International Journal of Sustainability for Young Scholars

Automation is often discussed as a problem for “the future,” but many workers already feel it. Self-checkout machines, warehouse robots, scheduling algorithms, automated customer service, and delivery apps have changed the way people work. The impact is especially serious for workers without college degrees, because many of the jobs most exposed to automation are the same jobs that have traditionally provided stable income without requiring advanced education. The issue is not that technology is evil. Machines can make work safer, faster, and less repetitive. Few people would object to automation…

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Worn cookware is often made of recyclable metal, but handles, coatings, glass lids, and mixed materials can make disposal confusing.

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The Ecological Cost of Lawn Culture A neatly trimmed green lawn is often treated as a symbol of order, beauty, and success. In many neighborhoods, it is the default landscape: a smooth carpet of grass, carefully watered, fertilized, edged, and mowed. But from an environmental perspective, the modern lawn is one of the least efficient and least ecologically useful ways to use land. What looks tidy to the human eye can be surprisingly costly in terms of water, energy, biodiversity, and pollution. Lawns are environmental monocultures. They are usually made…

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Why do civilizations collapse? Is our civilization in danger? There are many reasons for the collapse of civilization: environmental destruction, natural disasters that humanity cannot handle, global warming, rising sea levels, deadly viruses, nuclear war, and oil depletion. Our current civilization is having a fatal impact on the Earth due to environmental destruction and waste since the Industrial Revolution. Or, just as the dinosaurs went extinct, we may perish due to a natural disaster that humanity cannot handle. So, is the current human civilization on the path to destruction? So…

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The Silent Spread of Microfibers When most people think about plastic pollution, they picture bottles, bags, or food wrappers floating in rivers and oceans. But some of the most widespread plastic pollution is nearly invisible. Every time we wash synthetic clothing such as fleece jackets, leggings, athletic shirts, or polyester sweaters, tiny plastic strands called microfibers are released into the water. These particles are so small that many slip through wastewater treatment systems and enter rivers, lakes, and seas. What looks like a clean load of laundry can quietly contribute…

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Online services should let users download useful records before an account is permanently deleted.

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App updates should preserve text size, contrast, captions, motion reduction, and other accessibility preferences unless a user changes them.

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Media, art, and science projects increasingly require tripods, yet school equipment can be difficult to locate when several classes share the same supply.

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Shared hand trucks and dollies are useful for moving boxes, appliances, and heavy deliveries, but they often disappear into private units or storage rooms.

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The Environmental Cost of Food Waste Most people think of food waste as a household budgeting problem or a sign of poor planning. We feel guilty when leftovers spoil in the refrigerator or when fruit goes soft before we eat it. But food waste is much more than a kitchen inconvenience. It is one of the most overlooked environmental problems in the modern world. When food is wasted, we are not just throwing away something edible. We are also wasting the land, water, energy, labor, fertilizer, fuel, and packaging that…

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