New research presented by the American Chemical Society at their August meeting warned of the damage disposable contact lenses cause after they’re flushed down our home plumbing, a daily habit of many of the 45 million Americans who wear them. Those flimsy, flexible lenses easily pass through sewage treatment plant filters. Sinking to the bottom of rivers and oceans, the impacts […]
France has passed a new law that bans cups, cutlery, plates, and takeaway containers made from plastic. It’s The part of the nation’s Energy Transition for Green Growth Act, which will also carry out a ban on plastic bags in grocery shops and markets beginning in July. The law comes into effect in 2020. French President […]
This year’s World Environment Day (WED) put a high beam on illegal trade of wildlife. Event sponsor, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), called on everyone to “go wild for life” and take action to help safeguard species under threat. In Saudi Arabia, a team of environmentalists and corporate volunteers took to a beach along […]
Want a peek into a dystopian future? This is an update on the garbage crisis in Lebanon, which is largely attributed to a corrupted political system, but it’s also a cautionary tale about uncontrolled consumerism and environmental arrogance that could happen in nearly every free market zip code.
World Oceans Day is June 8th – here’s someone who could be it’s Grand Marshall. Two years back, Green Prophet ran a story about a Dutch engineering student who devised a way to siphon off the gargantuan plastic garbage patches (called gyres) growing unchecked in our seas. Then-19-year-old Boyan Slat claimed his floating “Ocean Cleanup Array”, developed with classmate Tan Nguyen, […]
Halloween landed on a Friday this year, meaning your “I have to work tomorrow” excuse for not dressing up becomes as flimsy as a ghost. So, with a few hours to prep before tonight’s parties begin, how do you devise a spooktacular costume without buying more polyester (most likely shipped over from China) to crap […]
The Jordan Food and Drug Administration (JFDA) announced plans to ban the use of plastic bags starting next year. The ruling also applies to plastic containers that come in direct contact with food products (think take-away and deli counter sales).
Look West, Middle East – for a failsafe way to ween off one-use plastic bottles! Banning plastics is the best first step to eliminating this poisonous prodrome of modern civilization.
A new investigation by Mother Jones magazine revealed that chemicals used to replace controversial plastic additive bisphenol-A – commonly called BPA – may be just as dangerous to your health, if not worse.
The Middle East’s first solar-powered boats set sail in Sharjah last month, each able to extract up 500 pounds of floating debris from the city’s lagoons. This new fleet joins the existing “green machines” used by Bee’ah, a leading Middle East waste management company.
A new trend is sweeping across America: scores of people are ditching shampoo for more earth and hair-friendly alternatives – including nothing at all. But would this work in the Middle East? Would the lovely ladies of Lebanon ever give up their luscious shiny locks? Turns out, they wouldn’t have to. Check out five reasons […]
A photographic series entitled Pacific Light captures a spellbinding dance that begins when ink, paint and soap collide. Watch stunning color combinations puddle and swirl. Visual artist Ruslan Khasanov snapped gorgeous photos, but his video and GIFs (short for Graphic Interchange Format, a form of computer image that moves as soundless animation) are spectacular.
Young Egyptians Yara Yassin and Rania Rafie are embarking on a business that makes bags from bags – innovative handbags sewn from throwaway plastic. It’s not a gimmick, a serious environmental message underpins the venture. The freshly minted design school grads share a heightened awareness of modern consumerism, and hope to spread the word that […]
The city of Amman in Jordan where I live is experiencing a deteriorating level of municipal services, most notably in garbage collection and public space cleaning. The hills of the city are heaped with trash, and the problem extends to other towns and across the countryside. Even Jordan’s natural jewels are tarnished.
Nineteen-year-old Boyan Slat plans to clean the ocean, whereas most teenagers can’t even tidy their rooms. The aerospace engineering student devised a method to siphon off plastic garbage patches bulging in our seas.
Random dumping and burning of plastic garbage, which constitutes a fifth of the Kingdom’s solid waste, are negatively affecting the environment and public health, said a Jordanian official. Good morning, Jordan! Glad to see you waking up to your plastic addiction and outrageously dirty dumping disorder. Plastics, widely introduced to world markets in the 1960’s, have […]
The Sea of Marmara is swamped with plastic pollution and other byproducts of our rampant consumerism, but according to ONZ Architects, the issue is “swept under the carpet” and most residents of Istanbul faced with continued development look the other way. The designers’ strategy to encourage a new awareness involves sweeping that carpet right back out […]
‘Balash Kees’ is a new campaign launched by UNESCO Amman to help reduce the use of plastic bags in Jordan Walk around Jordan and you’ll realise pretty quickly that the country has a huge plastic bag and litter problem. Cheap black plastic bags are literally everywhere and they are a real eyesore. No more so […]
Eliminating BPA from baby bottles is just one step towards eliminating our exposure to harmful, noxious chemicals. Score one small victory for consumer groups and ecosexuals everywhere: The United State’s ban on bisphenol-A or BPA is a small step towards ending our romance with toxins. That’s the good news. The downside is that this ruling by […]
Egyptian brothers Mostafa and Mohamed Nassar have designed a clever two-meter tall waste separator that aims to make recycling in Abu Dhabi and the other Emirates “as easy as pressing a button,” The National reports.Providers of steel solutions for construction, oil and gas industries and manufacturing plants, the Abu-Dhabi-raised pair believe that collecting recyclables can be […]
The One Time Use Store is great; but what happens to all the throwaway dishes after Passover? The Jewish festival of Passover or Pesach is one in which most people in Israel and Jewish people around the world spend much time in preparation, especially house cleaning and disposing of unwanted items, and over eating highly caloric […]
A National Geographic “emerging explorer,” David de Rothschild talks to Green Prophet about plastic, and how adventures inspire change and action. We wrote about the trip from San Fran to Sydney in a boat made from thousands of plastic bottles. And we reviewed the Plastiki book. Now we bring it all together in this exclusive […]
At the end of her tour, Tafline gushes about her latest presentations at Al Ittihad school for boys in Abu Dhabi. My whirlwind tour through Dubai has come to an end. The Masdar City images posted from my first visit were viewed by 30,000 people around the world, I saw sharks carelessly dumped in the […]
A good friend of David de Rothschild’s, Treehugger founder Graham Hill takes the Plastiki helm Theirs was one of 2010’s most talked-about, scoffed-about, and dreamed-about adventures: sailing across the Pacific Ocean in a boat made from plastic. Spontaneously envisioned to save our oceans from plastic pollution created by a now global society of waste, the […]
A marine turtle in Florida passed 74 foreign objects over a period of one month. Conference in Honolulu tries to get a grip on plastic pollution. Let’s not mince our words: plastic pollution sucks. The source of David de Rothschild’s inspiration to sail the Pacific on a lumbering catamaran made from 12, 500 plastic bottles, […]
