Starbucks Issues $1 Billion Sustainability Bond for Supply and Retail

Nancy Bush and Caitlin Dinh grew up a continent apart but with a common interest: chemistry. Though they took divergent roads to arrive at USC and only met for the first time this fall, they quickly developed a highly effective working relationship in the lab of Megan Fieser, Gabilan Assistant Professor of Chemistry in the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. Together, they’ve been researching a method for making PVC recyclable—and their efforts have been so successful that they won first place in this year’s Wrigley Sustainability Prize, awarded by the USC Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies.

The Sustainable City, an eco-friendly housing development in Dubai, has installed a new electronic waste (e-waste) collection point in the community. The 24-hour e-waste drop-off station is built by Efate, an Emirati company involved in electronic and electrical waste management. Residents and the public can drop their used electronics at this station, where they will be collected and taken to a recycling facility and separated. Electronics in working condition will be donated to charity. Efate says it will also attempt to refurbish and repair items whenever possible and hand them out for free to those in need. After disassembly, useful components that contain vital raw materials are reused in manufacturing new products while unserviceable parts are crushed without causing any harmful emissions, it adds.