Over 2,000 Companies Buy and Sell Recycled Plastic at This Online Marketplace

Finding alternatives for uneaten or imperfect food reduces waste. In Denver, multiple initiatives, ranging from the city’s Certifiably Green Denver program to tech startups and nonprofits, are working to tackle the problem of excess and wasted food. The nonprofit organization, We Don’t Waste, redistributes unused food from large venues at food banks and farmers markets. The tech startup, FoodMaven, similarly aims to reroute food from the landfill to consumers.

Gree Energy helps food processors in Indonesia overcome the financial barriers to installing anaerobic wastewater treatment plants. These plants turn methane emissions into biogas to be used as electricity or thermal energy. The company plans the builds, finds uses for the biogas, and establishes revenue to fund the projects.

One Step Greener collects trash from residents of Delhi, India, and sorts the recyclables to be sold to recyclers. This practice keeps trash out of landfills and improves the air quality of the city.

"Ghost gear" are nylon nets and other waste left behind in our oceans by fishing boats - they cause massive environmental damage, releasing toxins in the water, ensnaring wildlife, and clogging up beaches. Now one organisation, the Healthy Seas Initiative, is working with fishermen and a sportswear company called ECONYL to retrieve abandoned nets from out of the ocean and convert the materials into clothing, carpets, and more.

Joebliss Enterprise purchases and collects paper waste from homes, businesses, and collection agents in Abuja, Nigeria, and processes it for recycling, reducing the amount that produces methane emissions in landfills.

The SecureCycle initiative collects jeans that would otherwise be discarded and turns them into backpacks for low-income students in rural communities in Nigeria. Having access to a sturdy bag to carry their school supplies encourages students to attend school and keeps them from losing their books so they stay engaged in class.

Two Texas-based companies are 3D printing homes in an effort to combat the housing crisis and produce fewer emissions than a typical home construction. The companies lay the foundation and rebar for support. Then, a machine with a robotic arm builds up the walls by printing layers of a cement-like material.

A junk removal service in Athens, Georgia, is slowing the growth of the local landfill by recycling, donating, and giving away the items it can before taking the rest to the landfill.

The fashion brand Sheep Inc sources regenerative wool for its clothing products and claims to be carbon-negative. The regenerative farming practices used to make the wool are similar to what would happen naturally, the sheep graze across different grasslands, allowing unused ones to rewild using the manure as fertilizer. On top of that, the farm itself runs on renewable energy and supports native reforestation and the fashion brand uses solar power and a plastic-free supply chain.

Clean Ocean Sailing is a volunteer-based organization that boats to largely inaccessible parts of Cornwall’s coasts to pull plastic pollution out of the ocean and off the beaches using kayaks, rowboats, and physical labor.