Almost five years ago, San Francisco became the first American city to ban plastic shopping bags from supermarkets and chain pharmacies. Now the city is poised to expand that ban to all retail stores and restaurants within the city limits. Only certain products, like newspapers, fish, poultry, fresh flowers, and bulk goods are exempted from the ban. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to expand the ban, and it’s expected to be officially approved next week.

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Post tags: environmental destruction, environmental issues, expanded plastic bag ban, green design, plastic bag ban, San Francisco, San Francisco plastic bag ban, sf plastic bag ban, sustainable design, Waste reduction

Summit Soap is a small grassroots company set 9,600 feet above sea level that is dedicated to reducing waste on the planet and preserving our natural resources. All of their soaps are made using purified, recycled cooking oil — a resource that has been overlooked and treated as waste throughout the history of commercial eateries. The company collects thousands of gallons of used oil in their grease-powered pick-up truck and then turns it into awesome bio-products.

+ Summit Soap

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Post tags: biodegradable cleaners, eco cleaners, eco soap, engine lubricants, grease soap, green soap, local soap makers, recycled soap, summit soap, true biofuels, Waste reduction

Want to get a P.H.D. in what to do with your P.H.W.? (That’s short for post-holiday waste in case you didn’t know.) While you may not have heard of the term (we kind of just made it up), we’re pretty sure you know what we’re talking about – the crumpled wads of giftwrap, the withering tree, that sweater from Aunt Mabel that was so fugly that it made a baby cry. Don’t worry if you’ve experienced any of these symptoms, however – P.H.W isn’t contagious, and there’s a quick cure – read on to check out our 5 easy tips for what to do with all that stuff after Christmas!

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Post tags: Charity, green your christmas, green your holiday, how to recycle your christmas tree, how to recycled giftwrap, post holiday waste, Recycle, recycle christmas tree, recycle your christmas tree, Recycled Materials, Waste reduction, what to do with post holiday waste, what to do with your gift wrapping after christmas

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, only about half of cardboard that Americans discard actually gets recycled. But if you’re moving, what choice do you really have but to use cardboard boxes, right? Wrong! BungoBox is a new moving service that drops off durable, reusable containers to people for a fraction of what it would cost them to buy cardboard boxes. Though they’re made of plastic (for durability), the boxes are used over and over by many different folks unlike cardboard boxes which may fall apart and then need to be trashed. And after BungoBoxes finally break, they are even recycled and made into new boxes.

+ Bungo Box

The article above was submitted to us by an Inhabitat reader. Want to see your story on Inhabitat? Send us a tip by following this link. Remember to follow our instructions carefully to boost your chances of being chosen for publishing!

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Post tags: bungo, bungo box, eco design, eco moving, green design, green movers, green moving, reusable moving boxes, sustainable design, Waste reduction

Read the rest of Egregious Packaging Hall of Fame: Why Toilet Paper Needs a Redesign

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Post tags: consumer products, eco design, green design, green packaging, packaging the future, recycled toilet paper, sustainable design, sustainable packaging, sustainable toilet paper, toilet paper, tp, Waste reduction

426,000 cell phones are retired in the USA every single day — and many of them wind up in the trash, where they contribute to the environmentally and socially devastating e-waste epidemic. Fortunately, Sprint has launched several programs to ensure that old cell phones are properly recycled – and they’re offering participants a chance to win a gorgeous fuel-efficient Vespa LX50 scooter, AND an eco-friendly Samsung Replenish smartphone and in their Green on the Go Sweepstakes! All you have to do is submit your old phone to be recycled – so enter today!

ENTER THE GREEN ON THE GO SWEEPSTAKES >

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Post tags: cell phone recycling, e-waste, green cell phone, green design, green technology, mobile phone recycling, samsung replenish, sprint, sprint buyback program, sprint project connect, sustainable design, sustainable smartphone, sustainable technology, vespa, vespa LX50, Waste reduction, win a vespa

Over the past couple of years, the U.S. Army has announced several initiatives ranging from solar-powered tents for troops to hydrogen-powered tanks, however this is their most ambitious program yet. With the help of the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the U.S. Army is aiming to have all Army installations across the country be net zero.

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Post tags: Army Vision for Net Zero, Fort Bliss, net zero, renewable energy, U.S. Army, U.S. Military, Waste reduction, water conservation

Right now, 8% of the world’s oil is used to make plastics — and oil has to be extracted from the belly of the earth using extremely energy and cost-intensive processes. At the same time, the world’s cities are constantly growing and producing more waste, which is usually dehydrated and trucked off to be dumped. In a planet-positive double-whammy, Micromidas has figured out how to transform raw sewage into a versatile form of plastic that biodegrades in 6-12 months. The new company (they’ve only been around since mid-2008) accomplished the feat by harnessing microbes — specifically, bacteria — to produce a bioplastic resin, which can be processed into a malleable plastic.

Read the rest of Packaging the Future: Micromidas Makes Biodegradable Plastic from Sewage

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Post tags: biodegradable plastic, eco packaging design, green design, green packaging, green plastic, low-impact packaging, micromidas, packaging the future, plastic from sewage, sustainable design, sustainable product design, Waste reduction

When it comes to gardening, the thought of using organic fertilizers that are free from harsh chemicals seems… well, natural! But did you know that urine is a fantastic source for natural nitrogen-rich food for your plants? The Swedish start-up Guldkanna has designed Towa, a watering can combined with a chamber pot that can be used to collect, securely store, and distribute your “liquid gold”. This nickname given to urine fertilizer may not be far from the truth if you can get past the ickiness of the pot and learn about the benefits.

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Post tags: compost, Design, Eco, fertilizer, Gardening, green, green design, guldkanna, horticulture, liquid gold, natural fertilizer, plants, Sustainable, sustainable design, Sweden, towa, urine, urine watering can, Waste reduction, watering can

So far in our Packaging the Future series we’ve explored how nature solves the packaging problems of strength, buoyancy and moisture-retention (coconut shells), tough-but-flexible protection (wombat butts) and light tensile strength (ant exoskeletons). Now it’s time to look at the softer side of packaging; after all, not all containers need to be tough, and not all packing needs require rigidity. All of the fluffy paddings below are created from solar energy, water, soil minerals and air, unlike their packing counterparts: styrofoam peanuts, foam, polyester fillings, and other plastic-derived materials that use fossil fuels as their basis. They break down easily when they are no longer needed, and several have additional uses outside of softness – read on for some amazing examples of fluffy natural packaging!

Read the rest of Packaging the Future: Fluffy Natural Packaging!

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Post tags: Biodegradable, green design, green materials, green packaging, packaging the future, sustainable design, Waste reduction

With all the scary news floating around about Bisphenol-A, a dangerous chemical that’s been linked to everything from low sperm counts to early puberty to DNA damage, it’s easy to see why smart sport bottle makers choose to stick to strictly BPA-free materials. But just because there are a crop of BPA-free reusable bottles now available, that doesn’t mean you should just buy the first one you see. All of your stipulations for good, ergonomic, easy to use, sustainable design should still apply in your search for the perfect water bottle. thinksport recently sent us their rather elegant-looking 750ml insulated bottle to put to the test – read on to check out what we loved and what we thought could be improved and see if this is the water bottle you’ve been searching for!

Read the rest of PRODUCT REVIEW: thinksport BPA Free Reusable Sports Bottles

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Post tags: BPA, BPA Free, green design, green product, phthalate free, product review, reusable bottle, sustainable design, sustainable products, thinksport, Waste reduction, water bottle

Have a lot of old stuff to get rid of? Well you could give it away and get a lot of awesome stuff for yourself at the same time on Give Your Stuff Away Day! Slated to sweep the nation on September 25th, the event, which is being organized by Mike Morone, calls people to simply bring their unwanted items to the curb. No trash, food, drugs, chemicals, or dangerous items — just safe, valuable items you would like to give to others. Find out more here!

READ MORE >

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Post tags: barter, give your stuff away day, mike morone, recycling, swap, trade, Waste reduction

Today we’re thrilled to announce a brand new editorial series on Inhabitat that explores the past, present, and future of packaging design, hosted by Eco Chick founder and green journalist Starre Vartan! Each year households in the U.S. send over 270 million tons of trash to the landfill, and much of this waste consists of materials used to wrap, ship, and package products. Fortunately, there’s a plethora of ways to make packaging more environmentally sustainable — stay tuned as our Packaging the Future series explores natural solutions to the packaging problem, innovative new approaches to creating eco-efficient packaging, and the future of sustainable packaging design.

Starre Vartan is founder and editor-in-chief of Eco-Chick and author of The Eco-Chick Guide to Life (St. Martin’s Press). A green living expert, she is managing editor of Greenopia and a contributor to The Huffington Post.

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Post tags: future of green packaging, green design, green graphics, product packaging, starre vartan, sustainable design, Waste reduction

Designer Andrew Kim has created a new Eco Coke concept bottle that minimizes the packaging’s environmental footprint while maximizing its efficiency. The square bottles are more collapsible, fit tightly with other bottles for efficient shipping and stocking, and are made from sugar based bioplastic.

Read the rest of Collapsible, Biodegradable Coke Bottle Proves it’s Hip to Be Square

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Post tags: collapsible container, Eco-Coke Packaging, eco-friendly packaging, green design, green product, sustainable design, Waste reduction

President Obama’s recent announcement that the U.S. government will offer $8 billion in federal loan guarantees for the first new nuclear plant in the country in 30 years upset clean energy advocates for a number of reasons. One of the biggest problems: all that radioactive waste. Now GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, one of the world’s biggest suppliers of nuclear reactors, claims that it can safely turn nuclear waste into fuel. Goodbye, Yucca Mountain.

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Post tags: fuel rods, ge hitachi, green design, green energy, nuclear energy, nuclear fuel, nuclear power, nuclear waste, sustainable design, Waste reduction, yucca mountain

You may be familiar with the dreaded Great Pacific Garbage Patch — a massive soup of plastic debris, flotsam and junk floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Scientists say that ocean currents determine the precise gathering of the junk: the patch lies in the middle of a giant ocean gyre, or vortex in the sea. There are five major gyres in the world’s oceans, and one group, 5 Gyres, is determined to search the remaining 4 for evidence of similar plastic island gatherings.

Read the rest of The 5 Gyres Project Searches the Oceans for New Garbage Patches

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Post tags: 5 gyres, 5 gyres project, environmental responsibility, great pacific garbage patch, green design, oceans, plastic ocean island, research, sustainable design, Waste reduction

We need electric vehicles to curb our thirst for oil, but there’s a problem: EV’s generally use lots of lithium in their batteries, and that’s another limited resource. Now Simbol Mining thinks it has a partial solution in a new technique that extracts battery lithium from the wastewater of geothermal plants.

Read the rest of Precious Lithium Squeezed Out of Geothermal Waste Water

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Post tags: "geothermal technology", batteries, geothermal energy, green design, lithium, salton sea, simbol mining, sustainable design, Waste reduction

If you’ve ever wondered where that computer, refrigerator or TV you threw away ended up, you may not like the answer. A recent expose on ABC.com reveals the dirty secret behind electronic wastes: many products discarded by developed nations like Germany, the U.S. and England wind up in Africa, and they’re poisoning the continent’s children with harmful toxins like lead, cadmium and mercury.

Read the rest of Discarded Electronics Are Poisoning African Children!

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Post tags: ABC, accra, Basel Convention, broken computers, e-waste, e-waste in Africa, e-waste in developing nations, electronic waste, German Federal Environmental Agency, Ghana, green design, Greenpeace, Soddom and Gomorrah, sustainable design, trash, Waste reduction

There is something so fascinating about miniature worlds and peering down from above and imagining all the intricate daily happenings of the tiny people who live there. What if that tiny world was made up of re-purposed kitchen and hardware items that were forged together in some sort of crazy modern industrial architectural style? Well, that’s what David Trautrimas did with his amazing series of digital photographs “Habitat Machines.” His body of work is both exciting and inspiring with retro lines, cool metal finishes and are the ultimate in recycled materials.

Read the rest of Habitat Machines: David Trautrimas’s Amazing Art

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Post tags: Art, artefact art, david trautrimas, digital photography, eco-art, gadget art, green art, Habitat Machines, kitchen appliances, kitchen gadgets, models, Photography, recycled, recycled gadget art, repurpose, vintage gadget art, Waste reduction

The small Australian town of Bundanoon just set a new standard for sustainability by voting to do what no community has ever done before: ban bottled water! The measure was founded over concerns about the tremendous amount of resources used to extract, package, and transport bottled water, and it passed nearly unanimously in a town hall meeting. Will this be the beginning of a trend?

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Post tags: australian town bans bottled water, bottled water ban, no more water bottles, public policy, Waste reduction