50 Stories To Keep You Up To Date With The Interesting Things That Are Happening In The World

Sweden really seems years ahead of other countries when it comes to recycling. The Earth is currently in a trash crisis. Experts estimate that humans throw away about two billion metric tons of unsustainable, human-generated waste every year. It's predicted that if we keep polluting at this rate, there will be 3.78 billion metric tons of waste yearly by 2050.

So, how are the Swedes able to keep the amount of waste going into their landfills at only 1% when, on average, 60% of the world's waste ends up in landfills? It's all thanks to a number of green initiatives established in the 1990s.

1. An Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) policy enforces producers to cover the costs for the collection and disposal of products;
2. Putting compostable waste into landfills is illegal;
3. The government charges for how much your waste weighs, incentivizing people to recycle.

With all these efforts, Sweden now has a recycling rate of 99%, whereas in 1975, it was only 38%. In 2020, the Swedish Waste Management Association announced that the country recycles:

1. 87% of PET plastic bottles;
2. 87% of aluminum cans;
3. and 61% of all packaging materials.

Part of the recycled trash goes to recycling or incinerators; almost half of it is turned into electricity in waste-to-energy facilities. Food waste is turned into biogas for buses and to heat apartment buildings.

But what fascinates us the most is how Sweden imports 800k tons of waste from the UK, Norway, Italy, and Ireland. The plants that repurpose waste coming from these countries supply almost 1.5 million households with heat and about 780k with electricity. Sweden is on track to soon fulfill its zero-waste goal.

While Rolex does not donate 90% of its profits to charity, it is owned by a Swiss private foundation. They use a portion of Rolex's profits to invest in charitable causes—especially in Geneva. Rolex doesn't disclose how much it donates to charity, but it has been behind such projects as the building of the Hans Wilsdorf Bridge.

Bhutan is indeed the first and only (so far!) country that is "carbon negative." In 2022, its officials claimed that they offset four times the carbon their country emits. About 75% of the country's land is covered in forests, which sequester about nine million tons of carbon every year. Bhutan also exports a lot of its hydroelectric energy to India.

Female frogs really do fake their deaths to avoid unwanted attention, but why is this so surprising? Until 2023, when German researchers uncovered the truth, scientists believed that females were unable to choose or defend themselves against male coercion. Sometimes, when several males clung to one female, it could even be fatal. It's good to know that they can trick the males in this way and have some peace, while pretending not to be alive.