should make their lives as good and their ends as humane as possible. and many of these industries need tighter environmental regulations on their production practices- some of the chemicals involved are highly toxic and ill-controlled at times
but at some point, you have to wake up to the fact that the only alternative we've found to date is destroying our planet
it's all plastic. and plastic is horrible for the world- the environment, humans, and especially animals. how cruelty-free is it to cause mass habitat loss? or climate change that disrupts food sources for those animals on a vast scale? how is that better than the deaths of a relatively small proportion of animals comparatively?
(and don't even start with "but pineapple leather! but cactus leather!" when those are still basically plastic due to heavy plastics use in their production processes. there is currently no non-plastic alternative to most animal-based textile products)
I've always tried to keep in mind that we all have to decide where our line is, that we all consume and there's no way of living in this world that doesn't take something from it. that for me, plastic clothing is to be avoided as much as possible, and for others, animal clothing products are to be avoided as much as possible. that the choice is equally valid
but I'm having a hard time seeing it as valid anymore when it just feels like trying to push the unpleasant part away from yourself so you can pretend your choice has no negative impacts. you're not wearing animal skin (or wool that an animal didn't even die to produce), so surely your way of doing things is better! no animals were harmed in the making of your outfit!
A new study found that people are more eager to recycle when offered a chance to win a large sum prize, instead of a guaranteed 10 cents. An
"In a new study, University of British Columbia researchers set out to answer the following question: Would you rather have 10 cents in your pocket or a 1-in-10,000 shot at $1,000?
Their findings indicate that they may have figured out a way to get people to recycle more.
The researchers, whose work was just published in the journal “Waste Management,” tested the idea of offering people who return used bottles a small chance to win a big cash prize, instead of the standard 5- or 10-cent deposit earnings.
The result? Participants recycled 47% more bottles for the chance at a $1,000 prize.
“This small change in how we reward recycling made a big difference. People were more excited, more engaged, and they brought in more bottles,” Dr. Jiaying Zhao, associate professor in the department of psychology and senior author of the study, said in a statement for the university.
“It turns out that the thrill of possibly winning a big prize is more motivating than a small guaranteed reward. It’s the same reason people buy lottery tickets; That tiny chance of a big win is exciting.”
The researchers ran three experiments in British Columbia and Alberta, where bottle deposit systems already exist. Despite the fact that these deposit stations give people a small refund when they return their recyclables, many bottles still end up in the trash.
In the first two experiments, people could choose between a guaranteed 10-cent refund or a chance to win a larger amount, ranging from $1 to $1,000. Even though the odds of winning were low, many people chose the lottery-style offer.
In the third experiment, participants were randomly assigned to either the guaranteed refund or the lottery-style refund. Those given the lottery-style option brought in almost three bottles for every two returned by the control group.
The researchers found that people even felt happier when they had a shot at the big prize, even if they didn’t actually win — a feeling called “anticipatory happiness” — that made the act of recycling more enjoyable.
All of this is modeled after an existing scheme in Norway.
“Norway is the only country in the world that has a similar recycling lottery, and their bottle return rate is close to 100%,” Dr. Zhao said. “The probabilistic refund could be their secret sauce. We hope Canada can adopt this innovative idea as well.”
In Norway, the bottle recycling lottery was implemented over a decade ago, and now, approximately 97% of all plastic beverage containers are returned across the country.
Here, the model is choice-driven, giving people the option to choose between the guaranteed refund or the chance to win anywhere from 5 to 100,000 euros.
“The system also doesn’t encourage gambling,” Fast Company reported, “because there’s no way to enter with cash, and there are no ‘near misses’ like with other kinds of gambling.”
Norway has also implemented a program where some of the lottery’s proceeds go to the Norwegian Red Cross.
“Instead of 10 cents back to you, what if the proceeds go to a food bank or charity?” Dr. Zhao asked Fast Company. This is also part of her team’s research, with results soon to be published.
It’s important to note that the lottery-style refund wouldn’t cost more than the traditional system, with both options sharing the same average payout. Cities could adopt this approach without spending an extra dime.
Additionally, Dr. Zhao mentioned that it’s important for cities to consider the choice-based model, giving people the option to get the regular 5- or 10-cent returns, alongside the new lottery initiative, to help canners and binners who rely on this kind of income.
“We don’t want to take the short gain option away,” she told Fast Company. “Instead, we want to give people the option to choose.”
Aside from the valuable psychological insights of the study, Dr. Zhao and her colleagues are optimistic about a future in which more people are engaged in recycling.
“Creating new bottles comes with a lot of carbon emissions, and not recycling bottles also comes with a lot of pollution,” Jade Radke, a lead author on the study, said. “So it can be a meaningful way to decrease all of those things.”
According to the UBC press release, if this approach is widely adopted, it could help recycle millions more bottles and reduce greenhouse gas emissions equal to taking one million cars off the road each year."
With 25 million kilos of plastic removed in 2025 alone, The Ocean Cleanup is scaling up efforts to tackle plastic pollution from rivers to o
From the article:
In a world where the scale of plastic pollution can feel overwhelming, 2025 brought a milestone worth celebrating: The Ocean Cleanup, a Dutch nonprofit dedicated to removing plastic from marine environments, pulled more than 25 million kilograms of waste from global waters last year alone. That’s over 55 million pounds or about 2,000 garbage trucks’ worth of plastic that is no longer drifting through our oceans.
The achievement brings their cumulative haul to more than 45 million kilos (99 million pounds) since operations began.
In addition to removing huge amounts of plastic waste from the ocean, Ocean Cleanup is also now focusing on devices to collect plastic trash from rivers.
A recent analysis by Ocean Cleanup found that 80% of ocean plastic comes from just 1,000 (1%) of rivers. Stopping plastic at the source so it never even gets to the ocean is significantly easier and cheaper--especially when there are a relatively small number of rivers to focus on for the biggest impact.
Ocean Cleanup has an ambitious goal to remove 90% of floating ocean plastic by 2040 through a combination of prevention and direct removal.
Did you know? Did you know that this is naturally occurring creature called Cirnicus Fumicus. Normally it's a hostile creature but non-dangerous. In this state, as you can see, the creature is harmless due to imprisonment inside a plastic bottle. This is because the Scarlet Mansion has been producing large quantities of plastic waste. Some creatures are dumb and they can get stuck inside it. But they don't mind.
Globally, an estimated eight million tons of spent coffee grounds are discarded annually, mostly ending up in landfills.
A new technology utilizing coffee and plastic waste is designed to capture carbon dioxide from industrial processes before it’s released into the atmosphere, and has been patented by scientists.
The highly novel and detailed method with promising potential to reduce environmental pollution utilizes a blend of spent coffee grounds, polyethylene terephthalate, (PET) and potassium hydroxide, a strong alkaline chemical.
The components together form an effective material for CO₂ adsorption, say the research team based in the United Arab Emirates.
Globally, an estimated eight million tons of spent coffee grounds are discarded annually, mostly ending up in landfills where they emit methane and other greenhouse gases. PET is a member of the polyester family and widely used in consumer packaging.
Potassium hydroxide serves as a powerful activating agent in the process, enhancing the material’s ability to trap carbon, and the researchers at the University of Sharjah combine the three to create activated carbon—a common component in many consumer and industrial products, which when used would trap the carbon.
“What begins with a Starbucks coffee cup and a discarded plastic water bottle can become a powerful tool in the fight against climate change through the production of activated carbon,” boasted study leader Dr. Haif Aljomard.
She says the process operates at an activation temperature of 600 °C, much lower than conventional thermal recycling methods for plastic, and emphasized that the patent presents “significant” findings in the synthesis of activated carbon from waste materials, and the waste-to-resource approach that underpins the technology.
“This invention repurposes two abundant waste streams—coffee and plastic—into a high-performance adsorbent,” Dr. Aljomard added. “The resulting activated carbon shows strong potential for capturing CO₂ from fossil fuel-based energy systems, contributing to the reduction of air pollution.”
Activated carbon is utilized in a broad spectrum of industrial and consumer product, including gas purification and drinking water filtration, as well as swimming pool, aquarium, wastewater, and sewage treatment systems.
🍲🚮♻️ “Garbage cafes” across India are tackling plastic waste and hunger! In these cafes springing up around the country thanks to a larger sanitation initiative, people can collect and donate plastic litter in exchange for a hot meal. For many, the cafes mean the difference between food and an empty stomach, and they have already had an impact on the amount of plastic waste going to landfill – in one city, landfill-bound plastic waste fell from 5.4 tons per year in 2019 to just two tons per year in 2024!
Garbage cafes are springing up across India. The BBC visits the city of Ambikapur to find out how much impact they can really have on plasti
you know how flour companies during the great depression started printing the burlap sacks with pretty fabric patterns so the broke women making clothes for their children by reusing those sacks could make something that didn't look like a repurposed flour sack?
i feel like food companies who ship their things out in plastic tubs/containers need to embody this idea and make their tubs microwavable and dishwasherable so us poors can reuse them as other food containers so we don't feel bad when throwing them away because our apartment complexes don't recycle
