What (in)significant things have humans taken decades to figure out?

News Flash!

For the first time in 60 years, we saw bread in the grocery store with a cardboard bread tag! Biodegradable, burnable, not plastic! Won't pollute our beaches!

Yeah Humans!!! Keep up the good work!

Has anyone noticed any similar good works?

I noticed my amazon packaging is increasingly a sealed brown paper envelope instead of the old plastic white ones.  

Also was reading some other food plasticy packaging was biodegradable too...

I have noticed quite a few groceries reverting to paper or cardboard packaging recently:  


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Hamlyns oatmeal now back in paper sacks.


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Guinness and Tennants multipack tins wrapped in cordboard.

Tennents also capture the CO2 from the brewing process and capture it to carbonate the brew with, rather than just releasing it.

I'm not sure what Purina mean by 'regenerative agriculture' on their Bakers dog biscuits but it sounds like a step in the right direction. I don't think you cn be completely regenerative to soil health without being chemical free, but covercrops, trees and hedges are at least a start.

This one is trade specific (irrigation) but it's all I could think of at the moment.

It's called an auto drain, they aren't exactly a brand new invention but they are practical and have one moving part (a spring loaded poppet). They close while a sprinkler system is fully pressurized (the water pressure itself causes it to close) and then pop open when the pressure is reduced enough, and then automatically drain. They're often installed in sprinkler manifolds. I replace standard drain valves with these things often, I rarely see them malfunction. They're very useful in Colorado because people often forget to drain their manifolds during winterization and these act as a fail safe.

About a week ago I made a trip to the Big City. I noticed less use of plastic in packaging.  It is still out there to be sure, but there is less being used.

I'm noticing more and more successful local artisans starting to pop up in a sea of mass marketed items. I know particularly of a local blacksmith/welder who is producing manual garden tools that sell out quickly. The price might be more, but the quality is phenomenal.

It seems that Buy It Once items are becoming more valued than items that are cheap and disposable.