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.

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In an effort to reduce plastic waste, Starbucks plans to phase out straws from its 28,000 worldwide stores by 2020.

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:

  1. Globally, humans buy almost 1 million plastic water bottles per minute.
  2. 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.

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Buying in bulk is a simple way to cut back on plastic packaging.

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).

California Is Going to Use Toilet Water to Grow Your Vegetables

By the end of 2017, toilet water and other wastewater will be used to irrigate a large swath of Central Valley farmland near Interstate 5, an area that is known as California’s agricultural hub because it produces more than 360 products.
“As long as we keep taking showers and flushing toilets, we can guarantee you water,” Modesto Mayor Garrad Marsh said to farmers at an August 2015 news event.
Treatment facilities in the two inland cities, Modesto and Turlock, will collect the water from sinks, showers, washing machines and toilets, and process it into what’s commonly referred to as “gray water.” Once the not-quite-drinkable H2O is clear of all solid waste, it’s completely safe to be used to water plants or siphoned off to natural wetlands.
By 2018, a $100 million pipeline is expected to transport the processed water to 30,600 acres of farmland roughly 40 miles south.
Two years ago, drought cost California’s state economy an estimated $2.7 billion, according to a study done by UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences. Water shortages resulted in $247 million in lost crop revenue in 2016.
The gray water should help drought-stricken farmers in the future, as new population growth in this region of California puts increasing pressure on the water supply and scientists predict that climate change could cause future droughts to be more drastic.
“Without something like this, the future for my son and grandson and family — we’re into this third generation — I don’t know if we can keep our business going,” Jim Jasper, owner of Stewart & Jasper Orchards, tells KQED.
California has been recycling water for more than 100 years. Los Angeles County first used treated wastewater in 1929 to water golf courses and parks, and the state has been irrigating farmland with it for more than three decades, according to the Pacific Institute. A 2009 survey (the most recent available) reported that 669,000 acres of California land was irrigated using gray water.
MORE: The Counterintuitive Solution to California’s Drought Crisis
Homepage photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.

10 Infrastructure Projects We’d Like to See Get Off the Ground

In his victory speech, Donald J. Trump vowed to “rebuild our highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, schools, hospitals.” The investment is long overdue: The American Society of Civil Engineers, in its most recent national assessment, rated the country’s infrastructure as a D-plus, just above failing. The group estimates that, by 2025, the nation will need a $1.44 trillion boost over current funding levels to meet growing needs.

Since 2009, when Barack Obama doled out roughly $800 billion in a stimulus package, that money’s been hard to come by, largely blocked by partisanship. But advocates hope the election of Trump, who made his fortune in real estate, could launch a building boom. The Republican president, so used to seeing his name on gilded skyscrapers, hotels, casinos and golf courses, could cut a deal with congressional Democrats, who view public-works projects as an engine for job growth.

Assuming Trump can indeed pass a bill, we at NationSwell have a few ideas for him to consider. A big, beautiful wall’s not one of them; instead, here’s the top 10 shovel-worthy alternatives we’d like the new administration to undertake.

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Every City Should Replicate What This Michigan City Did, A Smarter System for Doctors Making House Calls and More


The City That Unpoisoned Its Pipes, NextCity
The idea of preemptively improving infrastructure long before a crisis hits is foreign to most Americans. An hour’s drive west of Flint, Mich., the entire water system in Lansing (which once contained lead-lined service mains) will be declared lead-free in 2017 after a decade spent switching to copper pipes. Soon, residents will have the ability to swig their H2O without worry.
A New Brand of Doctor Targets the Unhealthy in Rural Tennessee, The Tennessean
In rural areas, there are a lot of benefits to a country doctor who makes house calls: a robust patient-physician relationship, no administration contributing to overhead. But isolation limits those medics’ ability to understand what’s affecting their region. By banding together, a network of primary-care physicians in 50 desolate counties across Tennessee now share knowledge such as health trends among their populations and best practices for dealing with insurance companies.
The Collapsible Helmet that Could Revolutionize Bike-Share Safety, CityLab
Bike-sharing is one of the easiest ways to get around a city and is friendlier to the environment than a short, gas-guzzling car ride. But cyclists often put themselves at risk on roadways by going without a helmet. To improve safety, a Brooklyn, N.Y., commuter created a collapsible helmet made from paper honeycomb and glue, which folds up to the size of a banana, making a bike-share ride even more desirable.
MORE: In the U.S., 1.7 Million Don’t Have Access to Clean Drinking Water. This Grandma Is Changing That
 

The Surprisingly Simple Way to Improve Child Development, A State Protects Its Residents From Contaminated Water and More

To Help Kids Thrive, Coach Their Parents, New York Times
When it comes to nurturing healthy, successful children, the focus is usually on improving education and nutrition. But research proves it’s much more basic than that; coaching parents to create loving, stable environments at home has the biggest impact of all.
The Flint of California, Politico
The poisonous drinking water in Flint, Mich., dominates the news headlines, but contamination is a problem numerous low-income communities face. With a landmark bill, California law now protects citizens’ need of H20, declaring that everyone has the right to “safe, clean, affordable and accessible water adequate for human consumption, cooking and sanitary purposes.”
How to Clean Up the Dirtiest Vehicles on the Road, CityLab
Individuals can lessen their carbon footprint by opting to drive a Prius or Tesla instead of a gas-guzzling SUV. But to really reduce the greenhouse gas created by transportation in the U.S., those pumping out the most emissions — buses and medium- and heavy-duty trucks — must green up.
MORE: This Engineer Co-Founded Tesla. Here’s His Next Electric Idea

The Zero-Energy Way to Produce Food, How to Build Hope in a Poisoned City and More

 
What’s Growing On at The Plant?, onEarth
On the southwest side of the Windy City, a former meatpacking plant is now the home of The Plant, an incubator of 16 food start-ups. Tenants work together in order to be as sustainable as possible — literally, one business’s trash is another’s storage container, recipe ingredient or energy source. The long-term plan for this urban agricultural experiment? Sprout numerous Plants across the nation.
Life as a Young Athlete in Flint, Michigan, Bleacher Report
In a city under siege by its poisoned public water system, hometown heroes are using basketball to raise awareness and kids’ spirits. Kenyada Dent, a guidance counselor and high school hoops coach, uses the game as a tool to motivate his players towards opportunities outside of the struggling city; another coach, Chris McLavish, organized a charity game featuring former collegiate and NBA players that grew up in Flint. The activity on the court doesn’t make the tap water drinkable or erase the damage already inflicted, but it does bring much-needed joy to a city overcome with despair.
Truancy, Suspension Rates Drop in Greater Los Angeles Area Schools, The Chronicle of Social Change
A suspension doesn’t just make a child miss out on a day of learning, it also increases the likelihood that he’ll go to prison. Because of this, many school districts in the Golden State now implement restorative justice practices — a strategy that uses reconciliation with victims as a means of rehabilitation — instead of traditional, punitive disciplinary measures. Suspension rates and truancy filings have decreased, but racial discrepancies still exist when analyzing discipline statistics.
MORE: Suspending Students Isn’t Effective. Here’s What Schools Should Do Instead

In the U.S., 1.7 Million Don’t Have Access to Clean Drinking Water. This Grandma Is Changing That

Darlene Arviso’s mornings begin early, usually before the sun rises over the high desert plateau of the Navajo Nation in the northwest corner of New Mexico. Parking a bright yellow, 3,500-gallon tank underneath St. Bonaventure Indian Mission’s steel water tower in Thoreau (which the locals pronounce “threw”), she fills it to the brim and sets off on 75-mile drives over mostly unpaved roads to the isolated families without running water.
A hardworking 50-year-old grandmother, Arviso visits more than 250 families on the reservation, leaving each with just enough water to last a month: about 7 gallons per day to be used for drinking, cooking and cleaning. It’s far less than the 80 to 100 gallons that the typical American consumes daily, but it’s the vital help that reservation households depend on to survive. Without her, many would rely on snowmelt and rainwater collected in livestock troughs, purchase expensive bottled water from the store or risk drinking muddy, uranium-contaminated groundwater.
“Sometimes they have to go up to Gallup, N.M., but they have to take that water about 60 miles. St. Bonaventure Mission, that’s the only place nearby for people to get their water,” explains Arviso, who’s been making deliveries for the church for seven years. “They depend on me for the water.”
People often think that access to clean drinking water is a problem only in developing countries, but nearly 40 percent of the 173,000 Navajo tribe members don’t have a tap or a toilet in their home, says George McGraw, founder and executive director of DIGDEEP, the only global water organization with projects in the U.S. that has partnered with St. Bonaventure Mission to bring water to the Navajo Nation.
“Generally, people are aware that almost a billion people don’t have access to clean drinking water worldwide, but what most people don’t know is that 1.7 million people live without it right here in the United States,” he says.
McGraw’s nonprofit is working toward long-term solutions by drilling wells in the rural areas where Navajo families have set down roots for generations. DIGDEEP found clean water 1,800 feet below ground in Smith Lake, a dozen miles north of Thoreau. It’s planning to wrap up construction on the $300,000 dig within the next nine months, meaning Arviso can refill her truck without trekking back to the Catholic mission’s tank. Since impassable, snow-covered roads often prevent Arviso from making deliveries in the winter, a deep well and network of pipes should provide a reliable supply of water throughout the year. It’d also provide a more reasonable amount of water — closer to 40 or 50 gallons — per day.
In the meantime, she continues to make her daily water runs. “I’m the only water truck driver,” she beams. For years, she worked construction jobs in Albuquerque about an hour and a half away, but after she was laid off, she found employment with St. Bonaventure closer to home.
“Navajos like our own people to be helping each other. If other volunteers come over, they’ll be embarrassed. They’re shy and they just don’t want to talk to strangers,” she explains. But if she’s there, families are usually more receptive. It’s part of what’s unique about DIGDEEP: Rather than working like a traditional water charity that imposes aid from the outside, the nonprofit tries to empower local communities to come up with their own solutions.
When people see Arviso’s huge truck barreling down the road, they wave. Kids run outside to greet her, familiar with the “water lady.” As soon as she pulls up, family members set up their barrels, jugs and buckets, eager to refill their supply. At times, she gets calls asking for other essentials: food, blankets, lamp oil, wood or maybe just emotional support. “I can’t just give water and leave,” she said. “I have to ask them if they’re doing okay.” No matter the distance, Arviso will come.
“I love what I’m doing,” she says. “I’m helping my people.”

Watch Droplets of Water Literally Bounce Off This Eco-Friendly Metal

If you’ve ever lost power because of an ice storm bringing down your electrical lines, you’ll appreciate this new technology from researchers at New York’s University of Rochester.
Working on the microscale and nanoscale, the scientists used powerful lasers to etch parallel groves onto metal surfaces about 0.1mm apart, the BBC reports. The result? “The material is so strongly water-repellent, the water actually gets bounced off,” Rochester optics professor Chunlei Guo says in a news release. “Then it lands on the surface again, gets bounced off again, and then it will just roll off from the surface.” Check out the jaw-dropping videos below.
Unlike other materials that have hydrophobic qualities (such as non-stick Teflon pans) the slippery nature of this surface won’t peel off or degrade over time since it’s not reliant on a chemical coating — meaning that it’s eco-friendly, too.
Much like how lotus leaves stay clean in muddy water, this metal is also self-cleaning. The Rochester team found that when water drops onto the metal, the droplets take dust off with it.
The laser treatment has been successfully used on platinum, titanium and brass, aluminum and stainless steel.
The applications could be limitless: from boats and planes to solar panels and smartphones — basically anything that you want to keep dry or don’t want to rust or freeze over. “Some potential applications for anti-icing surfaces include protection of aerofoils, power transmission lines, pipes of air conditioners and refrigerators, and radar or telecommunication antennas,” the research team writes in the Journal of Applied Physics.
MORE: Need Clean Water? Find the Nearest Evergreen
It can also be used for sanitation purposes. “We wanted to create this super hydrophobic surface that will not only repel water but also repels water containing waste materials,” professor Guo explains in the video below. One possible outcome? A toilet that requires little to no water to flush, while remaining clean and dry. The Bill & Melissa Gates Foundation, which has provided $620,000 in funding for the project, is particularly interested in this aspect, USA Today reports.
Before we get too excited about electrical lines and solar panels that never have ice freeze on them, it’s important to note that it’s going to take some time before the technology becomes widespread. According to the press release, one hour is needed to etch a square inch of the metal.
 

This Simple Change to Your Shower Can Save Water and Money

When it comes to saving water, even the smallest changes can make a big difference. It’s even better when one easy action can save you some elbow grease and your hard-earned dollars at the same time.
A recent post from Sustainable Nations makes this point in its title: “Save Money By NOT Cleaning Your Old Shower Head.”
How is that possible? As the post notes, older shower heads release up to 3.5 GPM (Gallons Per Minute), but many new low-flow models come in the 1 to 1.5 GPM range, yet have a negligible difference in water pressure (because no one wants a wimpy shower). Basically, instead of spending $10 for chemically-laden cleaning products such as CLR to remove the grit and grime from your current shower head, you can spend the same amount of money (or even less) and replace it with a new low-flow shower head. This change not only slashes your water bill but also saves precious H2O, too.
DON’T MISS: If Your Community is Parched, Here’s How You Can Help Conserve Water
If you’re interested in making the switch, New York Times writer Stephen Treffinger reviewed 17 different low-flow shower heads of varying models that deliver an “acceptably robust shower” (prices range from $10 to $194).
Treffinger notes that the swap can make a massive difference in your water footprint: “If you typically take a 10-minute shower every day, a reduction of a half gallon per minute will save over 1,800 gallons of water a year.”
Sounds like a planet-friendly solution that’s green and (literally) clean.
(H/T: Reddit)

Why a New Start-Up Is Paying Customers to Save Water

Do you delay opening your utility bills, dreading the monthly expenses? Are you baffled by exactly what all those gallons, kilowatt-hours or cubic feet actually mean?
A start-up called MeterHero wants to simplify all those numbers and encourage you to save by comparing your water, gas and electricity consumption against your neighbors, and then offering rebates to those who conserve more. Earlier this month, the company started returning $1 for every 100 gallons of water a customer saves below their two-year average, TakePart reports.
Although MeterHero’s new refunds may seem small at first glance, the Environmental Protection Agency says the average American family of four guzzles through 400 gallons of water every day. So cutting 40 minutes from your household’s daily shower time or doing larger (yet fewer) loads of laundry means an extra dollar in your bank account. And with 29 percent of the continental U.S. facing drought conditions, it also means huge benefits for the environment.
The idea for the company was sparked at Marquette University in Wisconsin when two dozen students brainstormed how to motivate people to save water. Testing a form of peer pressure, they developed an online platform to compare utility bills. Heavy users would be urged to reduce waste through “the force of friendly competition,” Nathan Conroy, a graduate student involved with the project, tells the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
“As humans, how we compare to others informs our behavior,” Conroy says. “We don’t need everyone to become prophets of water scarcity; we just want people to be empowered to understand their water use and take action that works for them.”
McGee Young, a professor at Marquette, founded MeterHero this year after seeing huge demand for his former students’ work. He said the website is groundbreaking because utilities rarely offer incentives for water conservation since “their revenues depend on using water.”
One thousand users in the U.S. and Canada have registered so far. Anyone with a meter, old utility bills or willing landlord can sign up. MeterHero’s next challenge will be obtaining $100,000 in commitments by early next year — enough to fund rebates for 10 million gallons of water saved. They also have plans to launch a mobile app soon, GreenBiz reports.
“There’s going to be no greater public policy challenge we’ll face in our lifetime than managing increasingly scarce resources in a growing population,” Young says. “That’s why we’re doing this. We have no alternative but to think creatively and outside the box on how to manage our water supplies.”
Source: TakePart