1 . Used electronics are piing up fast: they are filling up landfills with dangerous pieces of waste. Some e-waste is relatively large, such as air conditioners; other e-waste is more unnoticed, such as smart labels that contain disposable batteries and other equipment.

“It’s these small batteries that are big problems,” says University of California, Irvine, public health scientist Dele Ogunseitan, who is a green technology researcher and adviser for major tech companies and was not involved in developing the battery. “Nobody really pays attention to where they end up.” Researchers at the Cellulose & Wood Materials Laboratory at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology are working to address this problem. Their new paper describes a water-activated paper battery developed from environmentally friendly materials that could eventually present a sustainable alternative to the more harmful batteries common in low-power devices.

The paper battery has the same key components as standard batteries but packages them differently. Like a typical chemical battery, it has a positively charged side and a negatively charged side. A traditional battery’s components are covered in plastic and metal; in the new battery, however, the positively and negatively charged sides are inks printed onto the front and back of a piece of paper. That paper is filled with salt, which dissolves (溶解) when the paper becomes wet. When the paper is dry, the battery is shelf-stable. Once the paper is wet, the battery starts working within 20 seconds. The new battery’s operating performance declines as the paper dries. When the scientists rewet the paper during testing, the battery regained function and lasted an hour before beginning to dry out again.

That future may not be so far off. It is hard to predict a time line for manufacturing such items at scale, but the head of the study says he is in contact with potential industry partners and believes these batteries could make their way into products within the next two to five years.

2 . People are looking for ways to reduce their carbon footprint. Purchasing property that is environmentally responsible is a good investment for those who are _______ their own health and the well-being of the earth. Based on this trend, eco-communities are being designed with a green _______ in mind. Dockside Green in Victoria, British Columbia is one of them.

If everything goes according to plan, Dockside Green will be a _______ community along the harbor front of British Columbia’s capital city. The community will be home to 2,500 people and will _______ residential, office, and retail space. Builders of Dockside Green have the environment in mind with every choice they make. They ensure proper ventilation (通风), and guarantee residents 100% fresh indoor air. Building materials, such as paints and wood, are _______ and non-poisonous. Eco-conscious builders use bamboo wherever possible because it grows fast and does not require _______ to grow.

Energy efficiency is one of the _______ concerns in eco-communities, such as Dockside Green. Not only do energy-efficient appliances and light fixtures (照明设备) reduce the environmental _______ of heating and hot water, but they also save residents and business owners money. Dockside Green claims that homeowners will use 55% less energy than average residents in Canada. Residents will have individual water metres (水表) _______ studies show that people use around 20% less energy when they are billed for exactly what they use. ________, water is treated at Dockside Green and reused for flushing toilets.

Planners of eco-communities such as Dockside Green must take the ________ into consideration. Dockside Green plans on reusing 90% of its construction waste. They also plan to continue using local suppliers for all of their transport and maintenance needs. This is a great way to reduce ________.

Dockside residents will be encouraged to take advantage of a mini transport system and buy into the community’s car share program. Finally, plans are underway for a high-tech heating system that will use ________ energy instead of fossil fuels.

Dockside residents will ________ excellent local services with high-quality healthcare, shopping and education at the heart of the community, along with excellent leisure facilities and plentiful green open spaces. Eco-communities will prefer the use of locally-sourced goods and services; they will be ________ places to live, promoting a sense of civic pride, responsibility and, as the name suggests, community.

5 . In 2022, campaign group Fashion Revolution Chelsea dye a garden for its Chelsea Flower Show presentation. An ancient craft, natural dyeing is a practice whose time has come again, with hand tie-dyed fashion also making a comeback in recent years.

The revival has been encouraged by Covid lockdowns, “which allowed people to explore the craft at home, says natural-dyeing enthusiast and teacher Susan Dye. It’s unlikely, though, that the practice would have caught on in quite the same way if not for a continually growing discomfort about fashion’s heavy footprint. From carbon emissions to animal cruelty, fashion is under considerable inspection. “Put it this way, 97% of dyes used in the industry are petrochemically (石油化学产品) based,” says sustainable fashion consultant Jackie Andrews, who helped advise the UN Ethical Fashion Initiative. We’ve got net zero targets which mean we’re going to have to remove all those petrochemicals from the manufacturing cycle.

Fashion is a huge polluter. According to the UN Environment Program, the industry is responsible for up to one-fifth of all industrial water pollution—due to the fact that most clothes today are produced in poorer countries where regulation is weak and enforcement weaker. Waste water is dumped directly into rivers and streams, poisoning the land as well as the water sources of people and animals who rely on them.

It’s easy to see why someone who cares about people, planet and animals, as well as clothes, might turn to natural plant dyeing. From the beauty of the raw materials—often wild plants-to the property of only bonding with natural fiber like cotton and linen (亚麻布) from the minor footprint of recycling old clothing that has grayed or faded over time to the vibrant and long-lasting dyeing results, plant dyeing feels like a quiet act of rebellion. This is why, while beginners start with simply changing their clothes’ color, new worlds open. Many of today’s natural dyers grow their own dye plants, run local community workshops, and advocate for change in industrialized fashion systems and beyond.

In the ancient walled city of Sana’a, mud skyscrapers rise high into the sky. The towering structures are built entirely out of earth and decorated with amazing geometric patterns. The local mud architecture is so unique that the city has been recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

“As an outstanding example of architecture reflecting the spatial (空间的) characteristics of the early years, the city in its landscape has an extraordinary artistic quality,” UNESCO writes in its description of Sana’a. “The buildings also show exceptional craftsmanship (工艺) in the use of local materials and techniques.”

Even though the buildings in Sana’a are thousands of years old, the ancient structures are still inhabited today and most remain private houses. It is easy to see why these mud buildings have not lost their appeal—they are well-insulated (隔热的), sustainable and extremely adaptable for modern use. “It is the architecture of the future,” says Damluji, co-founder of the Mud Brick Architecture Foundation.

Architects around the world are reviving (复兴) raw-earth construction as they seek to construct sustainable buildings that can survive extreme weather events such as flash floods and intense heat. Could this ancient form of architecture influence the design of our future homes?

The construction industry accounts for 38% of global carbon dioxide emissions. The building sector has an important role to play if the world is to meet the goal of reaching net zero by 2050. Concrete, a common modern construction material, has a huge carbon footprint. Replacing concrete with less polluting materials is important to achieving our climate goals, scientists warn.

The ancient material, mud, could be the perfect sustainable replacement for concrete, according to Damluji. Constructing with mud has a very low impact on the environment and the material itself is fully recyclable, she says. “If you want to pull down a wall or change the design, you can recycle all the materials.” An added benefit is that mud buildings are warm in the winter and cool in the summer. This reduces the need for air conditioning units, which consume large amounts of electricity and contain refrigerants (制冷剂) that make up greenhouse gas emissions. Mud structures are also incredibly strong and resistant to extreme weather, such as heatwaves, floods and droughts, which scientists say will become more frequent and intense as temperatures continue to rise.

Therefore, people who wish to live in a modern, comfortable home should consider one made of mud. Overall, it makes for highly advanced as well as sustainable design.

10 . Lisa Gautier receives nearly a dozen parcels of human hair every day. With her San-Francisco-based non-profit organization Matter of Trust, Gautier turns donated hair into mats used to soak up oil spills on land, and booms(long tubes)used for spills at sea.

A standard way to clean up oil from land is to use mats made from polypropylene(聚丙烯). But polypropylene is a non-biodegradable plastic, and producing it ultimately means more drilling for oil. Hair, by contrast, is an environmentally friendly resource that can soak up around five times its weight in oil, according to Matter of Trust, and it is abundant.

Oil spills can pollute drinking water, endanger public health, harm plants and wildlife, and damage the economy. According to Gautier, the spills that hit the headlines only make up 5% of global oil pollution.

Megan Murray, an environmental biologist at the University of Technology Sydney, develops sustainable technologies to tackle oil spills. Her research indicates that as well as being biodegradable, human hair is often just as effective as polypropylene, and in some circumstances even better. “The hair mats are very beneficial to land spills,” says Murray but adds that when raw oil is spilled on beach sand, it is very difficult to absorb it using any of the materials she has tested. Another advantage of hair is that it costs less than conventional materials and is “globally available as a recycled material,” she says.

However, Murray cautions that hair mats are not a perfect solution, because they are single-use, and can only be dealt with by burning or by burying into soil which then isn’t suitable for growing food. She is now researching methods to extract the oil from a used hair mat, meaning both can be reused.

As the hair mat designs aren’t under patent, other groups have begun producing their own mats and booms. Gautier is pleased to see the movement growing. “Anyone can make a hair mat,” she says. “It creates green jobs, it cleans water, it reduces waste in landfill, and it’s promoting renewable resources.”