PBS
How Ben & Jerry’s is recycling food waste into energy
New ReviewIt may sound like the stuff of sci-fi movies, but diverting food waste from the landfill and converting it into electricity has become a real thing. William Brangham visited Ben & Jerry’s Vermont ice cream factory and the operations next...
PBS
The plastic industry knowingly pushed recycling myth for decades, new report finds
The world produces an average of 430 million metric tons of plastic each year. The United States alone produces tens of millions of tons of plastic waste annually. Yet on average, only about 5 to 6 percent of plastic in the U.S. is...
PBS
Ghana becomes dumping ground for the world’s unwanted used clothes
An estimated 20 million people are thought to earn their livelihoods in the global waste industry by collecting, disposing, repairing or repurposing a wide range of materials and products. However, the cost and consequences of handling...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Does recycling your plastic actually work? | Shannon Odell
If you've ever looked at the bottom of a disposable bottle or cup, you've probably noticed a recycling symbol. Seeing this, many people assume the item should be put in a recycling bin. Yet many plastics are incapable of being recycled...
SciShow
Reducing Space Waste Before, During, and After Missions | Compilation
Right now, discarded parts from old spacecraft, bags of pee, and dead probes are just floating around in space, but it doesn’t have to be like that. Let's take a look at some of the ways we've figured out to reduce, reuse, and recycle in...
Be Smart
Recycling Is Broken. Here’s How We Can Fix It.
If everyone would just put more in the recycling bin instead of the trash can, the world would be a better place. Right? Well, that’s not exactly true. For many items that end up in the recycling bin, you’ve actually created more trash...
TED Talks
TED: How to make sure materials get reused -- again and again | Garry Cooper
What if we could harness the power and value of all that we discard? Circular economy builder Garry Cooper presents a compelling vision for transforming cities into sustainable, circular economies, citing real-world examples of how...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why your phone battery gets worse over time | George Zaidan
Almost all batteries, even single-use batteries, are theoretically rechargeable. That's because the metals and other chemicals are still there in the battery. So chemically speaking, a dead battery is actually not that different from a...
SciShow
When The Universe Will End
Hank serves up a buffet of news items that includes an approximate date for the end of everything, scientific proof that when it comes to sex bigger IS better, and a look behind how the London Olympics are going green. Bon appetit!
SciShow Kids
Growing Plants Without Soil! | Squeaks Grows a Garden! | SciShow Kids
Today, Squeaks and Mister Brown explore the world of plants with an experiment! They'll learn what plants actually need to grow, which can help them with their garden and even help feed people in space!
PBS
Tiny Easter Island deals with giant trash problem
Easter Island off the coast of Chile has a major trash problem. It's near what's known as a "trash vortex" in the middle of the South Pacific and floating waste is constantly washing ashore. Local officials estimate the growing...
PBS
Why it will take more than basic recycling to cut back on plastic
In the 70 years that plastic has been around, humans have created 9 billion tons of it -- most of which still exists. Are the existing strategies for tackling plastic pollution -- namely reusing and recycling -- really making any...
PBS
These policies helped South Korea's capital decrease food waste
About one-third of all the food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted, according to the United Nations. But several years ago, South Korea instituted a law that requires residents to separate food waste from other garbage and...
SciShow Kids
Recycling Old Crayons! An Earth Day Activity
Jessi teaches Squeaks all about recycling, and together, they recycle his old crayons to make cool new ones! Second Grade Next Generation Science Standards Disciplinary Core Idea: PS1.B: Chemical Reactions - Heating or cooling a...
TED Talks
TED: Tough truths about plastic pollution | Dianna Cohen
Artist Dianna Cohen shares some tough truths about plastic pollution in the ocean and in our lives -- and some thoughts on how to free ourselves from the plastic gyre.
SciShow
3 Unexpected Effects of Plastic Pollution
You probably already knew that plastic can be bad, but scientists have taken a closer look, and found out it can be bad in surprising ways.
TED Talks
Mike Biddle: We can recycle plastic
Less than 10% of plastic trash is recycled -- compared to almost 90% of metals -- because of the massively complicated problem of finding and sorting the different kinds. Frustrated by this waste, Mike Biddle has developed a cheap and...
SciShow
How Recycling Works
Join SciShow as we explore what happens to your stuff after you toss it into the little green bin with the arrows on it.
SciShow
6 Bacteria with Awesome Superpowers
Bacteria have evolved some pretty incredible abilities. They may never star in a big summer movie, but here are six bacteria with amazing superpowers.
TED Talks
TED: The joy of taking out the trash | Aparna Nancherla
Comedian Aparna Nancherla loves to take out the trash. In this funny and sharp meditation on garbage -- "the stuff that our modern, consumerist, carbon-powered culture makes us buy endlessly, and often for no reason" -- she shares...
TED Talks
TED: The surprising solution to ocean plastic | David Katz
Can we solve the problem of ocean plastic pollution and end extreme poverty at the same time? That's the ambitious goal of The Plastic Bank: a worldwide chain of stores where everything from school tuition to cooking fuel and more is...
SciShow Kids
How Compost Is Made: A Field Trip!
Composting is a way to turn scraps of food you aren't going to eat anymore into healthy soil for your garden! But how does food turn in to dirt?! Mister Brown and Squeaks take a trip to SoilCycle, a place that makes compost in their...
SciShow
Why Can't You Compost Meat?
Composting becomes more widespread and accessible all the time, keeping millions of tons of food waste from ending up in landfills every year. But there is one quirk of some composting programs that can be a little annoying: they don't...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Which bag should you use? | Luka Seamus Wright and Imogen Ellen Napper
You've filled up your cart and made it to the front of the grocery line when you're confronted with yet another choice: what kind of bag should you use? It might seem obvious that plastic is bad for the environment, and that a paper bag...