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Sustainable Flip-Flops | Earth Wise

September 9, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Flip-flops are the world’s most popular shoe. They are lightweight, comfortable, affordable, and durable. In fact, the global market for flip-flops is expected to reach a whopping $23.8 billion by the year 2025.

But the popularity comes with a price. Flip-flops account for a troubling percentage of plastic waste that ends up in our landfills and oceans. As a result, demand for alternatives is compelling researchers to develop more sustainable versions of the popular footwear.

Scientists at the University of California San Diego have spent years working on this issue, and recently announced a breakthrough. According to a study recently published in Bioresource Technology Reports, the research team has formulated polyurethane foams – made from algae oil – to meet commercial specifications for mid-sole shoes and the foot-bed of flip-flops. In other words, the scientists have created sustainable, biodegradable, and consumer-ready materials that could replace plastics in some footwear.

The UC San Diego scientists collaborated with Algenesis Materials – a technology startup – on the research. Together, they worked to not only create the shoes, but to degrade them as well. The team tested their customized foams by immersing them in traditional compost and soil. The algae-based materials degraded after just 16 weeks.

The life of any material should be proportionate to the life of the product. The researchers point out that it doesn’t make sense to create a product that will last 500 years if it’ll only be used for a year or two.

The research team is currently working on production details with its manufacturing partners. The creation of biodegradable flip-flops that meet commercial footwear standards could eliminate tons of plastic waste from the environment.

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New science behind algae-based flip-flops

Flip Flops Market Size Worth $23.8 Billion by 2025

Photo, posted December 12, 2019, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Monitoring Wildlife For Warning Signs of the Next Pandemic | Earth Wise

July 29, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

According to the World Health Organization, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 likely originated in wild bats near Wuhan, China, and may have been passed to a second animal species before infecting people. Since then, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, more than 13 million people around the world have been infected by COVID-19 and about 600,000 have died.

But despite the ever-present threat of a new virus sparking the next pandemic, there is currently no global system to screen for viruses in wild animals that could eventually spill over to humans.

In an article recently published in the journal Science, a group of scientists is calling for the creation of a decentralized global system of wildlife surveillance. The establishment of this global system could help identify viruses in wild animals that have the potential to infect and sicken people before another global disease outbreak begins.

According to the scientists, coronaviruses alone have caused outbreaks in humans three times in the last 20 years: SARS (or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), MERS (or Middle East Respiratory Syndrome), and COVID-19.

While it’s impossible to know today how often viruses jump from animals to humans, human activity is making such spillover events more and more likely. For instance, many continue to develop wild animal habitat to build new homes or businesses. Some catch wild animals and re-sell them either for consumption or as exotic pets. Parts from these wild animals are often shipped around the world as trinkets or as ingredients for traditional medicines.

A global system that could identify potentially harmful viruses before they jump to humans is technologically feasible, affordable, and clearly necessary.

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COVID-19 Dashboard by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University (JHU)

Global wildlife surveillance could provide early warning for next pandemic

Photo, posted January 15, 2008, courtesy of Doug Beckers via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The Largest Community Solar Program

November 22, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Community solar projects allow customers to benefit from the economic and environmental attributes of solar energy when they don’t have the ability to invest in their own system for any number of reasons.

Florida Power & Light company is proposing to build the largest community solar program in the United States, pending regulatory review. The planned installation of 1,490 MW of new solar capacity at 20 new power plants distributed across FPL’s service territory is expected to generate an estimated $249 million in net savings for all FPL customers over the long term.

In addition to becoming the largest community solar program in the country, the new program would also be the largest voluntary low-income solar offering in the country. Low-income households are typically unable to benefit from solar energy because of not having the means to invest in the technology. The new SolarTogether program will have more than 35 megawatts of capacity dedicated to low-income Florida families. Solar energy is a critical tool for enabling low-income families to tap into energy savings.

The SolarTogether program would provide direct savings in the form of bill credits, making solar an affordable option for any customer. The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and Vote Solar joined with FPL to help design the program to include a low-income component and request Florida Public Service Commission approval. There is broad support for the program from universities, county and city governments, and private companies. In addition, more than 90,000 residential and small business customers have already signed up to receive more information. The utility hopes to receive regulatory approval in time to launch during the first quarter of 2020.

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FPL plans nation’s largest community solar program; includes low-income focus

Photo, posted March 8, 2018, courtesy of Babcock Ranch via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Affordable Electric Cars

May 1, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The main reasons that electric cars haven’t taken over are that they didn’t drive far enough on a charge, it took too long to charge them, and, most of all, they cost too much.

In recent years, the problem with driving range has steadily been disappearing as electric cars that can go over two hundred and even over three hundred miles on a charge have entered the market. Charging time has also become less of a problem. Tesla’s network of Superchargers can provide 200 miles worth of charge in half an hour and their next generation of chargers, which are just starting to appear, can cut that time much further.

As for cost, a new report by transportation analysts at Bloomberg New Energy Finance predicts that electric vehicles will be cost-competitive with combustion-engine cars by 2022.

The main reason is that the cost of EV batteries has been plummeting. In 2015, batteries made up 57% of the total cost of an electric vehicle. Today, that number is down to 33% and is expected to drop to 20% by 2025. In addition, the cost of electric powertrain systems is also dropping. The Bloomberg report predicts that over the next decade, costs for motors, inverters, and power electronics could be 25 to 30% cheaper than today.

The cost of electric vehicles has been dropping faster than predicted. Bloomberg’s report on the subject in 2017 predicted cost parity in 2026. Last year, they changed it to 2024. And now, they are saying 2022.

Given that electric cars are much cheaper to drive than gasoline cars, finding reasons not to drive them is getting harder to do.

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Electric Cars Could Be As Affordable as Conventional Vehicles In Just Three Years

Photo, posted November 17, 2018, courtesy of Jakob Harter via Flickr.

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Can We Remove Enough CO2 From The Air?

January 9, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

As atmospheric carbon dioxide levels continue to set new records and the effects of climate change grow stronger, humanity has continued to procrastinate on reducing emissions. As a result, it is increasingly clear that any strategy to avoid runaway climate change will have to involve the use of “negative emissions”- techniques or technologies that actually remove CO2 from the air.

There are both low-tech and high-tech methods for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and both are likely to be needed.

On the low-tech side, afforestation (planting trees where there were none before), reforestation, changes in forest management, rebuilding the carbon backbone in agricultural soils, and the use of energy from waste biomass are all ways to take carbon out of the atmosphere.

On the high-tech side, direct air capture technologies that take CO2 out of the air and store it in the ground are making rapid progress. Right now, they are still very expensive,but that is changing. There is an analogy to wind and solar technology. Not very long ago, both of those technologies were quite expensive but now their costs have plummeted to the point where they are often the cheapest way to make electricity. With sufficient development effort and deployment, direct air capture technology could become quite affordable.

Some people advocate geoengineering as a solution for climate change. While removing carbon dioxide amounts to tackling the root cause of the warming climate,geoengineering would address the problem by changing the climate again in some other way. It is at best an extremely dangerous approach.

Removing CO2 using a combination of natural and man-made techniques is an important part of mitigating the effects of climate change.

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Climate Solutions: Is It Feasible to Remove Enough CO2 from the Air?

Photo courtesy of Climeworks.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Trees Are Not Enough

July 18, 2017 By EarthWise

Trees are nature’s way of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Growing plants take up CO2 and store it in the form of their roots, stems and leaves. And in fact, a significant factor in the growing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has been the extensive deforestation that has gone on over the past couple of centuries.

[Read more…] about Trees Are Not Enough

Reduced Waste From Modular Construction

March 10, 2016 By WAMC WEB

Our nation’s landfills are overflowing and we are constantly seeking ways to reduce the amount of waste that needs to go into them. Usually, we are thinking about food waste, plastics, glass and paper. However, one of the largest sources of waste generation is actually construction and demolition waste. Estimates are that between 25 and 40% of the national solid waste stream comes from these activities and very little of it gets recycled.