Trash and garbage are other words for waste. In San Francisco, they are also words for art. A local recycling (回收) company, called Recology, created a program to give artists the opportunity to reuse unwanted objects. Artists are paid to work for four months on changing things like old tires and toys.

Ma Li, one of the artists at the center, is working on a project that includes plastic bottles and cloth. She is turning them into sculptures (雕塑). She says she learned recycling from her parents while growing up in China in the 1980s.

San Francisco artist Michael Arcega works with recycled wood and old leather belts (皮带). His artwork shows what he says is the wasteful culture of the American people. He says looking through the trash is not easy. It is hard to separate what is useful and what is really garbage.

A gallery (美术陈列室) in Los Angeles is exhibiting some of the art from the San Francisco project. The show includes sculptures from old metal and saws (锯子) cut to look like trees. Los Angeles gallery owner Liz Gordon says artists have a history of recycling. “People who don’t have resources find supplies from garbage and have been using them for many years.”

Artist Ma Li says these art works have a message. “So everyone can come together to actually make a change in their daily life to save the environment and resources.”

Mike Sangiacomo heads the recycling company. He says he hopes to see as much waste as possible reused. “Along the way, if some of it is made into some fun pieces of art and draws people’s attention to the problem, we think it’s a great way to do something that’s good for our business, good for our community, and good for society.” The project shows how a little imagination can change one person’s trash into another’s art work.

Multiple actions have been taken to fight food waste, but one young man is making a big difference with   technology. Liu Jichen, a student from Tsinghua University, has developed a WeChat mini-program called “Clear Your Plate”.

After a meal, users can open the mini-program and take a picture of their empty plates. Once the image is recognized by the AI, students can collect points and use them to buy gifts or purchase charity meals donated to children in poor areas.

The idea came from Liu’s experience in a canteen where he found that diners finishing their food could get a card and then small gifts with a certain number of cards collected.

“Technological innovation is a good way to reduce food waste and contribute to global food challenges.” Liu thought. With this in mind, he organized a team of 20 members to work on the project in 2017. To solve the AI’s problem of identifying photos of empty plates, the team spent half a year collecting over 100,000 samples in canteens and restaurants. In 2018, the mini-program was officially put into operation on Oct 16, World Food Day.

This year, the one-month campaign has attracted almost 1.6 million participants and collectively reduced food waste by 862 tons and carbon emissions by 3,337 tons.

“There were so many unknowns in research and development. For us, the biggest psychological challenge was whether we were confident enough to complete it,” Liu said. However, they not only achieved their goal, but now, the mini-program has more than 5 million registered users.

Thanks to his actions concerning social issues, Liu Jichen was inducted into the 2020 Class of Young Leaders   for the Sustainable Development Goals in September.

Plastic mobile phones cases and sweet wrappers, some more than 50 years old, have recently been pulled from the sea off the coast of East Yorkshire. The finds lead to growing concern among scientists about the long-term impact of plastic waste on our seas, with research suggesting it takes over 400 years for a drinks bottle to breakdown in the sea.

Notpla, a London-based startup company, is currently designing a seaweed-based replacement for single-use plastic packaging. Founded in 2014, the company has been sparing no efforts to further develop its product line.

The firm initially looked to seaweed as the solution to the world’s white pollution, because it is plentiful, grows quickly, doesn’t compete with land crops and doesn’t use chemicals, but absorbs carbon from the air. Design director Karlijn Sibbel says, “It can grow into the sea, where it actually has many positive benefits so it can create new ecosystems for other organisms to grow in.”

Sibbel says they look to nature as inspiration “for the ideal packaging” like the skin on a fruit. “A peel (果皮) will eventually be used as nutrients by nature, disappear and become part of the cycle.”

“The exciting thing is that this is a film that can replace most of the flexible packaging you see around,” Sibbel says. The potential contents could include coffee grounds or toilet paper. For food items, such as noodles, they have even experimented with adding flavors to the packaging, so that dissolving the bag could add seasoning to the food. “You can cook with it. And you can really start to rethink what we can do with these materials,” she explained.

The approach feels especially relevant as the world is coming to terms with the effects of decades of uncontrolled plastic production. Co-CEO Paslier says, “We’re excited to see our power in the foodservice industry and looking forward to moving into the fashion markets very soon.