Canada's Environmental Voice
In 2016, the magazine TakePart reported that 26 billion pounds (11,800,000 tonnes) of textile is tossed into US landfills each year. You might donate clothing in hopes that someone will re-love it, but according to the 2015 film The True Cost, only 10 percent of clothes that people donate get sold. […]
When my Austrian grandma passed away, I found her 20-year-old Dirndl in her wardrobe. Although it was much too big for me, I was emotionally unable to throw it away. Eventually, I decided this Dirndl deserved to be worn again. So, I opened all the seams, divided it into its […]
I cram a new dress into my already overstuffed closet, dislodging a sweater that coils to the floor in a heap. I realize there is just no more space and recall the day my husband and I first viewed this home. “It’s a huge house,” the sales agent had beamed, […]
Raw Cotton Demand: ~26.0 million tonnesWater use: Up to 3860** litres/kgEnergy use: 50 MJ/kg Pesticides or chemicalsHeavy pesticide use leads to reduced soil fertility, loss of biodiversity and water pollution. Effluent/pollution from manufacturingEcosystem contamination from pollutants in runoff. Toxic wastewater from manufacturing process (e.g., cleaning, dyeing).*
EACH WEEK, A\J staffers share our favourite facts & findings from whatever books, articles, documentaries, podcasts and other media we’ve been consuming. Here’s what we’ve learned this week!
Some people, when handed lemons, make lemonade. Other people, like family farmer Bern Kotelko of Alberta, redefine what it means to get lemons, reframe the challenge of making juice from them, and create something far more useful and self-sustaining than lemonade. At least, that’s what Kotelko did when life handed […]
“Do you see those mounds of plastic?” our guide asks. “Each one was a cow.” Jitu Solanki is a wildlife expert working on his PhD in Zoology. He also leads wildlife tours from the guesthouse in Bikaner, Rajasthan (India’s largest state), with his wife, Puja. He can always guarantee you […]
Roughly 9.1 million tonnes of plastic waste will head from land to sea this year alone in 192 coastal countries worldwide.
It won’t come as a surprise to most that we waste a significant amount of food as a society. We’ve all experienced that moment at the restaurant when we realize we won’t be able to finish what’s on our plate or that moment we find the strawberries in our fridge […]
Waste-to-energy is an idea about to hit the big-time. What used to be a suite of technologies mostly employed by the poor in developing countries is now being eagerly revamped for distribution across North America by waste-to-energy start-ups hoping to capitalize on the fantastic quantities of waste we produce. We […]
