CNN: How virtual clothes could help solve fashion’s waste problem. “The textile and fashion industry creates roughly 92 million tons of waste annually, and digital fashion could have a role in reducing that figure…. For example, a designer could release an item of digital clothing in 10 colors in the metaverse, and use the sales data to inform which colors to use for the real-world version.”
AP: Extent of COVID-19 vaccine waste remains largely unknown. “Thousands of shots have been wasted in Tennessee, Florida, Ohio and many other states. The reasons vary from shoddy record-keeping to accidentally trashing hundreds of shots. However, pinning down just how many of the life-saving vials have been tossed remains largely unknown despite assurance from many local officials the number remains low.”
BetaNews: Pandemic leads to increased focus on e-waste. “The shift in working patterns prompted by COVID-19 has caused unnecessary short-term investment in technology, which will leave companies at risk with data being stored on a wide range of devices. This is according to 78 percent of respondents to a new survey from data erasure specialist Blancco Technology Group, which also reveals 47 percent of large global enterprises have created roles responsible for implementing and ensuring compliance with e-waste policies specifically to deal with issues generated from the pandemic.”
Fast Company: Masks, gloves, and other coronavirus waste are starting to fill up our oceans. “It’s not news that our trash eventually finds its way to the ocean. Because oceans are downstream, litter will eventually find a pathway into our bodies of water if it’s not discarded properly—and often even if it is. But as the COVID-19 crisis slowly generates a new kind of waste, made up of disposable masks and other PPE items, it’s posing new problems for the Earth’s oceans. The flood of PPE could cause immediate danger to wildlife and long-term plastic pollution that threatens to contaminate food supplies.”
Bloomberg: An Epidemic of Contaminated Waste Is Following the Coronavirus. “During the peak of the crisis, Wuhan, the city where the outbreak began, generated 240 tons a day of medical refuse — six times the normal level, according to the nation’s Environment Ministry. Manila in the Philippines produced an additional 280 tons a day of medical trash, while Jakarta generated 212 tons, the Asian Development Bank estimated. Only a few countries have the capacity to handle the additional volumes, the bank said.”
Circular: “Wikipedia for waste” launched as knowledge sharing platform. “Resource management company Monksleigh has created a new company, Wiki Waste Limited – on a not for profit basis – to host, manage and deliver WikiWaste – a new encyclopaedia and information sharing platform for the resources and waste sector. The platform is based on Wikipedia and their free-source Wikimedia. The principles are similar in that it is completely free to use and open to users to comment and edit in line with the published Code of Conduct.”
Green News: Irish entrepreneur on a mission to tackle the global litter crisis. “Seán Lynch is on a mission to map even the tiniest piece of litter on earth to highlight a worldwide ecological emergency: the litter crisis. To do so, the 29.year-old Cork-born entrepreneur has created a web app called Open Litter Map…. Lynch’s website allows users around the world to upload pictures of litter they have stumbled upon, geotag it to pinpoint the exact location, and add it to a global map.” Let’s just not talk about the “littercoin” part…
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