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Waste management

man with trash

‘We were treated as disposable beings’: Waste pickers in Colombia fought for their rights after 11 murders

Justice

The people who collect garbage for recycling organized among themselves to change how they are paid and how they are treated. Today, waste pickers are officially recognized as part of the municipal waste system. 

landfill

Trash sorters in Ghana face health and safety risks

Health
China landfill

China announces a new ban on single-use plastics

Plastic beach pollution

‘Beyond the crisis point on plastic waste’: New bill is wake-up call, says senator

Environment
At the Wellesley recycling center, just west of Boston, residents drop their recyclables into 43 different sorting stations.

New Chinese policy is forcing people to think: Is there a better way to recycle?

Environment
Cody Marshall, with The Recycling Partnership, looks through a recycling bin in Lynn, Massachusetts. His organization is working with cities across the nation, helping them educate residents on how to recycle better.

As China gets tough on recycling, will America get cleaner?

Environment

China is refusing to take impure recycling and that’s forcing communities, like Lynn, Massachusetts, to clean up their act.

plastic

Burn it or bury it? Europe ponders future as plastic waste piles up.

Environment

Plastic pollution is surging and could, according to UN Environment, exceed the weight of fish in the oceans by 2050.

The Rumney Marsh, a haven to both birds and fish, sits in a highly industrial area north of Boston. For decades, the marsh's welfare has been in jeopardy due to its close proximity to an incinerator.

Residents worry Massachusetts waste incinerator is contaminating waterways

It was supposed to close 22 years ago. Now an aging waste incinerator landfill north of Boston has been given the go-ahead to add a half million tons of fly ash and bottom ash to its collection of materials — and local residents and community leaders are not happy about it.

A worker walks past piles of plastic PET bottles at Asia's largest PET plastic recycling factory

The US wants China to reverse its decision to bar foreign garbage

Global Politics

The global recycling industry was thrown into turmoil after China decided to no longer allow in many types of foreign scrap and garbage.

Toronto Zoo resident Vishnu eats his breakfast. The zoo is hoping what happens next will be a big boost for them.

Toronto’s Zoo plans to turn its animal waste into electricity

Technology

From African lions to Grevy’s Zebras, animals at the Toronto Zoo generate 3,000 tons of dung a year. Now the zoo will soon be turning all that poop into energy, thanks to a new biogas plant that uses manure to create electricity.