Reasons to Hope no. 5

We’re back with some good news from our area to spice up your conversation with your barista or at your next dinner party. 

1. Limits on Australian polluters for greenhouse gas emissions

New South wales Environment Protection Authority (EPA) has released their draft policy which will set up targets and enforceable emissions limits for polluters on greenhouse gas emissions, such as mining and agriculture. It is the first time in Australia that CO2 is being treated by a government agency as a “pollutant.” 

2. Mushrooms can eat cigarette butts

Fungi Solutions team in Melbourne have trained mushrooms to grow on discarded cigarette butts while working to digest their components like nicotine. The key finding of the study shows that mushrooms can be trained to digest plastic. Fungi Solutions have collected 138,761 cigarette butts in the process of the study, diverting them from landfill.

Source: Cleanup.org.au

3. Frog hotels help species recover from bushfires

Ecologists are asking people to build frog hotels in their backyard to regenerate the frog community in East Gippsland. Structures using soil, native ferns and PVC pipes can replicate the natural environment so that they can take refuge to be cool and safe to be in. Frogs are used as biological indicators to assess the quality of the waterways as they react to pollution and chemicals.

4. Sungai Watch is cleaning up the riverbanks in Bali

Sungai Watch began as community clean ups of local volunteers meeting every Friday. They have now collected over 625,000 of plastics and over 438,000kg of organics from the waterways. They sort what they collect into recycling and organics. They also collect the data of the types of plastic found and conduct brand audits, alerting the companies that make them so that they are held responsible for their packaging.

We hope these stories have brightened your day knowing that there are good things being done for the environment out there :)