All articles tagged with #waste
A woman seeks advice on how to handle her hoarder friend's persistent and useless gift-giving, which she finds wasteful and annoying. Miss Manners suggests politely donating the gifts rather than returning or accepting them, emphasizing that the friend's behavior is unlikely to change and that maintaining grace is preferable to confrontation.
A Home Depot employee shared photos of numerous plants being discarded, highlighting concerns about waste and environmental impact, with the company citing vendor decisions as the cause. The incident raises broader issues about resource overuse, plastic pollution, and sustainable practices in retail and gardening.
The US plans to destroy nearly 500 tons of expired emergency food aid, funded by taxpayers, which could have been used to help populations in need like Gaza. The destruction is due to administrative changes and logistical issues, highlighting concerns over waste and the handling of humanitarian aid.
The article criticizes the House reconciliation bill, dubbed the 'Big Beautiful Bill,' for its extensive and controversial spending on projects like border wall construction, detention camps, missile defense, and military equipment, while cutting social programs. It highlights concerns over inflated costs, wasteful spending, and the potential for increasing the national debt and triggering austerity measures in healthcare, portraying the bill as a misallocation of resources benefiting the wealthy and defense contractors at the expense of the public.
The South Korean military has issued a stern warning to North Korea to cease sending waste-filled balloons across the border, after hundreds of balloons carrying animal feces, organic rubbish, and batteries were reported. Residents north of Seoul have been advised to stay indoors.
A Redditor shared a photo of a dumpster filled with cut-open bags of pet food, sparking outrage and speculation about a major pet supply chain's wasteful practices. The discarded food, whether expired or recalled, contributes to environmental harm and could have been donated to animal shelters. Suggestions were made to switch to high-quality, all-natural pet food or insect-based alternatives to reduce waste and environmental impact. The incident highlights the need to hold companies accountable for their actions and prevent future instances of mindless waste.
Hospitals across the United States are facing a surplus of expired personal protective equipment (PPE) as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. States like Rhode Island and Maryland have had to dispose of or recycle tons of unused gear, while Ohio auctioned off hundreds of thousands of gowns and discarded millions more items. The unpredictable duration of the crisis led to the accumulation of these supplies, which now pose a waste management challenge and have cost Ohio approximately $29 million in federal funds. Frustration arises from the fact that these once-coveted items are now going to waste instead of being used as intended.
Climbers have turned the Himalayas into a "gigantic rubbish bin," according to conservationist Luc Boisnard, who founded Himalayan Clean-Up to raise awareness about Himalayan pollution. Footage from the expedition shows Boisnard and his team trudging through heaps of waste, including plastic bottles, sanitation pads, and abandoned tents. Nepalese authorities introduced a law in 2014 requiring climbers to leave a "garbage deposit" prior to their ascents, but critics argue that the scheme is ineffective. Nepalese mountaineer Nirmal Purja has launched the Big Mountain Clean-up project to remove waste from the mountains.
Residents of Old Bridge, New Jersey, were left puzzled after finding around 500lbs of uncooked pasta dumped next to a local brook. The pasta, which appeared cooked due to recent rainfall, was eventually cleaned up by public works employees. Some residents believe the pile of noodles came from a nearby home that is currently up for sale, where a military veteran was clearing out his parents' house and discovered a stockpile of old pasta. The incident has been criticized for being wasteful, with some suggesting the pasta could have been donated to a food pantry or homeless shelter.
Scientists from the University of Sydney have discovered that two types of fungi are effective at breaking down polypropylene, a plastic commonly found in containers. The fungi took 90 days to degrade 27% of the plastic tested and about 140 days to completely break it down. However, recycling alone cannot solve the plastic pollution crisis, and the real solution is to "turn off the plastic tap" by reducing plastic production and waste.
Images have emerged of unopened boxes of Funko Pop! figures, worth $30 million, at dumps and landfills after the pop culture collectible company announced it was going to throw them away due to overstocking. Before being dumped, the boxes are shredded and sorted for recycling or landfill. Funko has been paying high rental fees to store additional stock in shipping containers until it can find space for them. The move to trash them is apparently cheaper than finding storage space. The wastefulness and corporate greed at the expense of consumers has been criticised.