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Though you may not see a compost bin next to the trash and recycling bins where you live, in California's Bay Area, a green bin is the norm. From those green bins, food scraps, yard waste, and the like can be transformed into a dark, nutrient-rich material for farms near and far. KQED's Bay Curious series answers the question: How Does Oakland Turn Food Scraps to Soil? An excerpt:

Magic (and chemistry!) really start at the landfill, which despite its name is primarily a composting facility. When the transfer trucks arrive, they dump all the green waste onto an asphalt pad that's larger than a football field. Asphalt doesn't absorb water, which is critical, because compost piles need a lot of water to effectively decompose.

Next the green waste is passed through a machine that grinds the materials into smaller bits. Now the green waste is starting to look more like dirt or soil, and less like a heaping pile of leaves, Christmas trees, melon rinds, coffee cups and mysterious lumps of someone's unfinished dinner.

But this is where the plastic bags come back to haunt us. When a plastic bag is mixed with green waste, the grinder spits out tiny pieces of plastic that can pollute the air, be accidentally eaten by birds, and otherwise wreak havoc on the environment. So if you take one thing away from this article, remember: No plastic bags in the green bin.

To learn more about composting, watch Inside the Compost Cycle: Turning waste to nutrient-rich soil. Bonus: The Surprising Places We Waste Energy and Rescuing NYC's Leftover Cuisine.

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How Does Oakland Turn Food Scraps to Soil? | The Kid Should See This

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Smart videos for curious minds of all ages: Science, art, nature, animals, space, technology, DIY, food, music, animation, and more! The Kid Should See This is a free video resource for parents, teachers, and kids of all ages. Watch a huge collection of high-quality, kid-friendly, age appropriate, educational videos together at home, during homeschool, or in the classroom.

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Coke and McDonald's Promise to Recycle More

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Coke and McDonald's Promise to Recycle More

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Great Pacific Garbage Patch Hurts Animals and The Sea

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Great Pacific Garbage Patch Hurts Animals and The Sea

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Minute Earth: Ocean Confetti, how our plastic trash gets broken down into minuscule bits called micro-plastics.

So what can we do to help? Pair the above with this super-informative video from the NRDC: Stop Marine Plastic Pollution.

We all need to do our fair share to stop plastic pollution: individuals need to recycle and never litter, but producers of single use plastic packaging need to do more too. We need producers to design packaging so that it is fully recyclable, and so there is less waste. We also need producers to help cover the costs of keeping their products out of the ocean.

And here are ten really easy ways to reduce plastic pollution:

1. Stop using bottled water - In most cases it is no safer than tap water and costs 3 times as much gasoline and 1,000 times as much as tap water

2. Bring your own reusable grocery bags with you when you go to the store

3. Use a refillable dispenser for your hand soap and dish washing liquid, one large bottle is better than using a bunch of small ones

4. Use a reusable container instead of sandwich bags

5. Bring your own to-go mug with you to the coffee shop

6. Say no to single serving packaging, buy in bulk and share with friends instead

7. Use silverware instead of plastic utensils, keep a set at the office, bring a set on a picnic or to the beach

8. Download your music instead of buying CD's

9. Seek out items that are not made of plastic

10. Avoid plastics that are not readily recyclable -#3(pvc), #4(ldpe), #5(pp), #6(ps), #7 (other)

Bonus! A video with yet another solution: compostable packaging made from mushrooms.

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Ocean Confetti, the challenge of micro-plastics | The Kid Should See This

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Smart videos for curious minds of all ages: Science, art, nature, animals, space, technology, DIY, food, music, animation, and more! The Kid Should See This is a free video resource for parents, teachers, and kids of all ages. Watch a huge collection of high-quality, kid-friendly, age appropriate, educational videos together at home, during homeschool, or in the classroom.

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VIDEO: Massive Plastic Debris in The Ocean

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VIDEO: Massive Plastic Debris in The Ocean

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Jess Ische on April 3 2018

New video taken by diver Rich Horner off the tourist island of Bali show an abundance of plastic in the form of bags, bottles, and buckets. Experts are calling the influx of trash in the ocean a global threat.

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Stunning New Video Shows Massive

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SafeShare.tv - Stunning New Video Shows Massive Plastic...

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New video taken by diver Rich Horner off the tourist island of Bali show an abundance of plastic in the form of bags, bottles, and buckets. Experts are calling the influx of trash in the ocean a global threat.

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VIDEO: Is Your Fleece Jacket Polluting The Ocean?

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VIDEO: Is Your Fleece Jacket Polluting The Ocean?

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VIDEO: Where Does New York City's Waste Go?

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VIDEO: Where Does New York City's Waste Go?

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We recently got a glimpse of the work inside of one of the largest sanitation departments in the world, but this The New York Times report on NYC's trash is much more in depth:

If you're going to have this many people live on this little amount of land, you cannot do it without a lot of infrastructure. Every day, more than 7,200 men and women of the department go out in 2,000 collection trucks and collect 10,000 tons of residential waste and another 1,500 tons of recyclable material.

From NYC's dubious history with garbage, to the current landfill and composting options available to the city's residents, schools, and businesses, find out what happens to New York City's trash.

Related watching: The Landfill: how different kinds of trash can be harvestable resources, Reading Rainbow: How Trash Is Recycled, and Inside San Francisco's Compost Cycle.

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We recently got a glimpse of the work inside of one of the largest sanitation departments in the world, but this The New York Times report on NYC's trash is much more in depth: If you're going to have this many people live on this little amount of land, you cannot do it without a lot of infrastr

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We're always told to turn the lights out as we leave the room, or to shut off the water while we brush our teeth, but those are just two places that we might be wasting energy. In Joe Hanson's third episode of It's Okay to Be Smart's energy series, he explores the surprising places that we can be more energy efficient: Food waste, water waste, fertilizer waste, food transportation, gasoline consumption for powering cars, planes, trains, or ships... the list goes on.

But where there are problems, there can be solutions. He has a few suggestions to get us thinking about how we can improve our energy usage.

Next, watch Hanson's two other energy episodes: The Essentials of Energy and Will We Ever Run Out Of Oil?

Related solutions in the archives: The Landfill, Inside the Compost Cycle, turning human waste into drinking water, and Baltimore's Trash-Collecting Water Wheel. Plus, a primer: What is energy?

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We're always told to turn the lights out as we leave the room, or to shut off the water while we brush our teeth, but those are just two places that we might be wasting energy.

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I Value Food: A Campaign to End Food Waste

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The statistics are staggering. In America, we waste 40% of the food we produce while 49 million households deal with food insecurity every year. It's time to waste less, and enjoy more. Sustainable America's www.IValueFood.com is a movement that offers a new way to enjoy, celebrate and learn about food.

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ocean garbage patch could be bigger than mexico - cnn video

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Ocean garbage patch could be bigger than Mexico - CNN Video

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A research team has discovered a garbage patch in the South Pacific Ocean estimated to be bigger than Mexico. CNN's Lynda Kinkade reports on the efforts to stop ocean pollution.

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With approximately 40% of US food being wasted ever year, and only 5% of that waste being recycled, there is a lot of room for positive change. This short film highlights a Colorado energy company's attempts to turn that waste into energy by collecting from grocery stores, restaurants and dairy farms. We followed along on garbage trucks in zero-waste focused Boulder and behind the scenes at a bio digester and composting site.

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Did you know nearly 40 percent of food that's grown, distributed, and bought never gets eaten? Learn why "ugly" food gets a bad rap. Through actions like food rescue and redistribution, composting and eating head to tail, people are doing something to reduce the food we waste.

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VIDEO: Kids Take Action Against Ocean Plastic

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VIDEO: Kids Take Action Against Ocean Plastic

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Despite the vastness of Earth's oceans, plastic pollutants are turning up everywhere, from the deep sea to the Arctic ice pack. In this short film from filmmaker Chris Hanson, 17 Hawaiian students study the impact of plastic pollution on their local beaches.

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About Short Film Showcase:

The Short Film Showcase spotlights exceptional short videos created by filmmakers from around the web and selected by National Geographic editors. We look for work that affirms National Geographic's belief in the power of science, exploration, and storytelling to change the world. The filmmakers created the content presented, and the opinions expressed are their own, not those of National Geographic Partners.

Know of a great short film that should be part of our Showcase? Email [email protected] to submit a video for consideration. See more from National Geographic's Short Film Showcase at documentary.com

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Despite the vastness of Earth's oceans, plastic pollutants are turning up everywhere, from the deep sea to the Arctic ice pack. Shockingly, researchers estimate that by 2050 the oceans will contain more plastic-by weight-than fish. As these degrading plastics leach potentially toxic chemicals into the seas, they pose a serious threat to ocean animals, as well as to humans.

To combat this frightening prognosis, Hawaii-among other places-is contemplating a ban on the sale and distribution of single-use polystyrene. In this short film from filmmaker Chris Hanson, 17 Hawaiian students study the impact of plastic pollution on their local beaches in order to help create a more sustainable future for the world's oceans.

Follow Chris Hanson on Vimeo.

Winner of the Film4Climate competition organized by the Connect4Climate Program of the World Bank

Kids Take Action Against Ocean Plastic | Short Film Showcase

National Geographic

www.youtube.com/natgeo

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Kids Take Action Against Ocean Plastic | S... - SafeShare.tv

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Despite the vastness of Earth's oceans, plastic pollutants are turning up everywhere, from the deep sea to the Arctic ice pack. In this short film from filmmaker Chris Hanson, 17 Hawaiian students study the impact of plastic pollution on their local beaches.

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Plastic cutlery has been around for years, widely considered the only choice for cheap, disposable cutlery. Knowing the threat plastic poses to our environment and health, Narayana Peesapaty created a tasty and nutritious alternative: edible cutlery. Made with flours of jowar (sorghum) blended with rice and wheat, the spoons contain no chemicals, preservatives, fat, emulsifiers, artificial colors, or milk products. They're 100 percent natural, biodegradable, and come in a variety of sweet and savory flavors.

In 2016, Black Ticket Films and The Better India collaborated on this video to promote Peesapaty's innovative edible spoons. "Two weeks after its release, the film had received 80 million views across multiple social media platforms and reached audiences in 20 countries." The scientist's company, Bakeys Edible Cutlery, also recived a lot of orders and investment interest. National Geographic is now sharing their story as a part of its Short Film Showcase.

Interested in reducing the amount of plastic you use? Check out Zero Waste Chef's recommendations for Going Plastic-Free in 2018 (or Close to It), and Lauren Singer's Zero Waste Swaps: Common Kitchen Items.

See more innovative solutions including turning banana peels into a bioplastic, The Fungi in Your Future, edible milk-based packaging, tents that turn into jackets, and catching fog to help combat Peru's water shortage.

Bonus: How knives, forks, and spoons are made.

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An innovative edible spoon, a smart alternative to plastic waste

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Plastic cutlery has been around for years, widely considered the only choice for cheap, disposable cutlery. Knowing the threat plastic poses to our environment and health, Narayana Peesapaty created a tasty and nutritious alternative: edible cutlery. Made with flours of jowar (sorghum) blended with