As we all know by now, plastic is not fantastic. But how can we solve this issue?

Enter bioplastics. Bioplastics, like all plastics, have a base made of macromolecules with some added ingredients. But what makes bioplastics different is that their macromolecules are bio-based and/or the product is capable of biodegrading. Bio-based means that the materials are of biological origin, like animals, plants, bacteria, algae, and fungi. Importantly, just because a product is bio-based does not automatically mean it is also biodegradable.

While bioplastics account for less than 2% of all plastics, up to 90% of fossil-based plastics could technically be substituted with bioplastics.

Let’s explore five unique bioplastics!

Saving The Sea

The world uses over five trillion plastic bags each year, and these bags never fully decompose; they fragment into microplastics. Once in oceans, plastic bags damage ecosystems, hurt organisms, and cause millions of dollars in economic costs.

But these harms do not have to continue. Takuzo Aida and his research team have created a bioplastic bag that dissolves within hours when placed in seawater without leaving microplastics behind, according to the researchers. This bag can be classified as a bioplastic because it is made from cellulose, a type of macromolecule that is naturally-occurring and therefore bio-based.

Waste Not

Bioplastics could help reduce food waste, too. Food waste that contains bio-based macromolecules such as cellulose or starch has the potential to be transformed into bioplastics.

This is an exciting concept because food waste rotting in landfills emits an estimated 58% of the methane gas released from U.S. municipal solid waste landfills. Methane is a type of greenhouse gas that is exacerbating the climate crisis.

Orange Peels

Orange peels have high cellulose levels and are thus well-suited to be converted into bioplastics. Although more research is required, pulverizing and combining orange peels with other materials yields a bioplastic that has similar properties to traditional plastic. This bioplastic should be able to biodegrade in natural conditions in four or more months while being environmentally safe.

Chicken Feathers

The UNLOCK project is experimenting with a bioplastic made from chicken feathers. Chicken feathers are high in a protein called keratin which is known to be both durable and biodegradable. By extracting keratin from these feathers, scientists have been able to create a biodegradable plastic alternative while reducing landfill waste.

Rice Husks

Like orange peels, rice husks have a high cellulose content. Combining cellulose extracted from rice husks with other materials creates a biodegradable bioplastic. 

Importantly, rice husks are often managed by combustion in open air; nonetheless, turning rice husks into a bioplastic is still beneficial. A 2022 study found that using rice husks to create a bioplastic led to a 82% reduction in human health impact and a 74% reduction in environmental cost compared to combusting them.

An Idea We Should Not Swat Away

Many people might view flies as a nuisance, but we shouldn’t be telling them to buzz-off. Scientists are exploring bioplastics made from black soldier flies. The exoskeleton of black soldier flies is reinforced by a sugar-based, biodegradable polymer called chitin. Scientists hope to use a broken-down form of this polymer to manufacture a biodegradable bioplastic. 

A potential issue with bioplastics is that producing their bio-based materials strains land use. Using adult black soldier flies, however, avoids this issue. Black soldier flies are often farmed for the purpose of using their larvae, and adult flies are soon discarded after the completion of their short lifespan. Creating bioplastic from these flies uses a waste stream that already exists, rather than requiring new crops or land.

The Solution Isn’t Clear

These five products exhibit some of the advantages of bioplastics. Bioplastics built from food waste and dead organisms support the idea of a circular economy, where one product’s waste is the material for a new product. Additionally, biodegradable bioplastics can help reduce our impact on the planet.

At the same time, it is important to acknowledge that even bioplastics are still damaging to the environment. 

As briefly mentioned, harvesting plants for bioplastics can strain land use. There are concerns that an increase in agricultural land used for bioplastic materials could impact the food system by causing a jump in food prices. And the fertilizers required to cultivate these materials can cause acidification and eutrophication. 

There are also worries surrounding the disposal of bioplastics. Proper bioplastic recycling facilities are not widespread, and not all bioplastics can be recycled with traditional plastic. For example, as little as 1% contamination of PLA bioplastic in the waste stream of one of the most recycled plastics, HDPE, can negatively affect the quality of recycled HDPE.

Additionally, while bioplastics can be better than conventional plastics, there are still concerns about the ways in which bioplastics contribute to climate change during their life cycle.

Plastic Does Not Have To Be Permanent

When it comes down to it, the type of plastic that should make you the most enthusiastic is simply no plastic at all. And you can help make this a reality!

You can start by exploring our End Plastics campaign to learn more about the threats of plastics and to take action. 

From there, you can calculate your plastic footprint and make yearly plastic reduction goals. You can hold yourself accountable by taking a plastic pledge. And you can sign our Global Plastics Petition to call on the United Nations and Governmental organizations to decrease plastic production worldwide.

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Do you crave early afternoon hikes on a dirt path that curves through a thick, green forest with thousands of trees to entertain you for miles? 

Or do you find the “great” outdoors to be not so much that?

If that’s the case, it’s ok! Not everyone feels a connection to nature. But if you’ll indulge us for a moment, we’d like to tell you why spending even a little bit of time in nature can be good and how you can make it feel more, well, natural. Read on to learn how being in the natural world can improve your physical, emotional, and intellectual health.

Is Nature “Natural” to Everyone?

In 1984, a biologist named Edward O. Wilson built upon the work of psychoanalyst Eric Fromm and proposed the biophilia hypothesis.

In other words, everyone should feel a desire to be around varying forms of living nature such as plants and wildlife. But his hypothesis may be incorrect; researchers still dispute its validity. In particular, many researchers disagree with its claim that mankind’s attraction to nature is a universal trait.

Instead, researchers suggest that humans’ attraction to nature presents itself in the human population on a bell-curve distribution, meaning most people fall somewhere in the middle with a moderate appeal to nature, while a few carry an extreme love or hate for it. 

Your childhood experiences also influence the strength of your connection to nature. As a child, the conversations and activities relating to nature sparked or suppressed by your parents or guardians have the greatest influence on your relationship with nature. Other important figures in your life such as friends and teachers can also impact your connection, but those you live with have the strongest effect.

Additionally, contact with nature as a child matters, too. Contact with nature refers to visiting natural spaces like the wilderness or a park and interacting with nature like gardening. This factor influences your connection to nature significantly more than your childhood living environment, which includes elements like the amount of vegetation around your home or light visible outside at night.

More specifically, interactive contact with nature leads to a deeper connection than simply visiting natural spaces. Observing events in nature and nurturing plants are the two most influential childhood nature activities, highlighting the importance of meaning and emotion.

Nature Nurtures Us

Even if you fall on the part of the bell curve that does not enjoy nature or your childhood experiences did not foster an affinity for nature, it is still in your self-interest to care about it as an adult.

Physical Benefits

Nature has physical benefits. Forest bathing — an English term for the traditional Japanese practice of “shinrin-yoku” — is when you enjoy a forest through your senses: the smell of wildflowers, the sight of sunlight filtering through the tree canopy, the sound of the wind rustling branches, the tickle of a leaf brushing against your arm as it cascades down from above. Scientific studies have explored how this activity enhances your physical health by lowering your blood pressure. 

And even something as simple as breathing in the forest air can strengthen your immune system. Plants and trees release an airborne chemical called phytoncides to increase their protection from disease. When humans inhale phytoncides, they trigger an increase in the production of a type of white blood cell that works to rid the body of cells that have been damaged by viruses or tumors. 

Intellectual Benefits

Nature provides intellectual benefits, too. Two similar studies found that walking in different environments can impact your brain’s attention and memory capabilities. Students that walked in a nature-filled botanical garden experienced improved attention scores after their walk, while those that walked in an urban, pavement-filled area saw less improvement.

According to the attention restoration theory, our fast-paced and digital society requires a lot of energy and therefore drains our brain. Nature also captivates our attention, but it does so in a less demanding way than modern life. As a result, spending time in nature allows the brain to rest and reset to its full potential.

Emotional Benefits

Finally, nature is full of emotional benefits. Forest bathing can improve your mental health by reducing and preventing painful emotions such as psychological stress, anxiety, and depression. Forest bathing can lower cortisol levels, a hormone in the human body that increases when you are stressed. Additionally, a study found that forest bathing increased serotonin levels in middle-aged men, and low levels of this neurotransmitter are linked to depression and anxiety.

And spending time outside in nature can boost your mood. Whether you choose to go for a peaceful wooded hike in a forest or meander through a scenic park, spending time in nature can make you feel more positive and happy. It can also improve your sense of self-worth, such as enhancing your body image. 

Nature is full of unique creations, and observing them can instill a feeling of being a part of something bigger than just you. By doing so, you allow nature to turn on a calming nervous system response and unravel the tension brought on from our busy, technology-filled world.

Settle For Making Nature Feel Normal

Nature may never feel completely “natural” to you, but that doesn’t mean you should avoid it and forgo nature’s gifts to your health! Over time, you can make spending time in nature feel normal by incorporating nature-related activities into your daily life.

EARTHDAY.ORG can help you do this. We’ve compiled 50 ways you can engage with nature routinely. The list includes actions that directly immerse you in nature like forest bathing and ones that indirectly immerse you in nature like educating yourself and others on how to help nature flourish. 

You can also normalize nature in your life by signing up for our email list so that articles like this are sent straight to your inbox. And you can explore our social media at X, Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube to stay up to date on environmental news and information. Want to make a bigger impact? Donate to EARTHDAY.ORG and help fund our work year-round.

Taking these first steps will place you on a path towards incorporating nature into your daily life and becoming a healthier, more attentive, and happier person.

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Across the globe, climate change is adding fuel to a dangerous type of fire: wildfires. So far in 2026, wildfires consumed 85 million hectares of land in Africa and 44 million hectares in Asia between January and April to set new records of land burned for this time period. The 150 million hectares of land burned globally during the first four months of 2026 is more than twice the size of Texas. As temperatures only continue to rise with the arrival of summer, the European Union just assembled a team of 777 firefighters from 14 different European nations along with 27 fire-fighting aircrafts, its biggest wildfire response team ever, to prepare its members for a summer of flames.

As climate change continues to warm and dry the planet, wildfires will become more common. They will also become more catastrophic by burning more land and degrading our air quality and therefore harming our health. And climate change is not the only thing sparking wildfires. Human-driven deforestation is causing wildfires as it dries out vegetation by reducing shade in forests; leaves behind small, flammable wood pieces; and eliminates large numbers of trees which are carbon dioxide absorbers, ultimately raising global temperatures.

The need for effective solutions is only growing more urgent. Thankfully, a look at different approaches to preventing and extinguishing wildfires embraced by different countries around the world shows that many solutions are developing.

High-Tech Means Highly Effective

One of the ways countries are responding to wildfires is through technological innovations. 

Japan

In Japan, researchers and governmental agencies joined forces with a Japanese soap company, Shabondama Soap Co., in 2001 to develop, test, and perfect an environmentally-friendly soap-based fire extinguisher, the first of its kind.

Traditional fire extinguishers require petroleum-based surfactants which greatly damage water- and soil-dwelling organisms. This product, however, has naturally sourced surfactants, making it highly biodegradable. And, it requires much less water than when water alone is used to extinguish fires. Soap doesn’t only eliminate germs, it can help eliminate wildfires, too!

United States

In the United States, researchers at Stanford University are testing a new formula for a fire-repellent sprayable gel that could be applied on homes and infrastructure to stop them from being set ablaze during wildfires. While similar products are currently available commercially, this gel offers longer-lasting protection due to additional layers that increase its ability to withstand fire. That’s hot!

Australia

Like other countries, Australian researchers, supported by the Australian government, are engineering firefighting drones. Australian bushfires are frequently ignited by lightning strikes, and early recognition and response is critical to managing them; however, remote bushfires commonly burn unidentified for multiple days. 

Drones could solve this problem by identifying lightning fires and limiting their spread. They can reimagine our response to wildfires as they have useful qualities that human firefighters lack: the ability to work over night, without rest, and on the same task again and again. These drones can expel wildfires at lightning speed — literally!

More Than One Right Way

Wildfires are also fought by following indigenous and traditional practices. 

Brazil

Since 2014, the Brazilian environmental protection agency (IBAMA) has collaborated with the Xerente Indigenous community in northern Brazil to perform traditional, controlled burns to decrease the likelihood of large forest fires in the Cerrado region. It might seem counterproductive to prevent fire with fire, but these fires kill large amounts of flammable grass and result in burn areas that protect villages from potential wildfires. IBAMA works alongside indigenous experts to ignite patches of fire and standby in case the fire grows too large. Teamwork makes the dreamwork!

Spain

In Catalonia, Spain, there has been an increase in the use of goats to mitigate wildfires. Mataro, the largest city in Catalonia, is participating in widespread European Union efforts to reduce wildfire breakouts. Using livestock to manage wildfires is not only effective but also environmentally-friendly as it replaces farm machinery.

Farmers have used goats and other livestock to carve out firebreaks for many centuries. By hungrily munching on the grass and brush at the edge of forests, the herd of 300 goats leave areas without vegetation that limit the spread of wildfires. It doesn’t get BAAAA-tter than that!

It Takes a Village

Fighting wildfires requires community involvement, too.

Mauritania

In West Africa, Mali refugees inhabiting the M’bera refugee camp formed a volunteer firefighting team called the Anti-Fire Brigade. Established in 2013, the team extinguishes deadly bushfires in Mauritania that have the potential to eliminate its scarce grazing areas. Having fled violence in Mali to this neighboring country, the volunteers view their firefighting as a way to give back to the Mauritanians for accepting them into their country. 

The group works tirelessly to fight fires without what many might consider essential to firefighting: water. African bushfires often occur far from water sources, leaving the volunteers to extinguish the fires by hitting the flames with highly heat resistant acacia tree branches. Water isn’t the only way to cool down flames!

Indonesia

In Indonesia, a grassroot organization, Alam Siak Lestari (ASL), enacted the “Healthy Ecosystem Alternative Livelihood (HEAL) Fisheries” program to decrease peatland fires. Peatlands, a type of wetland that covers much of Southeast Asia, are critical to the economic livelihood of many. But, they can be set ablaze and cause great social, economic, health, and environmental damage. 

HEAL helps communities in the Indonesia peatlands farm snakehead murrel fish that will be used to manufacture a health supplement made from their albumin, a protein known for its cell regeneration capabilities. The fish cultivation supports community members economically with income and business opportunities. At the same time, it helps the environment by keeping the peatlands moist and reducing slash-and-burn farming, both decreasing the risk of wildfires. Who knew fish could help fight fires!

Canada

After a record-breaking Canadian wildfire season in 2023, wildfire experts called for a change to how wildfires are fought in Canada. Traditionally, wildfires are fought reactively, with firefighters jumping into action to put out the flames once a fire breaks out; however, as wildfires grow more numerous and aggressive, even an endless amount of firefighters does not appear to be enough to extinguish all of them. So, experts pushed for preventative  forest closures when the risk of wildfires is high before wildfires begin. 

Government-ordered forest closures force all surrounding community members to be involved in wildfire mitigation. But, doing so can eliminate the risk of visitors sparking a fire from a campfire or trail vehicle. Importantly, when enacting such measures, authorities must ensure that the mobility rights of individuals are heavily considered and that the woods ban is specific. Of course, removing humans from the equation does not entirely eliminate the risk of wildfires, but it does decrease it!

You!

Finally, you can help fight wildfires no matter where you are in the world by helping to reverse deforestation when you support reforestation efforts. EARTHDAY.ORG’s Canopy Tree Project is enacting positive change in communities and for the environment by planting trees all over the globe.

We all can be firefighters and fight wildfires. We just have to choose how we want to put out the flames.

This article is available for republishing on your website, newsletter, magazine, newspaper, or blog. The accompanying imagery is cleared for use with attribution. Please ensure that the author’s name and their affiliation with EARTHDAY.ORG are credited. Kindly inform us if you republish so we can acknowledge, tag, or repost your content. You may notify us via email at woods@earthday.org. Want more articles? Follow us on substack.

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