How a #Litterati army on Instagram sparked a global fight against litter

Many supermarkets throughout the U.S. have made bulk food shopping available but have failed to take into account the packaging of these foods, which are oftentimes plastic. While some stores have committed to cutting down their plastic waste, zero-waste bulk shopping is still a possibility as evident in countries in Europe.

Recirclable provides reusable takeout boxes that customers can return to a participating restaurant within two weeks to avoid being charged a fee, which allows restaurants to cut down on disposable containers that harm the environment. So far Recirclable is working with 14 restaurants and has had thousands of customers select the reusable option, but the effort is difficult to scale up because reuse requires more effort on the part of the consumer and there’s not yet sufficient infrastructure to streamline the process.

The Flint Michigan Litter Killers formed in 2020 and has since grown to be a group with over 800 members who travel around the city to clean up trash from their streets and neighborhoods.

Verificovid was started by a group of friends to combat pandemic-related misinformation in Mexico. They work with a group of government doctors to identify, track, investigate, and disprove misinformation. The group posts infographics with updated COVID-19 statistics on social media – mainly Whatsapp and Telegram – and offers medical tips via short audio messages and texts. They prioritize fast-moving misinformation that could cause the most harm and, along with sharing the truth, they investigate the origin of the misinformation and teach the public how to identify and stop fake news.

The University of Notre Dame installed three Grind2Energy systems, which aims to reduce the amount of food waste from the campus’ dining halls. The systems process the waste and send it to a local dairy farm where they break down the material to produce biogas that is used to generate electrical power for 1,000 homes each day in Plymouth, Indiana. While not everyone at the university has committed to the sustainability efforts, these systems can be scaled to be used on other college campuses.

Fashion has long been known as a major contributor to climate change, but brands (from fast fashion to luxury houses alike) are taking steps to address their carbon footprint. This article lists several initiatives working on reducing fabric waste, such as FabScrap, a NY organization that collects and resells 6,000 pounds of discarded fabric weekly.

Food waste often ends up in landfills, but the Wasatch Resource Recovery facility in Utah transforms the thrown-out food into renewable energy instead. Companies such as Kroger, Dannon, and Nestle send their food waste to the facility on a daily basis, where it is liquefied, broken down by microbes and eventually converted into natural gas.

Digital platforms can provide a space for those living apart from their religious communities to affirm their identity. From hash tags to online academies, Muslims who otherwise would not have regular access to a mosque or religious network are creating their own communities online. During Ramadan, the communities offer support and allow people to break their fasts with others.

In South Korea, a combination of grassroots movements and government campaigns have dramatically reduced the country's food waste by 95% (about 400 metric tons a day). Residents are required to buy special biodegradable bags, which serves as a tax that finances 60% of the city's food processing. It's a pay-as-you-waste tactic that also prompts citizens to find creative ways to recycle and compost, and special weighing machines encourage them to extract the moisture first, saving even more money on collection costs.

Viral social media trends can be harnessed for social and environmental good. A social media#trashtag challenge that spread from Reddit to Instagram draws upon the satisfying nature of a before-and-after meme. People all over the world who participated in #trashtag challenge went out and beautified green spaces. They then posted photos of themselves surrounded by the trash bags they had collected.