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We are about to get buried in garbage

Thanks to COVID-19 we are generating a lot more of it, and nobody wants to touch it. Time to try and go zero waste.




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Beau Lake introduces an all-electric wood-topped instant classic runabout

Load up the Krug and the caviar and go for a spin.




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A canoe trip is the epitome of slow travel

"There is nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats." (Kenneth Grahame)




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Residents of Mallorca want cruise ships to go away

The 'mega cruises' are harming the environment, the island's aesthetic appeal, and local quality of life.




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Greta Thunberg will cross the Atlantic by sailboat

It solves the young activist's dilemma of wanting to attend two U.N. climate change summits without relying on fossil fuels.




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Next transportation mode ripe for revolution: e-boats

Templar Marine introduces a Torqeedo powered dayboat that is a thing of beauty.




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Super-yacht is powered by liquid hydrogen. How "eco" is that?

In two words: It's not.




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31 outside-the-box tips to ditch plastic

TreeHugger and Elephant Journal have teamed up to share 31 creative tips for skipping plastic, one for each day of July.




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Is plastic a 'necessary evil' in our food system?

Perhaps yes, if our food system stays the way it is, but maybe that's what we should be challenging.




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UK supermarket trials package-free groceries

Waitrose wants to see how serious shoppers are about bringing their own containers.




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UK supermarket Tesco says it will ban products with excessive packaging

The company is ramping up pressure on suppliers to design less wasteful packaging.




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Toymaker Hasbro says it will phase out plastic packaging

Starting in 2020, the company will redesign packaging to be more environmentally-friendly.




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Here's a handy guide to plastics recycling

Made by NPR, it explains what's recyclable, what becomes trash, and why.




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Why we all need to stop 'wishcycling'

Some things were never meant to go in the blue bin.




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India to implement major single-use plastic ban on Oct 2

This year, Gandhi's birthday will be marked by a national crackdown on six specific plastic items.




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Biodegradable plastic is bad for the environment, British MPs say

It's time we stopped greenwashing plastic alternatives and realized they do more harm than good.




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4 billion bits of microplastics in the waters of Tampa Bay

And researchers estimate there's another 3 trillion pieces in surface sediments.




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Is your tea steeped in plastic?

A new study shows that all-plastic tea bags release billions of particles into hot water.




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Vancouver says no more foam food containers

A ban will take place in the new year, followed by crackdowns on straws and grocery bags.




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Thicker bags don't solve the plastics problem

"Bags for life," as they're called, do not get reused nearly as much as retailers would like to believe.




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Honolulu cracks down on single-use plastics

Hawaii's most populated island is implementing tough new rules for packaging.




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Canada moves forward with its single-use plastics ban

A scientific assessment has confirmed enormous amounts of waste and definite harm to wildlife.




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Plastic waste is a problem, but wasting what the plastic is wrapping is many times worse

Judith Thornton questions the conventional wisdom about plastic packaging. She has a controversial point.




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How to grocery shop when you can't bring your own containers

Learning which plastics are most harmful to health is one thing you can do.




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Iceland marks lost glacier with a plaque

The ancient Ok glacier, a fraction of its former size and unable to move, was declared dead in 2014.




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DIY Wedding Extreme: Couple Grows Everything for their Wedding Feast

Once upon a time I put together a guide on how to green your wedding, and I even blogged about my own DIY-flavored eco-wedding. But my darling wife and I have been upstaged by Julia Davis and Andy




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"Pay-As-You-Throw" Trash Metering Cuts Landfill Waste by 50% in a Month

Some places have looked at paying people to recycle, but others think it makes more sense to charge people for their waste instead. When the UK talked about implementing a "pay-as-you-throw" scheme for trash, our readers were




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Maine Legislates 30% Reduction in Oil Use by 2030

Maine's taking a stand against oil usage and oil dependency--frankly the bigger issue than where we get our oil from, tar sands and other unconventional oil sources aside. As NRDC Switchboard reports, the state has passed a law




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Internet Killing Print Media: Up-Cycling Paper Mills Could Make Digital Communications Greener

Paper Age reports that "total printing-writing paper shipments decreased 6.4% in August compared to August 2010." Burrowing in, Fortress Specialty Cellulose echos the




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Ramblers Way Creates Sustainable Luxury Casual Wear for Fall 2011

Organic wool comfort wear company Ramblers Way founded by Tom and Kate Chappell, of Tom's of Maine fame has come a long way since their first collection, comprised of natural blonde wool jersey knits




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The Poetic Insights of a Seaweed Harvester (Video)

Eating seaweed is healthy, but how is it harvested? For one Maine seaweed harvester, the job is a meditation on life.




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Can Fishing Communities Regulate Themselves?

Preserving fisheries is crucial. But one fisherman argues that regulation can do more harm than good, and that fishing communities used to regulate themselves.




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How Reclaimed Hand Tools Can Revive the Local Economy (Video)

One craftsman is on a mission. Not only is he reclaiming and repairing quality hand tools. He is taking on corporate hegemony in the process.




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Here is a Pretty Good Idea for a New Building Standard: The Pretty Good House.

Some pretty smart designers, builders and consultants have a pretty good idea for a sensible building standard.




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Buy Your Own (Official) Hobbit Hole

A small family business is selling replicas/interpretations of the homes made famous by J.R.R. Tolkien.




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First Commercial Tidal Power Project in US Launches in Maine

Though only powering 75-100 homes at launch, the TidGen Cobscook Bay project, in Eastport, Maine, is slated to expand to ten times its initial size.




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Residents Band Together to Protect Maine’s Woods from Development

Picture having a massive, beautiful expanse of woods near your home. You go there to hike, fish, hunt -- just to enjoy nature. Now picture a highway running through it.




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Tween Boys Help Save a 500-million-year-old Species

These 'living fossils' have survived mass extinctions over the course of their eons of existence, but it just might be two youngsters that save them from the human threats they face today.




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BrightBuilt Home introduces line of healthy, net-zero modular designs

A mix of modern and traditional design elements that are appropriate for the Northeast make these very interesting houses.




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How to build unheated greenhouses for winter harvests & year-round gardening (Video)

American organic farmer Eliot Coleman explains how his innovative winter gardening methods work, allowing growers to harvest veggies year-round.




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Maine conference brings together the "most experienced passive house minds on the planet"

It's the first conference of the North American Passive House Network and it sounds like it was a lot of fun.




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Maine legislators move to speed up GMO labeling law

Some legislators in Maine want the state's food to be labeled sooner.




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Drones join search and rescue operations in Maine

The flying robots will start helping officials to locate lost hikers.




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The Archipod rolls back to America as the Podzooks

The iconic English office pod can be used for all kinds of things.




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Buildings can be boxy but beautiful if you have a good eye

And GO Logic shows again that they really do with the Little House on the Ferry.




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All about eaves

Why are architects eschewing overhangs? Because they can.




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Cousins River Residence by GO Logic is smaller and simpler

Who says you can't have both beauty and efficiency?




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Towns in Maine declare food sovereignty with local ordinances

In an effort to support local food production and defend customers' rights to buy and eat whatever local farm products they want, 16 towns in Maine have created their own local food ordinances.




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Maine student rejects scholarship from bottled water company

Despite needing to pay a hefty tuition bill this fall, Hannah Rousey refused to take money from Poland Spring Bottling Co., a subsidiary of Nestlé.




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EcoCor brings Swedish building tech to the USA to produce passivhaus prefabs

It's a mix of good design, a tough standard and sophisticated engineering.