On Monday morning, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that his government will move to implement a federal ban on single-use plastic items within the next two years.
“We need to cover all of Canada with this decision — and that’s why the federal government is moving forward on a science-based approach to establishing which harmful single-use plastics we will be eliminating as of 2021,” the prime minister said.
Trudeau’s office did not immediately provide details on which specific single-use plastics might be prohibited under the ban. CBC News, citing a governmental source, reported that items such as “cotton swabs, drink stirrers, plates and balloon sticks” might become illegal under the new federal law.
Canada’s announcement comes just a few months after the European Union moved to implement a similar ban on single-use plastics. Frans Timmerman, an EU official who championed the passing of the plan through the continental parliament, celebrated its passing as a major step toward saving our planet’s oceans.
“Today we have taken an important step to reduce littering and plastic pollution in our oceans and seas,” Timmerman said. “We got this, we can do this. Europe is setting new and ambitious standards, paving the way for the rest of the world.”
Experts estimate that as much as 8 million tons of plastic waste find their way to our oceans each year. That waste kills an estimated 100 million animals annually, imperiling entire ocean ecosystems. According to Ocean Conservancy, an environmental advocacy group, plastic waste has been found inside of 60 percent of seabirds and 100 percent of sea turtles who mistook the pollution as a source of food.
Many of the sea creatures who don’t die from the plastic they ingest experience extreme pain and distress. One viral video with millions of views shows a marine biologist struggling for eight minutes to dislodge a plastic straw stuck inside the nostril of a sea turtle, which writhes in agony and bleeds profusely.
By themselves, the Canadian and EU bans won’t be the solution that saves millions of marine animal lives from a potentially excruciating death due to plastic ingestion. However, the proposed restrictions represent a meaningful step forward — and all other nations should take note. Only through cooperation on a global scale can humankind stop millions more tons of plastic waste from finding its way to our water.
Whether the United States’ leaders will follow suit on the federal level remains to be seen, though some of our nation’s cities and states have placed limited bans on specific items like plastic bags and straws.
Tag: recycling
5 Small Ways You Can Reduce Your Plastic Consumption
It’s now in vogue to ditch plastic straws, with Starbucks and a handful of other retailers phasing out the hollow plastic columns in an effort to shrink ocean pollution — and for good reason. In 2014, the Environmental Protection Agency estimated that Americans throw out 33.3 million tons of plastic. Less than 10 percent of that ends up being recycled.
All of this trash has environmental ramifications. Plastic bottles, for example, take close to 450 years to fully decompose, which harms ground waters and soil.
But for all the hoopla surrounding them, plastic straws are a very tiny fraction of the problem. (According to Bloomberg, the real culprit polluting our oceans is discarded fishing nets and other fishing gear.) Even still, anti-straw activism is certainly a step in the right direction. And here are a few other pain-free ways to ply plastic from your life, both at the grocery store and at home.
JUST SAY NO TO SINGLE-USE BAGS
Getting rid of plastic bags at grocery and convenience stores has been a hot topic among state legislatures for the past few years, ever since California started charging customers for them in 2014. Since then, there’s been a decrease in plastic bag consumption across the state and as a result, a number of other cities have followed suit, with Washington, D.C., touting a 60 percent reduction in bag usage (though that number is contested).
For eco-conscious consumers, canvas tote bags are the holy grail of recycling accessories. Since they’re reusable, they’re obviously superior to single-use plastic bags, but do keep in mind that amassing a bunch of totes isn’t necessarily the best option for the environment, either. (Cotton takes more resources to produce and distribute than does conventional plastic bags.)
Your best bet? Tote bags made from recycled plastic, not cotton.
BYOCC (BRING YOUR OWN COFFEE CUP)
It’s good that big companies like Starbucks and McDonald’s are working toward eliminating plastic straws from their stores, but relying on companies to get rid of to-go cups has been more of an uphill battle.
An estimated 60 billion paper coffee cups end up in landfills every year because they’re not easily recyclable — and it takes over 20 years for a single cup to decompose.
An easy solution? simply bring your own thermos with you to your local coffee shop. (Bonus tip: Starbucks gives you a discount for doing so as well).
STOP IT WITH THE BOTTLED WATER ALREADY
Here are two sobering statistics that should scare you:
- Globally, humans buy almost 1 million plastic water bottles per minute.
- Ninety-one percent of all that plastic is not recycled — including those very bottles.
As anyone who’s had to pound the pavement during a sweltering summer knows, it’s all too easy to snag a bottle of water while on the go, and then just as quickly toss it away. What’s more, companies are profiting hand over fist by bottling and selling water. Even entertainers have caught on to the money-making potential of bottled water: Justin Timberlake is an investor in Bai Brands, which among other beverages sells antioxidant water, and 50 Cent made millions from his stake in Vitamin Water.
To correct for that, conscientious consumers have been snapping up reusable water bottles, and the market for them is expected to reach over $10 billion in less than six years.
While not enough studies have been conducted to determine the ecological impact of stocking reusable water bottles, anecdotally at least, there are benefits — both for the environment and your wallet.
A simple, one-time $20 purchase of a reusable water bottles means less plastic ends up in landfills or clogging up the ocean. It also means you can save some dough. If you’re like the average American, you buy about $5 worth of bottled water a week. Make the switch, and not only will you have paid off the price of your own bottle within a month, you’ll also save about $200 a year.
BUY IN BULK — AND USE YOUR OWN CONTAINER TO DO SO
Buying individually packaged foods is incredibly wasteful, but buying things in bulk — be it from a grocer that offers bulk buys or your local Costco — is incredibly helpful in reducing plastic waste.
It’s also advisable to bring your own containers to stores, as many grocers stock plastic bags for you to put your produce, nuts and other goods in, which obviously defeats the purpose.
One word of caution: According to a study by the University of Arizona, buying in bulk oftentimes results in enormous food waste, especially when it comes to perishable foods that could rot or go stale before you’ve had the chance to eat all of them. Instead, stick to bulk-buying items that can either be frozen or won’t go bad.
BE WARY OF MICROPLASTICS
Plastic bottles, cups and straws are straightforward examples that help illustrate the problem of the plastic ravaging our oceans. But another environmental menace are the microplastics — or tiny plastic particles less than 5 millimeters in size — that lurk in common items like polyester clothing and personal care products like toothpaste and face scrubs.
These small pieces of plastic are so microscopic that they get flushed into sewage systems every time you wash clothes made with synthetic fibers or rinse off an exfoliating face wash. Eventually, the harmful particles reach the oceans, where they account for anywhere between 15 and 30 percent of marine plastic pollution.
In the U.S., the Microbead-Free Waters Act, signed in 2015, will eliminate the itsy-bitsy plastic pellets from all cosmetics and toothpastes by next year. A similar law was recently passed in the UK. These government actions help, of course, but it’s also worth your while to check out which companies are still manufacturing products with microbeads (see the list here), and which aren’t (that list is here).
Pulling Plastic From the Sea (and Recycling It Into Skateboards)
Growing up near Cape Cod, Ben Kneppers felt an affinity with the ocean. “I lived right beside a cove, where my friends and I spent all our time catching blue crabs, clamming and exploring,” he says.
It’s no surprise that Kneppers grew up to become an environmental consultant — and avid surfer. His career took him to Australia, where he befriended David Stover and Kevin Ahearn, who shared his passion for catching waves. During late-night talks, the guys always seemed to return to the topic of plastic garbage in the ocean. They were constantly surfing over, around or through it.
“We’d find ourselves asking, ‘What if we could do something about that?” remembers Kneppers.
There didn’t seem to be an answer.
In 2012, Kneppers relocated to Chile for work. When he heard a program funded by the Chilean government was looking for sustainable start-ups to fund, he remembered those conversations with his friends. “For as much doom and gloom as we cast on ocean pollution, I figured it was probably actually solvable,” Kneppers says.
He reached out to Stover and Ahearn and suggested they figure out how. Stover has financial skills and Ahearn, engineering expertise. Kneppers, for his part, “researched the heck out of” ocean plastic. He interviewed local fishermen, scrutinized coastal infrastructure, and studied behavior and design. His conclusion? “Waste is a design flaw,” Kneppers explains. “If we designed something using a circular model, we could solve the problem that we created.”
In other words, what if local fishermen could be paid to harvest plastic waste? What if it was not only fished out of the water but transformed into something of value?
Kneppers thought back to his childhood and how his prized possession was a skateboard. It would take two pounds of plastic to produce one – but it could be sold for around a hundred bucks. That volume of plastic could easily be sourced from discarded fishing nets, which make up more than 10 percent of the world’s ocean pollution.
The guys had their idea.
They named their company Bureo, which means “the waves” in the language of the Mapuche, a group of native Chileans.
Once they received funds from the start-up accelerator, Stover and Ahearn moved to Chile to get Bureo’s fishnet collection and recycling program, “Net Positiva,” up and running. Within six months, more than 6,600 pounds of abandoned fishing nets were collected.
The first (fish-shaped) skate deck, dubbed “The Minnow,” was manufactured from the upcycled debris.
Today, Net Positiva operates in dozens of villages throughout Chile. In 2017 alone, it salvaged more than 185,000 pounds of nets from the ocean.
Sidewalk cruiser skateboards were just the start. Bureo now makes sunglasses, surf fins and Frisbees. A partnership with Pokenobe Enterprises, the creator and owner of Jenga, led to the world’s first board game made from 100 percent recycled fishing nets.
Singer and environmentalist Jack Johnson’s a fan, selling Bureo products at his concerts. So is outdoor retailer Patagonia. Its corporate venture capital fund, Tin Shed Ventures, is now an investor. And Net Positiva enjoys widespread support in the Chilean villages where it operates. Although some large fishing operations now donate their nets, Bureo takes the money it would have paid fishermen to retrieve them and invests it into local community projects like improved waste management systems.
Kneppers and his wife, Gabriella, still call Chile home, while Stover and Ahearn work out of Bureo’s Ventura, Calif. headquarters. Pilot programs to capture fishing nets off the Pacific Coast are underway. Ten years from now, Kneppers hopes Bureo will be a global entity.
“I’m the dreamer guy,” he says, “always thinking of the next crazy idea.”
The Earth-Friendly Second Life of Dorm Cast-Offs
“Pomp and Circumstance” accompanies the annual spring rites of commencement, as thousands of bright-eyed college graduates depart for the real world. Another, less memorable (and certainly more environmentally-damaging) tradition usually follows immediately after: the dumping of four years’ worth of Ikea futons, mini-fridges, Greek life t-shirts and dog-eared textbooks — items that’ll be purchased by the cartload by incoming freshman next fall.
Undergraduate move-out day generates tons of waste. Student activists on these three college campuses created more efficient systems to reuse and recycle.
University of New Hampshire
The first student-run sustainability initiative of its kind in the country, Trash2Treasure at this college in Durham, N.H., makes storage easier for on-campus students who have limited options for where to stash their furniture over the summer; in the process, they diverted 110 tons from dumpsters. Unwanted items are picked up at the end of each academic year, then sold to newcomers in the fall. It’s profitable enough as a business model that it actually generates more money than it spends to operate — earning $55,000 in revenue for future initiatives, as well as saving the school $10,000 in cleanup costs and parents more than $200,000 on dorm furnishings.
“Thousands of reusable items clog up streets and sidewalks and are sent to landfills every year,” Alex Freid, a UNH student who co-created T2T, tells The Boston Globe. “This is a problem campuses, towns, and cities have been seeing for 20 or 30 years, so they love to see students taking initiative and solving the problem.” Freid now runs the Post-Landfill Action Network, a nonprofit bringing the methods they refined at UNH to other campuses like University of Massachusetts, Tulane University in New Orleans, Northeastern and the College of William and Mary. “Our goal is to help campuses achieve zero waste, and move-out waste is a really great way to start,” Freid adds. “What we’re trying to do is to build universities as microcosms of how the world can and should function in the future.”
Yale University
A decade ago, this Ivy League school in New Haven, Conn., began the annual “Spring Salvage.” The program is based on a simple concept: “All students have to do is look for the blue and gray donation bins as they move out,” says Gabriel Roy-Liguori, a rising senior who helps coordinate the collection. “Blue bins are for soft items” — clothes, shoes, towels, sheets — “gray ones are for hard items” — books, lamps, electronics. There’s some mild confusion every year with a handful of students who think the 150 collection bins are meant for trash, but for the most part, the initiative salvages plenty of perfectly good items. Last year, more than 60,000 pounds of items were donated to Goodwill Industries. Overall, waste declined from 101 tons in 2013 to 93 tons last year, and a greater percentage went to charity instead of the landfill.
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Arizona State University
At the largest campus in the country, students on five campuses around Phoenix diverted 156,860 pounds of waste by redirecting it to charity, repurposing it for next year’s students or recycling it. The “Ditch the Dumpster” campaign works similar to other salvage programs, but at a huge scale. “When 9,000 students leave campus in the course of a week, you have to be on top of your game,” says Elizabeth Kather, a former member of the Sun Devils’ program. “You need a dedicated team — one that can be nimble as things change and react quickly to the needs of the program.” With this year’s move-out program, which launched on Earth Day, they’re hoping to exceed last year’s total, breaking past 78 tons.
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Why Every State Should Be Like California
The future is looking very green for California.
Starting this year, the Golden State will take its sustainable reputation even further when all food waste from commercial businesses will be converted to energy through anaerobic digestion.
Last September, in response to a desire to keep food waste out of landfills, Gov. Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 1826 into the books. Not only will this measure increase California’s already bustling composting and anaerobic digestion infrastructure, reports Sustainable Cities Collective, but it will also reduce greenhouse gas emissions — namely methane, which is produced by organic waste and is one of the worst greenhouse gases.
“We’ve been really good at recycling in California, such as bottles and cans,” Nick Lapis, legislative coordinator of the nonprofit environmental advocacy organization Californians Against Waste, tells Sustainable Cities Collective. “But we haven’t done as good a job with commercial waste.”
The bill, which requires companies that produce at least 200 tons of organic waste per year (such as supermarkets, hotels and convention centers) to have all of their waste composted and/or anaerobically digested, will go into effect in stages starting July 2015. By 2017, if a company produces at least 100 tons of organic waste, they must comply to the law. And in 2019, commercial producers of 100 tons of total waste will be required to compost or anaerobically digest it.
In a press release, lead author of AB 1826 Assembly Member Wesley Chesbro said, “California is on the forefront of the farm-to-fork movement, but the next step is to move the entire state full circle and transition from fork-to-farm.”
Talk about something that can be digested easily.
MORE: 71 Surprising Things That You Can Compost
How Good Are You At Recycling? Take The Quiz
1. Aluminum Foil
Recycle
Don’t recycle
Yep!
Nope!
During World War II, Americans would take care to save the aluminum in gum wrappers. Today, aluminum foil can be recycled and returned to store shelves in as few as 60 days, according to Waste Management. Just make sure you clean any food residue off of it first.
2. Aerosol Cans
Recycle
Don’t recycle
Yep!
Nope!
They might be made of aluminum, but that doesn’t mean they can be recycled like a soda can. Aerosol-powered products like spray paint and hair spray can almost never be recycled. They’re explosive and contain materials that can pollute the waste stream and groundwater. Make sure the cans are completely empty before disposing of them in the trash.
3. Solo Cups
Recycle
Don’t recycle
Yep!
Nope!
These are typically plastic No. 6, which is generally acceptable at local recycling centers, though it’s harder to repurpose than plastic Nos. 1, 2, and 5. If you have a choice, buy cups that are No. 5s.
4. K-Cups
Recycle
Don’t recycle
Yep!
Nope!
One in three Americans has discovered the joys of the single-cup coffee pod. They’re fast, convenient, clean — and recyclable. Split the pods open, empty them completely of all coffee grounds and recycle the plastic. It may take a little extra effort, but it’s worth it.
5. Juice Boxes
Recycle
Don’t recycle
Yep!
Nope!
The makers of popular juice boxes are working on recyclable juice boxes, which will be specially marked. But until those are rolled out, juice boxes have to go in the trash.
6. Wet Paper
Recycle
Don’t recycle
Yep!
Nope!
Paper is generally a good thing to put into a recycling bin, but if it’s wet, its fibers aren’t strong enough to be reused, according to Mother Nature Network. Plus there’s the risk of contamination.
7. Plastic Shopping Bags
Recycle
Don’t recycle
Yep!
Nope!
There’s just no excuse to contribute to plastic bag pollution anymore. Your local grocery store probably collects these from returning customers. Better yet, save them for future use (transporting small items, doggie bags, etc.).
8. Tin Cans
Recycle
Don’t recycle
Yep!
Nope!
These are some of the most-recycled items in the U.S. today. About 71 percent of these cans do end up in the correct bin. Making a new can with an old one saves about 75 percent of the energy that goes into the process, according to Waste Management.
9. Waxed Cardboard
Recycle
Don’t recycle
Yep!
Nope!
While most cardboard is fine to recycle, many municipalities won’t accept the waxed kind, like what’s used in some shipping boxes and juice or milk cartons. The tricky thing is that waxed cardboard isn’t always labeled. If the surface of the cardboard is smooth and shiny and doesn’t include the recycling symbol, however, you’re safe in assuming that it’s waxed, and that you can’t drop it in your curbside recycling bins.
10. Yogurt Cups
Recycle
Don’t recycle
Yep!
Nope!
Yogurt cups, butter tubs and other items made from plastic No. 5 can now be recycled at most Whole Foods stores through their partnership with Preserve’s Gimme 5 Program. Just drop them off in designated bins, and Preserve will upcycle the items into useful things like toothbrushes and park benches.
Score: 0 / 10
5 Very Simple, Practical Things You Can Do to Curb Climate Change
Climate change is a defining issue of our time and there is no time to lose,” proclaimed Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary-General, during last month’s U.N. Climate Summit. “There is no Plan B because we do not have a Planet B.”
Since you’ve already converted from a gas-guzzling SUV and always BYOB (bring your own bag) to the supermarket, try making these tweaks to your everyday lifestyle. They’ll help the U.N. achieve its goal of keeping the earth’s temperature from rising no more than 2 degrees Celsius by 2100 and, in turn, keep the planet from facing even more disasters like famine, disease and water shortages.
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Why Those Red Party Cups Are Also Big Red Flags
The Red Solo cup is about as American as beer pong and Toby Keith, but there’s a big problem with this party icon.
These beverage holders are made of No. 6 thermoplastic polystyrene, a moldable plastic that’s cheap to produce and found everywhere, from disposable razors to CD cases and even Styrofoam containers.
In theory, this plastic is 100 percent recyclable. But even if someone actually collects the used cups for recycling, most curbside pickups and facilities do not accept this kind of plastic since it’s not easily recyclable.
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This means, unfortunately, most of these cups get sent to the landfill where they take their sweet time to decompose (No. 6 plastic takes about 50 years to break down).
We’ve already mentioned how plastic is an environmental menace, and that doesn’t even include all of the energy, chemicals and barrels of oil it takes to manufacture a cup that’s probably only going to be used a single time before it’s trashed. (In case you’re wondering how you can recycle them, you can send your used Solo cups to TerraCycle.)
Whether they’re made of plastic, paper or Styrofoam, it’s clear that America has a disposable cup problem. They’re everywhere. You’ll see them ankle-deep at college keggers and all over coffee shops and restaurants. In fact, airline flights in the United States go through a staggering 1 million disposable cups every six hours (!).
So what’s a environmentally conscious beverage-drinker supposed to do?
Well, you can swear off all disposable receptacles forever or just wash and reuse the ones you already have. Alternatively, you can drink from a better cup.
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Washington-based company MicroGREEN Polymers launched their InCycle Cup a few years ago with hopes of replacing these plastic menaces. What makes these cups different is that they are made from recycled PET bottles, which are exceptionally recyclable.
“The main distinguishing factor is they are cheaper, made from water bottles that already exist so no trees are cut down or chemicals used to create the cups, and InCycle cups can be recycled again and again,” a rep tells NationSwell.
Last year, InCycle saved and repurposed 27 million water bottles from landfills. Not only that, according to a report from Seattle King 5, a single plastic water bottle can make three InCycle Cups.
If you’re worried that these cups are made from the same weak and crinkly material as plastic bottles, thanks to proprietary technology involving billions of micro air bubbles, these American-made cups are light yet extremely durable and can hold hot and cold beverages alike. Check out this neat video of an InCycle Cup that survived without a single crack after being run over by a car.
The eco-friendly cups — which are currently being used on United Airlines, Virgin America and Alaska Airlines flights and other companies — can be purchased online.
Turns out plastic can be used the right way. Cheers to that.
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How Can an Old Smartphone Be Used to Make a City Better?
Have you ever been annoyed by the amount of people fighting for position on a city sidewalk only to turn the corner and find the next block over all but deserted? Ever thought that your old smartphone could be used in some other capacity? These may seem like totally separate problems, but Alex Winter has one unique solution to solve both.
His new startup, Placemeter, has found a unique yet incredibly simple way to monitor street activity and turn it into data that cities and businesses can use — all the while putting discarded smartphones to use.
Here’s what happens: City dwellers send Placemeter information about where they live and what their view consists of. The company sends back a window mounting smartphone kit, which will allow them to use its camera to monitor street activity. The movement is then quantified using a computer program that identifies individual bodies and tracks their actions, as shown in this video. Even better? In exchange, folks providing a view get up to $50 per month for an asset that previously paid nothing, according to City Lab.
As great as Placemeter is for those with a good street view, it is even better for an urban area as a whole. That’s because the images captured through the smartphones, over time, yields valuable data for city officials. Foot and vehicle traffic patterns, as well as the use of benches and other public amenities, can all be tracked through Placemeter and used to improve everyday life.
“Measuring data about how the city moves in real time, being able to make predictions on that, is definitely a good way to help cities work better,” Winter told City Lab.
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The data is also very valuable to retailers, helping them assess what might be the best spot for a new store. Such data has been long sought after, but until now, there had not been a simple, widespread way to collect it.
For many, with this advancement comes the concern of privacy — both for those being observed on the street and those with a smartphone. Placemeter has emphasized its commitment to privacy, though, and says the device’s camera doesn’t monitor anything inside a host’s home. Additionally, a computer, not a human, analyzes all the images of the street, and once the useful data is captured, the footage is erased.
Although it’s only in New York for now, the company wants to expand to other U.S. cities.
Thanks to Placemeter, says Winter, “cities and citizens [can] collaborate to make the city better.”And who wouldn’t want that?
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Thirst Quenchers: Step Away from the Trash Can
Milk cartons. Juice cartons. Wine cartons, if you prefer. After you quench your thirst with a beverage, there’s no reason that you can’t recycle that empty container.
In case you aren’t aware, most cartons are made of paper and can be recycled just like any other paper product. Still, not everyone is doing their part. As Earth911 reported, in 2009, at least half a million tons of carton waste ended up in landfills.
But now it’s easier than ever to recycle these containers. According to the Carton Council (yes, there is such a thing!), the growth of carton recycling has boomed in the last five years — from 18 percent to 50 percent since 2009. There are now 58,358,146 of households in the U.S. — half the homes in the country — that have access to curbside recycling programs or drop off facilities.
MORE: Recycle Your Phone, Save the Gorillas
And here’s a fun fact for your next dinner party: Carton recycling is probably growing faster than tweeting. If you look at this neat infographic, in the last five years, the increased access to carton recycling (177 percent) has dwarfed the growth of mobile web usage (103 percent) and the number of adults using social media (55 percent).
In a blog post, Jason Pelz, the VP of recycling projects for the Carton Council wrote that this special landmark is only the beginning: “In fact, 50 percent is just one milestone for us. We envision the day when cartons are recycled everywhere and no cartons end up in landfills. It is with this ambition that we are marching full speed ahead.”
To those of you who don’t think and simply toss your empty containers into the trash, you’ve got some work to do. We all owe it to the trees to make this a little extra effort.
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