NEWS / BLOGS
Coronavirus is causing a flurry of plastic waste. Campaigners fear it may be permanent
By Rob Picheta, CNN
Updated 6:17 AM ET, Mon May 4, 2020
London (CNN)All of the defining images of the coronavirus pandemic seem to feature one thing: plastic.
Surgical masks, gloves, protective equipment, body bags -- the Covid-19 crisis has spurred a rapid expansion in the production of desperately-needed plastic products, with governments racing to boost their stockpiles and regular citizens clamoring for their share of supplies.
Such production is necessary. But all that plastic ends up somewhere -- and environmental campaigners fear it is just the tip of a looming iceberg, with the pandemic causing a number of serious challenges to their efforts to reduce plastic pollution.
From people discarding plastic gloves and masks in cities across the world to important regulations on the use of plastic being scrapped, rolled back or delayed, the problem has taken a back seat during one of the most significant public health crises of modern times.
The implications of those trends could spell years of trouble for our already polluted oceans.
"We know that plastic pollution is a global problem -- it existed before the pandemic," Nick Mallos of US-based NGO Ocean Conservancy tells CNN. "(But) we've seen a lot of industry efforts to roll back some of the great progress that's been made.
"We need to be quite cautious about where we go, post-pandemic," Mallos adds.
See full article at source: https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/04/world/coronavirus-plastic-waste-pollution-intl/index.html
‘A huge step forward.’ Mutant enzyme could vastly improve recycling of plastic bottles By Robert F. ServiceApr. 8, 2020 , 5:45 PM
Recycling isn’t as guilt-free as it seems. Only about 30% of the plastic that goes into soda bottles gets turned into new plastic, and it often ends up as a lower strength version. Now, researchers report they’ve engineered an enzyme that can convert 90% of that same plastic back to its pristine starting materials. Work is underway to scale up the technology and open a demonstration plant next year.
“This is a huge step forward,” says John McGeehan, who directs the center for enzyme innovation at the University of Portsmouth and who was not involved with the work.
Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is one of the world’s most commonly used plastics, with some 70 million tons produced annually. PET bottles are already recycled in many places. But the current approach has problems. For starters, recycling companies typically end up with a broad mix of different colors of the plastic. They then use high temperatures to melt those down, producing a gray or black plastic starting material that few companies want to use to package their products.
See full article at source: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/04/huge-step-forward-mutant-enzyme-could-vastly-improve-recycling-plastic-bottles#
The Plastics Industry Is Trying to Cash In on the Covid-19 Pandemic
Dharna Noor
The covid-19 pandemic is forcing many of us to change our best-intentioned behaviors. We’re withholding physical affection, even when our loved ones are in distress. We’re not patronizing our favorite bars, even though they’re struggling to stay afloat.
In some places, people are also using single-use plastic bags, despite the years-long effort to phase out disposable plastic materials. All over the country, officials are grappling with concerns that reusable bags often go unwashed and can therefore easily spread covid-19. But even though these concerns are unfounded, the fossil fuel industry has latched onto them to push policy that benefits it and locks us into a cycle of using more wasteful plastic.
View Full Article Here: https://earther.gizmodo.com/the-plastics-industry-is-trying-to-cash-in-on-the-covid-1842494328
Plastic Wars: Industry Spent Millions Selling Recycling — To Sell More Plastic
March 31, 20208:00 AM ET
LAURA SULLIVAN
Editor's note: NPR will be publishing stories from this investigative series in the weeks ahead, even as we focus our current coverage on the coronavirus pandemic. But here's a look at some of our key findings. You can watch the full documentary film from this investigation on the PBS series Frontline.
For decades, Americans have been sorting their trash believing that most plastic could be recycled. But the truth is, the vast majority of all plastic produced can't be or won't be recycled. In 40 years, less than 10% of plastic has ever been recycled.
In a joint investigation, NPR and the PBS series Frontline found that oil and gas companies — the makers of plastic — have known that all along, even as they spent millions of dollars telling the American public the opposite.
See Full Article at Source: https://www.npr.org/2020/03/31/822597631/plastic-wars-three-takeaways-from-the-fight-over-the-future-of-plastics
Op-Ed: More than 90% of U.S. plastic waste is never recycled. Here’s how we can change that
By TOM UDALL AND ALAN LOWENTHAL
FEB. 21, 2020
3:01 AM
More than a third of Americans recycle every day. They want to believe that the plastic bottles, containers and packaging they use will be turned into new products — instead of being sent to landfills and incinerators or polluting our planet.
But that belief is an illusion. Eight of the 10 most commonly polluted plastic items, which includes utensils and food wrappers, are not recyclable in America’s municipal recycling system. Over 90% of U.S. plastic waste is never recycled. And so every year, about 32 million tons of plastic are landfilled or incinerated. That doesn’t count the amount that directly litters our environment or that we ship to developing countries to handle.
The reality is that we cannot recycle our way out of this crisis using the system we have in place. The heart of the problem lies in the simple fact that big corporations are producing plastic such as packaging, bags and foam that end up being unrecyclable. Once these plastic products are used, no businesses want to buy the scraps to recycle them. They end up as eternal plastic waste instead.
Read Full Article at Source: https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-02-21/plastic-waste-never-recycled-u-s
Energy Department partners with chemical group to keep plastic waste out of oceans
by Josh Siegel
February 03, 2020 09:00 AM
The Department of Energy is partnering with the American Chemistry Council to develop technologies to recycle plastic and keep waste out of rivers, oceans, and landfills.
The Energy Department will sign a memorandum of understanding on Monday afternoon with the chemical industry's trade group that enables them to collaborate on a number of projects.
These include creating technologies that collect plastic more easily once it has entered waterways, producing new plastics that are recyclable by design, and developing technologies that upcycle waste chemicals from plastic into other commercial products.
For example, the Energy Department cited the possibility of reclaiming material contained in the plastic of a water bottle and selling that to automakers for use in building vehicles.
“Through this partnership with the American Chemistry Council, the Department of Energy is furthering its mission to spur American innovation and leadership in energy efficient recycling technologies and the manufacture of new plastics that are recyclable by design to reduce plastic waste in our rivers, oceans, and landfills," said Mark W. Menezes, the Energy Department’s undersecretary of energy.
See full Article at Source: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/energy/energy-department-partners-with-chemical-group-to-keep-plastic-waste-out-of-oceans
Oceans Are Warming Faster Than Predicted
Earth’s seas are absorbing excess heat 40 percent faster than previous estimates
By Chelsea Harvey, E&E News on January 11, 2019
Up to 90 percent of the warming caused by human carbon emissions is absorbed by the world’s oceans, scientists estimate. And researchers increasingly agree that the oceans are warming faster than previously thought.
Multiple studies in the past few years have found that previous estimates from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change may be too low. A new review of the research, published yesterday in Science, concludes that “multiple lines of evidence from four independent groups thus now suggest a stronger observed [ocean heat content] warming.”
See Full Article at Source: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/oceans-are-warming-faster-than-predicted/
Footprint Introduces the Compostable, Reusable Eco Cooler Bringing Sustainable Tailgating to Super Bowl LIVE presented by Verizon
GILBERT, Ariz., Jan. 30, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Footprint, the technology innovation company addressing the growing consumer demand for sustainable food packaging materials, introduced today a greener solution for sustainable active lifestyles.
The multi-use Footprint Eco Cooler, debuted at the Super Bowl LIVE Environmental Village in Bayfront Park, Miami, marks another company product innovation eliminating the Styrofoam™ cooler. The Eco Cooler can be composted or recycled at its end-of-use, and is the latest Footprint packaging design solution to offer an environmentally-friendly alternative to disposable plastic products.
The Eco Cooler has a twenty-four, 12-oz-can capacity, keeps ice frozen for up to 12 hours, and will hold water for five days without leaking. Unlike other alternatives, Footprint's cooler can be reused again and again once allowed a short drying period. Its clever design includes drink holders and a smartphone stand that turns the cooler into a natural stereo amplifier. Made in North America from durable paper fiber, the cooler is completely free of toxic PFAS chemicals, is fully compostable and provides a 100 percent reduction in plastic.
See Full Article at Source: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/footprint-introduces-compostable-reusable-eco-145500741.html
Another major hotel chain is getting rid of travel-sized toiletries
By Jordan Valinsky, CNN Business
Updated 11:30 AM ET, Wed January 22, 2020
New York (CNN Business)Accor Hotels is the latest global hotel chain to eliminate travel-sized toiletries from its rooms.
The company, which owns 40 brands including Ibis, Novotel, the Fairmont and Mondrian, announced Wednesday that it's removing individual tubes of shampoo, conditioner and bath gel from its 340,000 guest rooms. It's part of Accor's broader environmental campaign that includes getting rid of all single-use plastic items at its 5,000 properties.
Accor (ACCYY) is replacing the plastic toiletries with either wall dispensers or glass, bulk-sized toiletries by the end of the year. The chain is also replacing a number of common hotel items usually made from plastic, including keycards, laundry bags and cups, with materials made from "relevant alternatives," according to the statement. That change take place across all of its hotels in 2022.
More than 200 million single-use plastic items are used annually at Accor's hotels. The company said in a press release that the changes are part of an effort that focuses on "reducing environmental impacts and strengthening efforts to combat plastic pollution of the world's oceans and other natural environments."
See Full Article Here: https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/22/business/accor-hotels-toiletries-plastic-usage/index.html?utm_source=CNN+Five+Things&utm_campaign=4834dfd728-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_01_23_01_49&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_6da287d761-4834dfd728-95237933
Malaysia has sent back tons of plastic waste to rich countries, saying it won't be their 'garbage dump'
By Rob Picheta, CNN
Updated 11:04 AM ET, Mon January 20, 2020
(CNN) Malaysia has sent back 150 shipping containers of plastic waste to rich countries including the United States, United Kingdom, France and Canada, insisting it won't be the "garbage dump" of the world.
The country has been inundated with shipments of illegal plastic waste since 2018, when China cracked down on a large recycling industry.
Malaysia subsequently emerged as a major target of illegal waste trafficking, but its government has attempted to tackle the reputation and has returned shipments of waste in the past.
On Monday the country's environment minister, Yeo Bee Yin, said she ordered 3,737 metric tons of trash to be returned to 13 countries.
Of the 150 containers, 43 were sent back to France and 42 to the UK, while the US will receive 17 and Canada 11.
See Full Article at Source: https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/20/asia/malaysia-plastic-waste-return-scli-intl/index.html
The plastic polluters won 2019 – and we're running out of time to stop them
Further steps have been taken to clean up beaches and seas in 2019 – but much more needs to be done
Thu 2 Jan 2020 07.46 ESTLast modified on Fri 17 Jan 2020 13.39 EST
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A polluted beach in Mumbai. Novel ways to collect plastic from rivers and oceans were introduced last year. Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian
The beach at Muncar on the island of Java was revolting. The 400-yard wide, mile-long stretch of sand was feet deep in foul-smelling sauce sachets, shopping bags, nappies, bottles and bags, plastic clothes and detergent bottles. Bulldozers had cleared away and buried some of the huge mat of plastic and sand two years ago, but every tide since then had washed up more rubbish from the ocean, and every day tonnes more plastic was washed down the rivers from upstream towns and villages. Now it was fouling the fishing boats’ propellers.
“We fear for the future,” one elderly woman said. She remembered Muncar only a decade ago as one of the most picturesque towns in Indonesia and a tourist hotspot. “If it carries on like this we will be buried in plastic. We have no choice but to throw plastic into the rivers. Now we are angry. Something must be done,” she said.
Small steps towards a plastic-free world | Letters
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That was January 2019. One year later, the beach heaves with plastic but the local government, working with well-funded international advisers, a recycling company and an army of volunteer collectors have worked to stem the tide of plastic reaching its beaches. It will cost millions of dollars and take years but Muncar may soon have its sand back.
See Full Article at Source: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/02/year-plastic-pollution-clean-beaches-seas
A new push for a coherent U.S. recycling policy
More than a dozen trade groups led by the Consumer Brands Association (CBA) Wednesday morning launched a coalition to help craft federal policy that would "fundamentally reimagine the U.S. recycling system."
Why it matters: The coalition includes some prominent K Street players and hopes to create "consistent rules and practices" around what's now a crazy-quilt of recycling systems nationwide.
"The United States is facing a packaging and plastic waste crisis greatly exacerbated by nearly 10,000 unique recycling systems," said CBA President Geoff Freeman in a statement.
Petrochemicals used in creating new plastic is a big source of oil demand.
See Full Article at Source: https://www.axios.com/us-recycling-policy-push-3c5fd492-b125-4eb0-85ed-fa5f4b13289c.html
Single-use plastic: China to ban bags and other items 20 January 2020
China, one of the world's biggest users of plastic, has unveiled a major plan to reduce single-use plastics across the country.
Non-degradable bags will be banned in major cities by the end of 2020 and in all cities and towns by 2022.
The restaurant industry will also be banned from using single-use straws by the end of 2020.
China has for years been struggling to deal with the rubbish its 1.4 billion citizens generate.
The country's largest rubbish dump - the size of around 100 football fields - is already full, 25 years ahead of schedule.
In 2017 alone, China collected 215 million tonnes of urban household waste. But national figures for recycling are not available.
China produced 60 million tonnes of plastic waste in 2010, followed by the US at 38 million tonnes, according to online publication Our World in Data based at the University of Oxford.
See Full Article at Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-51171491
How Fossil Fuel Companies Are Killing Plastic Recycling
Plastic trash has overwhelmed America. Fossil fuel companies are about to make it worse.
So many things we buy come packaged in plastic containers or wrappers that are meant to be used once, thrown away and forgotten ― but they don’t break down and can linger in the environment long after we’re gone. It’s tempting to think that we can recycle this problem away, that if we’re more diligent about placing discarded bottles and bags into the curbside bin, we’ll somehow make up for all the trash overflowing landfills, choking waterways and killing marine life.
For decades, big petrochemical companies responsible for extracting and processing the fossil fuels that make plastics have egged on consumers, reassuring them that recycling was the answer to our trash crisis. Just last month, Royal Dutch Shell executive Hilary Mercer told The New York Times that the production of new plastics was not the problem contributing to millions of tons of plastic waste piling up in landfills and drifting in oceans. Instead, she suggested, the problem is one of improper waste disposal. Better recycling, she implied, is the solution.
“We passionately believe in recycling,” Mercer told the Times.
But plastic recycling is in trouble. Too much of the indestructible material exists in the world, more than our current recycling networks can handle. And the very same companies that say recycling is the answer are about to unleash a tidal wave of fresh plastics that will drown recyclers struggling to stay afloat.
“We’ve been trained [to think] that we can purchase endlessly and recycle everything,” said Genevieve Abedon, a policy associate who represents the Clean Seas Lobbying Coalition. “There is no way that recycling can keep up.”
See full article at source: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/plastic-recycling-oil-companies-landfill_n_5d8e4916e4b0e9e7604c832e?ncid=NEWSSTAND0005
The ocean is key to achieving climate and societal goals
By Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, Eliza Northrop, Jane Lubchenco
Science 27 Sep 2019:
Vol. 365, Issue 6460, pp. 1372-1374
DOI: 10.1126/science.aaz4390
The just-released Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) special report on the ocean and cryosphere in a changing climate (SROCC) (1) details the immense pressure that climate change is exerting on ocean ecosystems and portrays a disastrous future for most life in the ocean and for the billions of people who depend on it unless anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are slashed. It reinforces in stark terms the urgency of reducing carbon emissions expressed in a 2018 IPCC report (2). But another just-released report (3) provides hope and a path forward, concluding that the ocean is not simply a victim of climate change, but a powerful source of solutions. Drawing on this report organized by the High Level Panel (HLP) for a Sustainable Ocean Economy, which quantifies and evaluates the potential for ocean-based actions to reduce emissions, we outline a “no-regrets to-do list” of ocean-based climate actions that could be set in motion today. We highlight the report's analysis of the mitigation potential and the required research, technology, and policy developments for five ocean-based mitigation areas of action: renewable energy; shipping and transport; protection and restoration of coastal and marine ecosystems; fisheries, aquaculture, and shifting diets; and carbon storage in the seabed (see the figure). Make no mistake: These actions are ambitious, but we argue that they are necessary, could pay major dividends toward closing the emissions gap in coming decades, and achieve other co-benefits along the way (3, 4).
These five areas were identified, quantified, and evaluated relative to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The report concludes that these actions (in the right policy, investment, and technology environments) could reduce global GHG emissions by up to 4 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents in 2030 and by up to 11 billion tonnes in 2050. This could contribute as much as 21% of the emission reduction required in 2050 to limit warming to 1.5°C and 25% for a 2°C target. Reductions of this magnitude are larger than the annual emissions from all current coal-fired power plants worldwide. Considering each action area through a technical, economic, and social/political lens, the report concluded that carbon storage in the seabed requires considerable further investigation to address concerns regarding the impacts on deep ocean environments and ecosystems, but that the other four ocean-based sectors have substantial mitigation potential and could be readily implemented or initiated with the right policies, incentives, and guidance (3).
See full article at source: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/365/6460/1372
The World’s Oceans Are in Danger, Major Climate Change Report Warns
By Brad Plumer
Sept. 25, 2019
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WASHINGTON — Climate change is heating the oceans and altering their chemistry so dramatically that it is threatening seafood supplies, fueling cyclones and floods and posing profound risks to the hundreds of millions of people living along the coasts, according to a sweeping United Nations report issued Wednesday.
The report concludes that the world’s oceans and ice sheets are under such severe stress that the fallout could prove difficult for humans to contain without steep reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Fish populations are already declining in many regions as warming waters throw marine ecosystems into disarray, according to the report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of scientists convened by the United Nations to guide world leaders in policymaking.
“The oceans are sending us so many warning signals that we need to get emissions under control,” said Hans-Otto Pörtner, a marine biologist at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany and a lead author of the report. “Ecosystems are changing, food webs are changing, fish stocks are changing, and this turmoil is affecting humans.”
Read full article at source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/25/climate/climate-change-oceans-united-nations.html
Microplastics discovered in 'extreme' concentrations in the North Atlantic
By Arwa Damon and Brice Laine, CNN August 20, 2019
Sargasso Sea (CNN)Within the Atlantic Ocean is the world's only sea without shores, its borders defined by the currents of the North Atlantic gyre. The Sargasso Sea takes its name from sargassum, a free-floating golden brown seaweed that is a haven for hatchling sea turtles and hundreds of other marine species who use it to feed, grow and hide from predators. But the sargassum is now home to objects wholly unnatural too.
Caught up in the swirling gyre is a growing collection of human waste: trash from countries that border the Atlantic, from the west coast of Africa to the east coast of the US, slowly breaking up on its long journey into microplastics that end up in the gills and stomachs of aquatic animals.
We joined a Greenpeace expedition to the Sargasso where scientists were studying plastic pollution and turtle habitats. Our mission was to get a better understanding of what lives out on the sargassum ecosystem, what is threatening it, and how that may impact us.
See Full Article at Source: https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/08/19/world/microplastics-sargasso-sea-north-atlantic-intl/index.html?fbclid=IwAR1uXxtDsF1iCG2Ho3Arh3tkNgGJ1KDMQVa0wwqfUVY8uuOkl2pMLMad-rs
Irish Teen Wins 2019 Google Science Fair For Removing Microplastics From Water
by Trevor Nace Senior Contributor Science
An Irish teenager just won $50,000 for his project focusing on extracting micros-plastics from water.
Google launched the Google Science Fair in 2011 where students ages 13 through 18 can submit experiments and their results in front of a panel of judges. The winner receives $50,000. The competition is also sponsored by Lego, Virgin Galactic, National Geographic and Scientific American.
Fionn Ferreira, an 18-year-old from West Cork, Ireland won the competition for his methodology to remove microplastics from water.
Microplastics are defined as having a diameter of 5nm or less and are too small for filtering or screening during wastewater treatment. Microplastics are often included in soaps, shower gels, and facial scrubs for their ability to exfoliate the skin. Microplastics can also come off clothing during normal washing.
These microplastics then make their way into waterways and are virtually impossible to remove through filtration. Small fish are known to eat microplastics and as larger fish eat smaller fish these microplastics are concentrated into larger fish species that humans consume.
See Full Article at Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/trevornace/2019/07/30/irish-teen-wins-2019-google-science-fair-for-removing-microplastics-from-water/#4bf4c68f373f
Arctic sea ice loaded with microplastics by Marlowe Hood
At first glance, it looks like hard candy laced with flecks of fake fruit, or a third grader's art project confected from recycled debris.
In reality, it's a sliver of Arctic Ocean sea ice riddled with microplastics, extracted by scientists from deep inside an ice block that likely drifted southward past Greenland into Canada's increasingly navigable Northwest Passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
"We didn't expect this amount of plastic, we were shocked," said University of Rhode Island ice expert Alessandra D'Angelo, one of a dozen scientists collecting and analysing data during an 18-day expedition aboard the Swedish icebreaker Oden.
"There is so much of it, and of every kind—beads, filaments, nylons," she told AFP from Greenland, days after completing the voyage.
Plastic pollution was not a primary focus of the Northwest Passage Project, funded by the US National Science Foundation and Heising-Simons Foundation.
Led by oceanographer Brice Loose, the multi-year mission is investigating how global warming might transform the biochemistry and ecosystems of the expansive Canadian Arctic Archipelago.
See Full Article at Source: https://phys.org/news/2019-08-arctic-sea-ice-microplastics.html
'Not a dustbin': Cambodia to send plastic waste back to the US and Canada
Country vows to return 1,600 tonnes of waste as south-east Asian countries revolt against an onslaught of rubbish shipments
Cambodia has announced it will send 1,600 tonnes of plastic waste found in shipping containers back to the US and Canada, as south-east Asian countries revolt against an onslaught of rubbish shipments.
China’s decision to ban foreign plastic waste imports last year threw global recycling into chaos, leaving developed nations struggling to find countries to send their trash.
Eighty-three shipping containers full of rubbish were found on Tuesday at Sihanoukville, Cambodia’s main port, according to a spokesman for the country’s environment minister.
“Cambodia is not a dustbin where foreign countries can dispose of out-of-date e-waste, and the government also opposes any import of plastic waste and lubricants to be recycled in this country,” he said.
See Full Article at Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/17/cambodia-plastic-waste-us-canada-send-back
