In 1970, Gary Anderson was a 23-year-old college student at the University of Southern California, when a Chicago container company held a design contest to raise awareness about the environment.

It’s a number that you can spot inside the recycling symbol in bottles, containers and other products. The numbers are codes for different types of plastics. The higher the number, the harder it is to ...

This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here. It’s Earth Day 1990, and Meryl Streep walks into a bar. She’s distraught about the state of the environment.

California’s familiar milk cartons, long stamped with the chasing-arrows recycling logo, are suddenly at the center of a high ...

It’s Earth Day 1990, and Meryl Streep walks into a bar. She’s distraught about the state of the environment. “It’s crazy what we’re doing. It’s very, very, very bad,” she says in ABC’s prime-time ...