PORTSMOUTH — When it comes to disposing items like pizza boxes, water and beer bottles, even old copies of this newspaper, practically every ecologically conscious person would pitch them in a recycling bin. Until fairly recently, communities’ recycling products had value in developing countries, namely China, where they are broken down into raw materials. American […]

It took decades to convince Americans to throw paper, tin cans, glass jars and plastic milk jugs into the recycling bin instead of the garbage. And now, some of those recyclables are ending up in the landfill. Recycling is not going away, but because of a shift in the worldwide market, the system is undergoing […]

Don’t mix grocery shopping bags with your bottles and cans. It’s a disaster for recycling facilities. Guess what? Plastic shopping bags are recyclable. But if you think you can toss them in with the bottles, cans or cartons in your recycling bin, we have some bad news. Bags require special sorting and processing machines ― and […]

When it comes to conserving water, making small changes can have a huge impact. But many of us don’t really think about water shortages unless we are in the middle of a heatwave, when temperatures are consistently at 85 degrees or more. Extreme heat or not, the water system is overstretched, and with climate change, we can […]

A rapid rise in temperature on ancient Earth triggered a climate response that may have prolonged the warming for many thousands of years, according to scientists. Their study, published online in Nature Geoscience, provides new evidence of a climate feedback that could explain the long duration of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), which is considered the […]

It took a few months to celebrate the milestone, but Saturday night staff and dozens of volunteers for the Hawaii Wildlife Fund marked reaching 250 tons of marine debris collection since the organization’s founding. The group also received a DLNR & You Citizen Conservationists Award in recognition of its efforts. Starting beach cleanups on Hawaii […]

It’s been four years since the worst bleaching event in state history and according to scientists from The Nature Conservancy, coral reefs in West Hawaii are stabilizing and poised to recover. Higher than usual ocean water temperatures in 2015 caused the first statewide coral bleaching event. TNC surveys revealed that an average of 60 percent […]

BOSTON — In the wake of Environment California’s successful campaign to commit the Golden State to 100 percent clean electricity generation by 2045, Environment America is launching a multi-year campaign to convince governors and legislators in other states to set similar goals to transition to clean energy. Environment America, a national network of state environmental […]

The buzz over a recent $10.4-million grant to five junior researchers at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa is about much more than mosquitoes. The funds from the National Institutes of Health Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) support the first center focusing on the interface between environmental microbiomes and human health. Microbiomes are communities […]

PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta and Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey discussed how their companies are reducing plastic waste during a World Economic Forum panel. Coke and Pepsi are both working on plastic alternatives and ways to increase recycling. Panelists did not agree on the use of biodegradable alternatives and whether consumers really care about the problem. […]