environment friendly

Europeans throw most of their wool away before using it, a fact that has baffled Estonian textile designer Katrin Kabun for decades. Here’s her solution.

Online shopping is booming and goods are being shipped around the world. The need to protect those precious products is growing too. Most of the orders are packed in bubble wrap, but just imagine the amount of plastic that millions of online consumers produce every year.

Researchers at the University of California, Davis, have developed a new type of cooling cube that could revolutionize how food is kept cold and shipped fresh without relying on ice or traditional cooling packs. 

These plastic-free, “jelly ice cubes” do not melt, are compostable and anti-microbial, and prevent cross-contamination. 

“When ice melts, it’s not reusable,” said Gang Sun, a professor in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering. “We thought we could make a so-called solid ice to serve as a cooling medium and be reusable.”