Sustainability & Environment

Backcountry backpackers operate under Leave No Trace principles — pack out everything you pack in. The compostable angle gets complicated in remote settings where you can’t actually compost in the field. Here’s the practical waste strategy that respects LNT principles while reducing what you carry home.

Vermicomposting — composting with worms — is the most space-efficient composting method available. A worm bin under your kitchen sink processes the kitchen scraps from a typical household and produces some of the best soil amendment you can make. Here’s how the system actually works and how to set one up.

Most composting guides start with elaborate tool lists that scare people off. The honest answer is that you can start composting today with two items you already have, and add equipment over time as you figure out what you actually need. Here’s the realistic gear list for backyard, indoor, and apartment composting.

Funeral flowers create a sustainability question most families haven’t thought about until the day they’re sitting with hundreds of arrangements wondering what to do with them. The flowers were a meaningful gesture; the disposal shouldn’t undo that. Here’s the practical guide to handling funeral flowers compassionately and sustainably.

Compostable packaging fails in field if you don’t actually verify what you’re buying. Manufacturers cut corners. Suppliers swap products. Certifications expire. A QA program catches problems before they reach customers and before contamination penalties hit your hauler relationship. Here’s how to build one.

Short answer: most baby wipes can’t be composted. The conventional ones contain plastic fibers (polyester or polypropylene) that don’t break down. Some genuinely-compostable options exist but are a small fraction of the market. Here’s how to tell which is which and what to do with each.

Major catering companies handle thousands of events per year — corporate lunches, weddings, conferences, college campuses. The biggest of them have built composting programs that handle hundreds of tons of food waste annually. Here are six worth knowing about, and what they actually do.

Hybrid work and hot-desking changed what employees carry to the office. The pre-2020 setup of one assigned desk with a coffee mug and a personal water bottle doesn’t work when you’re sitting in a different seat every Tuesday. Here’s the modern reusable kit for hot-desking workers.

Most home composting guides tell you to keep dairy out of the pile. The reasoning isn’t that dairy can’t decompose — it can — but that the way it decomposes attracts pests and produces strong smells. Here’s the actual nuance, and what to do with the yogurt that just expired in the back of your…

The 2pm cross-functional meeting in the conference room generates a surprising amount of single-use waste — water bottles, disposable coffee cups, individual snack packaging, paper handouts. Most of it is unnecessary. Here’s a practical setup that runs the same meetings without the trash.

Setting up a restaurant composting program is more operationally complicated than people expect. The waste audit, hauler selection, bin layout, staff training, and contamination management each take real work. Here’s the playbook for restaurants ready to do it properly.

The mountain of plastic confetti generated by New Year’s Eve celebrations and other big events is one of those waste problems hiding in plain sight. Compostable alternatives exist and work — paper, dried petals, leaves, or biodegradable specialty confetti. Here’s how to switch.