After a crisis, how can we tell if water is safe to drink? Current tests are slow and complex, and the delay can be deadly, as in the cholera outbreak after Haiti's earthquake in 2010. TED Fellow Sonaar Luthra previews his design for a simple tool that quickly tests water for safety -- the Water Canary.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes.

Movie Trailer for "Waste Land" an award winning documentary by director Lucy Walker - An uplifting feature documentary highlighting the transformative power of art and the beauty of the human spirit. Top-selling contemporary artist Vik Muniz takes us on an emotional journey from Jardim Gramacho, the world's largest landfill on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, to the heights of international art stardom. Released on 2010 and premiered in Berlin Film Festival 2010 (Berlinale)

Vocal Trash's primary goal is to teach children to use their imaginations in a meaningful and perennial regard. Recycling awareness is the secondary goal obtained through creative and inspirational performance utilizing distinguishable items that might normally end up in a Landfill, (metals, plastics, etc). Demonstrating the importance of recycling, upcycling and conservation of energy, through popular music and dance, is a direct path to the attention of todays youth. We've witnessed this time and time again, from coast to coast.

Sustainability: Newscaster Jon Snow talks to Dame Ellen MacArthur about the circular economy and rethinking the future, in a short film looking back on the first year of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

Challenging Ellen on the fundamental principles of the Foundation’s mission – to inspire a generation to re-think and re-design for a positive future – Jon investigates the circular economy as a framework for change and questions the actual implementation and impact of such a model on business.

With over 5 years of research and a full year of the Foundation under her belt, Dame Ellen is well placed to handle these testing questions and to make a strong case for the circular economy framework.

The circular economy is a different business model. It’s a different way of looking at the system as a whole. We know our future doesn’t work long term, but within a circular economy it does.

Michael Davis of uspurewater discusses the importance of an ecological alternative to bottled water and the solution of our global plastic dilemna: "don't buy water in plastic containers."

There's a world of opportunity to re-think and re-design the way we make stuff.

'Re-Thinking Progress' explores how through a change in perspective we can re-design the way our economy works - designing products that can be 'made to be made again' and powering the system with renewable energy. It questions whether with creativity and innovation we can build a restorative economy.

Find out more about the circular economy at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and follow them on Twitter.

For an in-depth look at the economic and business rationale for making this transition, see the Towards the Circular Economy reports, available on the Ellen MacArthur Foundation website.

Did you know that the average cotton T-shirt requires over 700 gallons of water to manufacture? Follow the production, use and disposal of the average cotton T-shirt in this USAgain educational video.

700 gallons of water.