Maximpact Blog

E-waste Proliferates as Incomes Rise, Prices Fall

Last year, the world generated e-waste – everything from end-of-life refrigerators and TV sets to solar panels, mobile phones and computers – equal in weight to 1.23 million fully loaded 18-wheeler heavy-duty freight trucks, enough to form a line from New York to Bangkok and back.

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Climate-Neutral COP23 Aims for Sustainability

This year’s UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn, which opened Monday and continues through November 17 under the presidency of Fiji, gives nations an opportunity to showcase their own climate actions at this “climate-neutral” event.

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Sacred Sites Strategize for Impact Investments

Representatives of sacred places and cities that attract spiritual pilgrims are working with highly placed conservationists to create a dedicated fund for their environmental protection by relying on the investment community’s growing commitment to ethical or impact investment.

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Cleaning Up Space Waste, Gecko Style

At this moment, there are more than 20,000 pieces of debris larger than a softball are orbiting the Earth, traveling at speeds of 17,500 mph, fast enough to damage a spacecraft. Scientists have now designed a way to grab them based on the way geckos climb walls.

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Woman Honored as Pesticide Workers’ Champion

“The millions of rural women on the ground that are in the frontlines of the struggle against highly hazardous pesticides in their daily lives as farmers, workers, and consumers,” are the inspiration that drives Sarojeni Rengam’s advocacy …

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E-Waste Piles Proliferate in Asia

The volume of discarded electronics in East Asia and Southeast Asia rose nearly two-thirds between 2010 and 2015, and e-waste generation is growing fast both in total volume and per person measures, new United Nations research shows.

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First Flight ‘On Wings of Waste’

Pilot Jeremy Rowsell made history this week by flying a light plane across Australia from Sydney to Melbourne, using blended fuel – 10 percent derived from plastic waste blended with 90 percent conventional fuel.

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Hope for the Hungry

Hundreds of millions of people throughout the world go to bed hungry while at the same time, a third of the world’s food is wasted, say the number-crunchers at the United Nations food agencies. But there is hope for the hungry.

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Rio Summer Olympics ‘Embrace’ Sustainability

A new set of sustainability measures to support the greening of the Rio Summer Olympic Games were agreed by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the 2016 Olympics and Paralympics Organizing Committee as far back as 2013. The “Embrace” Rio 2016 plan is based on three pillars: Planet, People and Prosperity.

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Firms Flock to Circular Economy 100 USA

Four years after becoming the fastest solo sailor to circumnavigate the globe, a 2005 record that still stands, Dame Ellen MacArthur founded the UK charity that bears her name to advance the sustainability that flows from a well-functioning circular economy.

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Building in Many Shades of Green

Increasing consumer demand has pushed the world’s green building market to a trillion-dollar industry, a surge that has led to a parallel increase in the scope and size of the green building materials market, now expected to reach $234 billion by 2019.

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Making Plastic Waste Disappear

Every ton of plastic bottles recycled saves about 3.8 barrels of oil, says the Plastics Industry Trade Association, which has just launched a Zero Net Waste program to help members evaluate waste reduction opportunities and maximize landfill diversion.

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Closing the Loop: EU Quarrels Over Circular Economy Plan

The European Commission has adopted a new Circular Economy Package it says will help European businesses and consumers contribute to “closing the loop” of product lifecycles through greater recycling and re-use. But Members of the European Parliament are critical of the new package.

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