Japan is a leader in floating solar power.

Anglesey, an island off Wales’ northwest coast, has become the UK’s first “plastic-free” county.

Plastic Free Community status was awarded by Surfers Against Sewage after the island met the five objectives set by the marine conservation group.

The movement forms part of the organization’s wider effort to combat plastics in the ocean, which also includes asking individuals to reduce their plastic consumption and lobbying government for new legislation.

“It’s not about removing all plastic from our lives,” Surfers Against Sewage says. “It’s about kicking our addiction to avoidable single-use plastic, and changing the system that produces it.”

Australia’s recycling industry has been in crisis ever since China stopped taking our waste in 2017. Now local scientists have developed a home-grown solution they claim could make all plastic recyclable and eliminate our stockpiles of waste.

The Duge Beipanjiang Bridge (also called the Beipanjiang Bridge or the Duge Bridge) is a concrete cable-stayed bridge that carries four lanes across the Beipan River. Connecting Xuanwei in the Yunnan Province and Liupanshui in Guizhou, the bridge reduces travel times between the two cities from four hours to just over an hour.

It was a massive construction project, and the designers kept having to move the final location of the bridge higher and higher to avoid caves and cracking in the karst mountains at either side of the valley.

The eastern tower of the bridge is 883 feet tall, which is up there among the tallest bridges in the world. Even more impressive, however, is the huge expanse between the road deck and the river below. The deck is 1,854 feet—or over a third of a mile—above the average water level of the river. For perspective, the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco has a clearance of about 220 feet. Chicago’s Sears Tower would fit under the Beipanjiang Bridge with 400 feet to spare, while London’s 30 St Mary Axe (The Gherkin) would fit under the bridge three times over.

In order to curb the environmental impact of road construction, a number of new innovations are now being trialled.

Five hours by plane from the nearest town, in temperatures that barely peak above freezing during the summer and contending with some remarkable challenges – welcome to the world’s most extreme construction site.

What are the tallest buildings in the world?

In the race to reach the skies, these buildings are literally head and shoulders above the rest. The following 15 skyscrapers make the Eiffel Tower in France, the Shard in London, and the Empire State Building in America look like tiny bungalows.

This innovative power plant in Ethiopia burns waste to produce enough energy for up to a quarter of homes in the capital city, Addis Ababa.

The plant also produces water, eco-friendly bricks and creates hundreds of local jobs.

In the film, Global Managing Director, Samuel Alemayehu, talks us through how the project works and the impact and benefits it has for Ethiopia.

It’s already known as the ‘Emerald Isle’, but the Irish government wants to make the country even greener, by planting trees to tackle climate change.

Policymakers set a planting target of 440 million trees by 2040 – or around 22 million trees per year, a government spokeswoman told The Irish Times.

Of these, 70% are set to be conifers and will be 30% broad leaves.

“E-Ferry Ellen”, the world’s largest all-electric ferry, has made its maiden voyage connecting the island of Aerø, population 6,000, to the rest of Denmark. The route is 22 nautical miles long.

The ferry, which now connects the Danish ports of Søby and Fynshav, was built at the shipyard on the island of Als through a partnership between Aerø Municipality and the European Union. The project is part of Danish Natura, which aims to provide environmentally friendly transport for local residents. It was initiated in 2015 and was funded by the EU through the Horizon 2020 and Innovation Program.

The ship, capable of carrying 30 vehicles and 200 passengers, is powered by a battery system with an unprecedented capacity of 4.3MWh provided by Leclanché SA (SIX: LECN), one of the world’s leading energy storage companies. The operators estimate the electric ferry will save over 2,000 tons of CO2 per year in its operation.