Social Justice and Sustainability: Denmark's Take on Green Menstruation

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 Amsterdam-based startup Human Material Loop, collects human hair from salons and spins it into yarn to make clothing and furniture. It aims to keep hair out of landfills and incinerators while reducing the demand for synthetic fibers and wool, all of which produce greenhouse gases.

Entrepreneurs are encouraging reuse models like return-from-home systems to transition towards a circular economy without single-use plastics. In this model, consumers pay a deposit to use takeout boxes, cups, and other containers. They get their deposit back when the containers are picked up from their home by a courier.

Landscaping businesses in California are trading in the typical tools and chemicals for goat herds. The practice of bringing in goats to munch on unwanted vegetation, called targeted grazing, is cheaper and more environmentally friendly than traditional landscaping.

Companies are beginning to grow offshore seaweed for human consumption as a protein option that’s better for the environment. Growing seaweed on ropes in the ocean is less land-intensive, sequesters carbon, and doesn’t require fertilizer or pesticides.

Philadelphia’s ban on businesses’ use of single-use plastic bags reduced plastic bag use by 94%. The ban also extended to paper bags not made of recycled content.

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.

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.

Communities across New Hampshire are implementing “pay as you throw” trash-collection systems to reduce the garbage sent to landfills and increase the use of alternative options like recycling. The programs use several different methods like special bags, stickers, or punch cards, but all require some form of payment per collected trash bag.

The Kenyan start-up Gjenge Makers creates pavers that are stronger and cheaper than typical concrete by heating a mixture of shredded plastic waste and sand and then compressing it to form the blocks.