Indian Startup Uses Rice Crop Waste to Make Biodegradable Foam Packaging Instead of Burning it:
Arpit
A Delhi-based engineer has designed a replacement for polystyrene packaging out of “rice stubble” the dead stalks left over after the rice season in India, millions of tons of which are burned every year. The engineer, named Arpit Dhupar, launched a new business venture called Dharaksha Ecosystems in order to tackle the rice stubble problem. Its high moisture content means it’s not useful for stove fuel, so they burn it in massive pyres. To combat this, his company’s factory turns 250 metric tons of rice stubble harvested from 100 acres of farmland in Punjab and Haryana into packaging, while paying the farmers a rate of $30 per acre for something they would usually burn. Baked in the oven, the mycelium-bound stubble becomes hard and fire-retardent, allowing it to be laser engraved. Further, the product can tolerate high moisture content and is also anti-static. Arpit has already prevented over half a million pounds of polystyrene from entering landfills since launching his product and looks to continue the trend in the future.
North Carolina Church Raises Thousands to Pay Off Cafeteria Lunch Debt For Every County School:
City Church in Gastonia NC – City Church Facebook group
A North Carolina pastor has been helping children in need throughout his county, whether they need clothes, housing, or even a family with programs like his church’s Foster and Adoption Ministry. A few years ago Pastor Dickie Spargo from City Church in Gastonia started Hope Closet, a clothing giveaway for kids who may be displaced, or kids in schools who need new shoes. In less than two weeks, the congregation raised $23,000. The $23,000 donation from the large Christian church will eliminate student lunch debt for the year, and the rest will help pay off debt for the next school year.
Global Happiness Has Been ‘Remarkably Resilient’ Over the Past Three Years: World Happiness Report:
By Irudayam, CC license
In the 2023 World Happiness Report, a wonderful trend has emerged from the data. Despite a major war in Europe, and all the government shutdowns and totalitarian policing measures in front of the largest pandemic in 100 years, happiness ratings have remained much the same across Europe and elsewhere. The report, which is a publication of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, uses the Gallop World Poll data from 150 nations looking at things like a sense of social support and positive feelings toward others to rank order countries on reported happiness. GDP, medical facilities, and freedom to make life choices are then compared with the perception of government corruption, and sense of dystopia as factors to try and get a sense of why people in certain countries rank their happiness higher than others, though these socio-economic indicators do not contribute to the overall score.
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New Brain Implant Device Could Restore Function in Paralyzed Limbs (goodnewsnetwork.org)