Today is the LAST DAY Pine Team! Don't forgot to complete all your challenges before midnight tonight!

Congratulations everyone on completing the Drawdown Challenge!

"Humans now buy a million plastic bottles a minute. Most of this plastic ends up in the ocean. By 2050, the ocean will contain more plastic by weight than fish." https://www.ovoenergy.com/blog/green/10-shocking-facts-about-waste.html

According to this article published by IFLScience, there's a ton of nuclear waste trapped in glaciers. As the glaciers melt at an increasing rate (thanks to Global Warming - yes, it's a thing!), we/the Earth is more and more exposed to this radioactive material. Check out the article for yourself: https://www.iflscience.com/environment/large-quantities-of-nuclear-fallout-are-stored-in-melting-glaciers/

In light of the Notre Dame Cathedral fire, I decided to do a bit of research into the environmental effects of building/structural fires. I was a little disappointed that there weren't any articles yet predicting the effects of the Notre Dame specifically, but I did find an interesting website that goes through pretty much everything you'd want/need to know about fires. Here's the link for those who are interested: https://www.nfpa.org/News-and-Research/Data-research-and-tools/US-Fire-Problem/The-environmental-impact-of-fire

Making new paper from recycled materials uses less energy than producing paper from virgin tree products and leaves more trees to absorb excess carbon dioxide.

The majority of the 4 million tons of junk mail that Americans receive annually ends up in landfills.
(For those who are interested, all of the credit for the statistics I've been posting come from this amazing site - rubiconglobal.com)

Aluminum cans make up less than 1% of waste in the United States because they are the #1 recycled item. 

Got my 100% recycled backpack last night! (Made from 31 recycled bottles, algae, and buckles that people had thrown out.)
 https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/778570141/mobius-the-worlds-most-eco-progressive-backpack 
The environmental impact of this product vs standard backpacks is amazing, not to mention that the company also went out of their way to plant 10 trees for every backpack sold. 
I'm so excited to try it out this weekend!

Purchased a reusable straw last time I was at a local smoothie shop here in DC, but need to better remember to carry the straw around with me!  Any others with this problem of forgetfulness?