10 Inspiring People’s Victories in the Fight for a Clean Planet

Environmental problems are growing: the Amazon is burning, Antarctic ice is melting and the ocean is full of plastic. But there are people who can’t tolerate that and try to help the planet, whether it’s building factories that absorb carbon dioxide from the air or inventing new ways to get clean energy. And each of us can join them, even if it’s just sorting or cleaning up waste near our homes.

O awesome.club I would like the news about the environment to be good too, so in our new post we’ve gathered inspiring examples of victories for a cleaner planet. At the end of the text you will find a bonus about the benefits that spoiled mayonnaise unexpectedly brought at one time.

“McDonald’s: I love all of it”

Since 2007, McDonald’s has produced biofuels from vegetable oil used in the company’s kitchens. After the oil is collected from restaurants, it is purified and transferred to processing plants. Subsequently, the fuel is used to replenish 42% of the company’s fleet. Even the transport of some logistics companies in Europe uses this fuel.

In Tokyo, waste is carefully selected by the inhabitants: the waste utilization manual contains 24 pages. Most of Japan’s garbage is burned, exhaust emissions are filtered before being released into the atmosphere, and ash from burned garbage is used to produce cement and asphalt. Non-flammable waste is finely ground and placed in dense layers, forming islands in the middle of Tokyo Bay. On Odaiba Island, prestigious residential and commercial districts have been established, while Umi-no-Mori Park is scheduled to open in 2020.

The founders of Portland, Oregon, startup LucidEnergy have created a new way to produce clean energy. They place spherical turbines in large-diameter pipes, which rotate under the pressure of internal fluid flow and generate electricity from the water that already flows under the city. According to forecasts, this technology should produce an amount of energy that will account for about 2 million dollars in 20 years.

In Hong Kong, there are few sources of fresh water, so it has been supplied by a neighboring province, Guangdong, for 150 years. To solve this problem, in the 1950s Hong Kong built a separate sewer system that uses seawater. This saves scarce freshwater resources.

Residents of the city of Surabaya, Indonesia, can now pay for their fare on public transport with used plastic, which can be disposed of at special recycling points at bus stops. This facilitates the separation of garbage and reduces the number of cars on city streets.

Near Zurich, there is a factory that captures CO2 from the atmosphere through an installation with special filters. After that, it is used for growing vegetables and producing soft drinks, among others. The company plans to extract 900 tons of carbon dioxide from the air a year.

In Sweden, forests occupy more than half of the country’s territory, and three new trees are planted in place of each one that is cut down. Despite the fact that the country is actively cutting down trees for its needs and for export, the amount of forests in Sweden has doubled, and it has only been growing over the last 100 years.

Plastic rings, used to hold beverage cans (4 to 6, usually), are one of the biggest problems for marine animals. They tangle the wings of birds, suffocate seals and deform the shells of young sea turtles. Startup E6PR started producing the rings from a material that is not only 100% biodegradable, but can also serve as food for fish and other marine animals when it falls into the sea.

“Ecoingresso: art for ecology”

During the “Art for the Environment” project, citizens of Moscow exchange recycled waste for tickets to cinemas, museums, theaters, concerts and exhibitions. For this, at least 1 kg of aluminum and 2 kg of paper, glass or plastic waste must be recycled. Garbage can be taken to 10 points, whose addresses are published on the project’s website. The next event dates are from August 31st to September 24th.

Afroz Shah, a lawyer from Mumbai, managed to inspire thousands of locals to clean up the beach in the city of Versova, which was buried under piles of rubbish. In 86 weeks, volunteers, including slum dwellers and Bollywood stars, managed to clean up the beach. For this, Afroz Shah was given the title of Champion of the Earth by the UN. Soon after the cleaning, 80 sea turtles appeared there, which had not happened for over two decades.

After 10,000 gallons of mayonnaise went bad at one of the University of Michigan campuses, employees took it to an anaerobic reactor instead of throwing it away. This is a wastewater and industrial waste treatment plant, where the reaction produces biogas, which can be converted into heating and electricity. The “mayonnaise energy” was used to meet the needs of nearby farms.

And what are you doing to save the planet?