Nigeria is struggling to end open defecation, but a grassroots campaign is trying to change that

Billions of people around the world lack access to safe sanitation, causing disease and deaths. In Ecuador a foundation developed a cheap, dry, composting toilet for poor rural families.

The Brownfields Program, funded through the EPA, helps towns across Montana redevelop contaminated buildings into new areas for economic development. Since 2016, when Anaconda and several nearby towns became eligible for this funding, they have used federal funds to clean up petroleum spills and other leaks and create new locations for community life to flourish.

Uganda’s education ministry requires all schools to have incinerators to burn used sanitary pads. Lack of funding limits schools’ ability to comply. Even when incinerators exist, girls don’t necessarily use them. Educating both girls and boys about menstruation reduces stigma and increases the likelihood that girls feel comfortable enough to collect pads instead of throwing them in pit latrines.

Across the country, projects that mine landfills for reusable metals and soils are underway. Can such mining prove profitable enough to spur similar efforts on a grand scale? So far, some projects have seen profits while others have not. But as society increasingly values pollution and greenhouse gas reduction, incentives for refuse mining can only grow.

Innovative mine reclamation projects across five states in the Appalachian region allow local organizations, schools, and businesses to clean up and utilize abandoned mine land. From a school that's transforming abandoned mine land into a field of solar panels to a housing development project that uses abandoned mine federal grant money to build affordable and energy efficient housing, the Appalachian region is using a comprehensive approach to renew blighted mines.

The simple addition of adding handles to bathroom stalls in the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh has helped the camps' pregnant women regain a sense of empowerment and dignity. Providing support and balance, the design of these latrines have benefited the elderly in the camps as well.

The state of Pennsylvania set to plant 86,000 hectares of riparian buffers, the practice of planting trees and shrubs along a river or stream to filter water. Other benefits of riparian buffers include things like restoring the soil and cooling the water. In order to meet their goal, the state scientists used a bottom approach, enlisting the help of local farmers by offering them grants to plant trees and showing farmers how they can profit off of riparian buffers. While the state is behind its goal, the state is planting about 1,000 to 2,000 hectares a year.

In 2020, a devastating explosion in Beirut that came from a warehouse released 800,000 and one million tons of construction and demolition waste and 20,000 tons of shattered glass into the city. The waste was being thrown into landfills. However, landfills are notoriously bad for the environment. Out of that rubble an idea was created; disposing waste sustainably. Rubble Mountains was created specifically to do this. They've been able to restore four quarries, use materials to create public amenities, and diverting up to 50 tons of demolition waste from landfills.

Amidst water scarcity and increased waterborne diseases, community members are using sand dams, an innovative water management system, to conserve rainwater for daily use. Sand dams offer extended water storage capabilities, lasting up to a year, ensuring community members have consistent access to clean water for farming, cooking and general hygiene. There are currently six sand dams in the community serving 600 households.

Several pilot studies point to the viability of desalination projects being an effective option for farmers in certain fresh-water-scarce regions.