How one woman reduced her waste to a jar a week

Tippi Thole recycled. She composted. She thought she was doing a pretty good job environmentally. Then she heard a talk on plastics, and the container of trash she and her eight-year-old son emptied out every week began to look irresponsible.

Tippi Thole with a week's worth of household waste.

Thole replaced her 10-gallon (38-litre) can with a small wastebasket that had been under her bathroom sink and started to change the way she shopped and lived. Within 14 weeks, the family's weekly trash fitted into a six-centimetre-tall Mason jar. With room to spare.

Read the comment by Fiona Adams Fogg from The Age - “How one woman reduced her waste to a jar a week.”

France bans plastic cups, plates and cutlery

France has passed a new law to ensure all plastic cups, cutlery and plates can be composted and are made of biologically-sourced materials.

Plastic glasses, knives, forks and food boxes are
 pictured in a takeaway restaurant in Paris.

The law, which comes into effect in 2020, is part of the Energy Transition for Green Growth – an ambitious plan that aims to allow France to make a more effective contribution to tackling climate change. 

Although some ecologists’ organisations are in favour of the ban, others argue that it has violated European Union rules on free movement of goods.

Read Shehab Khan’s story from the Independent - “France bans plastic cups, plates and cutlery.”