Dutch project Recycled Park is a riverside area with 28 plastic planters made from debris skimmed from the river. Watch how they built it.

On July 4th the first Recycled Park opened in the Rotterdam harbor. Floating debris from the rivers and port is retrieved and recycled to create a floating park of 140m2. The aim of this iconic Recycled Park is to illustrate that recycled plastic from the open waters is a valuable material and suitable for recycling. By re-using the retrieved plastics and by producing building blocks with them, the plastics receives new value. As an extra the building blocks create a new green area; Recycled Park. Floating green structures are a plus for the city and have an ecological function in the river as habitat for micro and macro fauna as snails, flatworms, larva, beetles and fish.

Check out their site for more information on the launch and plans for future expansion.

• Recycled Park first 140m2 open! (YouTube / Recycled Island Foundation) Read the rest

The Association of Independent Festivals plans to take a step in the right direction on single-use plastic items with their Drastic on Plastic initiative. Read the rest

London has fatbergs: glistening, multiton agglomerations of fat, sanitary napkins, "flushable" wipes, human waste, dirty diapers, used condoms, and delicious strawberry jam; New Orleans has 93,000 pounds of plastic Mardi Gras beads. Read the rest

With three cats, it's important to have good litter. I've tried crystals, clay, scented and unscented. I've settle on Boxiecat ($(removed) for a 16 lb bag). It's unscented but absorbs odors, clumps well, and there's very little dust. Best of all, the stuff seems to last forever. I just pour in a little from the bag every few days. There's no need to completely clean the litterbox every couple of weeks. Instead, I do a full dump-and-scrub every couple of months.

Two other essential litterbox items: the Clevercat litter box and the heavyweight Durascoop cat litter scoop. Read the rest