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Burger joints toss billions of burgers a year (Mac Donald's alone serves about 2 billion), each individually wrapped in plastic coated paper and thrown into a paper bag with a few paper napkins. That's more than 100 per second, worldwide. Throw in a dozen other fast food conglomerates and we’re up to our necks in greasy garbage. What’s worse is that most of this paper makes its way into a trash can after only about 5 minutes of use.
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Green burials is a growing trend amongst the older generations nowadays. It ensures that the burial site remains as natural as possible in all respects. Interment of the bodies is done in a bio-degradable casket, shroud, or a favorite blanket. No embalming fluid, no concrete vaults. We don’t usually expect graveyards to give us much besides a chance to express grief, but a small town in Spain has found a new use for them: energy powerhouses. It has placed more than 400 solar panels on top of mausoleums in the local cemetery.
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Polystyrene products have been used for years as home insulation and Styrofoam packaging, but the petroleum-based materials are infamous for the toll they take on the environment. However, in the cradle-to-cradle industrial model, goods should either be fully biodegradable or reusable, limiting waste and pollution. With a rapidly increasing global population, a limited supply of natural resources, and rising energy prices, eco-friendly housing products are selling fast.
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Most foods are still packed in plastic, which not only fills landfills and pollutes oceans, but also perpetuates petroleum consumption. Now we are beginning to see more prominent use of biodegradable disposable food packaging, particularly at green-oriented festivals and natural groceries. These "Bioplastics" are becoming a burgeoning industry as the cost of oil climbs and the disastrous nature of petroleum-based plastics is revealed in full effect.
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The plastic card industry is growing very strong and won't be going anywhere anytime soon. These ubiquitous items are used every day from credit and debit cards to gift cards and hotel keycards. In an effort to reduce the number of plastic cards that will end up in landfills, Sustainable Cards LLC, a Colorado based business, has created wooden hotel keycards. These have been used in Europe for years and are now being introduced in the US.
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If you go down to the woods today you're sure of a big surprise because the whole place will probably be littered with plastic plates, cups and utensils left behind by lazy picnickers. Most supermarkets stock a choice of paper plates, napkins and disposable plastic cutlery in cheerful designs; but they're mostly eco-unfriendly plastic utensils.
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Although it is much more convenient to throw away our used plates than to have a mountain of dirty dishes growing in the kitchen sink every day waiting to be washed. This convenience comes at a high price for our planet. Not only does the production and distribution of these plastics have ill-effects on the earth and those who occupy it, but our consistent usage of these plastics leads to an excessive amount of non-biodegradable trash that terrorizes our environment and food chains.
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The world is obliterated by many man-made products, momentarily useful and when discarded, they leave a nasty scar on the planet. It is often the poorest parts of the world that suffer the worst environmental degradation. The flip-flop is the most basic footwear for so many in the world, and every day thousands of these non-degradable pieces wash up on beaches around the globe, blighting the coastlines and the lives of local coastal people and the marine ecology.
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The average plastic container purchased today will live more than 10,000 times longer than its original owner, but consumers who today purchase the latest biodegradable plastic bath accessories can take comfort that these plastic goods, with proper disposal, will safely decompose within a matter of months.
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Every year US landfills receive tens of millions of tons of plastic, which can take hundreds of years to break down. But all that might change now that an Ohio company has developed biodegradable plastic that begins to degrade only when placed in landfills. Thanks to a new additive, water bottles, garbage bags and other plastic products have become appetizing meals for the microorganisms that inhabit landfills.
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