Creating an Eco-Friendly Early Years Setting: A Practical Guide
... In this investigation of the manufacturing process, the complexity of generating biodegradable coffee cups embedded with seeds is explored . From molding and shaping processes to seed insertion procedures, this trip shows the workmanship behind these eco-friendly cups, where sustainability meets practicality in every step of manufacturing (Hadland, 2020). ...
In “Plant-able Cups: Sip Sustainably, Seed Responsibly,” disposable cups are used to illustrate ecological development. The chapter begins with traditional cups' environmental impacts. Next, it discusses environmentally sustainable materials, design considerations, and water-soluble inks. The essay describes plant-able cups' distinctive functions, explains biodegradation, and offers planting advice. The story highlights native seeds and environmental partnerships, boosting biodiversity and local people. The chapter also discusses consumer experience, including communication, user testimonials, and material balance and waste management issues. It predicts plant-able cup technology advances and global use. The chapter concludes with a quick assessment of the benefits to the environment and society, encouraging readers to adopt sustainable choices for a greener future.
Why not start as you mean to go on, with an audit of how eco-friendly your setting is? Hilary White provides a in-depth practical guide to making small changes that make will make a big difference to how environmentally friendly your provision can become in 2021.
This chapter provides a review of the historical accomplishments and the current challenges for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in early childhood in the Portugal. Specific references are made to progress being made with regard to environmental education, economic education and education for social equity. The chapter also reports on the research trials carried out using the Environmental Rating Scale for Sustainable Development in Early Childhood (ERS-SDEC) instrument that was developed by the authors in collaboration with international colleagues in the World Organisation for Early Childhood Education (OMEP).
The chapter includes a brief account of the modern education movement (MEM) pedagogy applied in many Portuguese schools and preschools. A number of features of MEM-ESD preschool practices often demonstrate substantial pedagogic potential and may be considered of significant international interest as a model for delivering ESD in a more holistic and intergenerational manner. A number of adaptations of the ERS-SDEC are made, but it was found that the instrument promoted the adoption of a wider understanding of ESD by the teachers.
About 200 second-hand plastic toys sourced in the UK have been analysed by x-ray fluorescence spectrometry for hazardous elements (As, Ba, Cd, Cr, Hg, Pb, Sb, Se) and Br as a proxy for brominated flame retardants. Each element was detected in > 20 toys or components thereof with the exception of As, Hg and Se, with the frequent occurrence of Br, Cd and Pb and at maximum concentrations of about 16,000, 20,000 and 5000 μg g-1, respectively, of greatest concern from a potential exposure perspective. Migration was evaluated on components of 26 toys under simulated stomach conditions (0.07 M HCl) with subsequent analysis by inductively coupled plasma spectrometry. In eight cases, Cd or Pb exceeded their migration limits as stipulated by the current EU Toy Safety Directive (17 and 23 μμ g-1, respectively), with Cd released from yellow and red Lego bricks exceeding its limit by an order of magnitude. Two further cases were potentially non-compliant based on migratable Cr, with one item also containing > 250 μg g-1 migratable Br. While there is no retroactive regulation on second-hand toys, consumers should be aware that old, mouthable, plastic items may present a source of hazardous element exposure to infants.
Link: https://hbr.org/2017/07/every-generation-wants-meaningful-work-but-thinks-other-age-groups-are-in-it-for-the-money
Philosophers have long argued that, since so much of an employee’s waking time is spent at work, and since their sense of self is tied to the work they do, businesses have a moral responsibility to make sure work is meaningful. If this is the case, managers need to understand what employees actually think is meaningful. Although researchers have searched for a comprehensive definition of meaningful work for years, there are still questions about whether definitions differ depending on age, race, family situation, etc. New research involving employee interviews and survey data finds that all generations tend to define meaning at work similarly. However, each generation believes the others are only in it for the money, don’t work as hard, and do not care about meaning. If each generation thinks this way, it’s not surprising that they treat each other differently than if they believe they are all striving for intrinsic meaning in their jobs.
Plastic debris in the marine environment is widely documented, but the quantity of plastic entering the ocean from waste generated on land is unknown. By linking worldwide data on solid waste, population density, and economic status, we estimated the mass of land-based plastic waste entering the ocean. We calculate that 275 million metric tons (MT) of plastic waste was generated in 192 coastal countries in 2010, with 4.8 to 12.7 million MT entering the ocean. Population size and the quality of waste management systems largely determine which countries contribute the greatest mass of uncaptured waste available to become plastic marine debris. Without waste management infrastructure improvements, the cumulative quantity of plastic waste available to enter the ocean from land is predicted to increase by an order of magnitude by 2025.
Copyright © 2015, American Association for the Advancement of Science.
For the first time, the United Kingdom's consumer debt now exceeds our gross national product: a new report shows that we owe £1.35 trillion(1). Inspectors in the United States have discovered that 77,000 road bridges are in the same perilous state as the one which collapsed into the Mississippi(2). Two years after Hurricane Katrina struck, 120,000 people from New Orleans are still living in trailer homes and temporary lodgings(3). As runaway climate change approaches, governments refuse to take the necessary action. Booming inequality threatens to create the most divided societies the world has seen since before the first world war. Now a financial crisis caused by unregulated lending could turf hundreds of thousands out of their homes and trigger a cascade of economic troubles. These problems appear unrelated, but they all have something in common. They arise in large part from a meeting that took place 60 years ago in a Swiss spa resort. It laid the foundations for a philosophy of government that is responsible for many, perhaps most, of our contemporary crises. When the Mont Pelerin Society first met, in 1947, its political project did not have a name. But it knew where it was going. The society's founder, Friedrich von Hayek, remarked that the battle for ideas would take a least a generation to win, but he knew that his intellectual army would attract powerful backers. Its philosophy, which later came to be known as neoliberalism, accorded with the interests of the ultra-rich, so the ultra-rich would promote it. Neoliberalism claims that we are best served by maximum market freedom and minimum intervention by the state. The role of government should be confined to creating and defending markets, protecting private property and defending the realm. All other functions are better discharged by private enterprise, which will be prompted by the profit motive to supply essential services. By this means, enterprise is liberated, rational decisions are made and citizens are freed from the dehumanising hand of the state.
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226, 249; and the Conference of the Parties 4; crisis 103; and fossil burning 61
- Clegg
Clegg, Brian 75
climate change 4, 14, 21, 45, 103, 109, 125,
187, 204, 207, 215, 226, 249; and the
Conference of the Parties 4; crisis 103;
and fossil burning 61; global 3-4, 239;
11, 14, 61-4, 66
clothes 15, 49, 55, 77, 144-6, 170, 174, 178,
193; bad 114; children's 145; dryers 61,
145-6, 197, 233; lines 233; nonpolyester/nylon 145; tight-fitting 62;
202-3; children's 165; of food 49; plastic-coated paper 50 poisoning 1, 220, 239 poisons 3, 107, 125; addictive 139; of humans 125; rat 139; risk assessment for 81 policies 12
- Plastic Ocean
A Plastic Ocean (film) 2, 24, 32, 46, 240
plastic resources 54
plates 14, 49, 165, 197, 202-3; children's
165; of food 49; plastic-coated paper 50
poisoning 1, 220, 239
poisons 3, 107, 125; addictive 139; of
humans 125; rat 139; risk assessment for
81
policies 12, 28, 136, 153, 179, 194, 208,
217, 245, 251, 254; anti-discrimination
252; internal 246; popular 217;
protective 227; purchasing 136-7, 179,
246, 249; recruitment and retention 247,
252; sustainable transport 252
politicians 3-4, 6, 8, 58, 209-14, 217, 241;
and the banning of wet wipes containing
plastic 70; local 251; national 251; and the
plastic pollution crisis 46, 56; protecting
the planet with sustainable policies 6, 8
politics 209, 266
pollen 137, 139
pollution 24, 45, 95, 119-20, 183, 188,
192-3, 217, 249; noise 55; plastic 2, 4, 7,
24, 43, 46, 70, 146, 175, 193, 227, 249;
8, 14, 61, 63, 120-1, 131, 137, 142,
169, 182, 189, 193; companies 180;