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Paper Cups Are Not So Great | Earth Wise

October 4, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The environmental cost of plastic waste is a highly visible global issue. The response has been a growing effort to replace plastic items with alternative materials. One very visible change of this sort has been the replacement of plastic cups with paper cups at coffee shops. But a new study at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden has found that this solution has problems of its own.

Researchers studied the effects of disposable cups in the environment on the larvae of the butterfly mosquito. They placed disposable cups made from different materials in wet sediment and water for a few days and observed how the chemicals leached from the cups affected the growth of the larvae. It turned out that all of the different kinds of cups had negative effects. The concern is not specifically about mosquito larvae; it is the fact that more environmentally friendly drinking cups are still potentially harmful to living things.

Paper is neither fat nor water resistant, so paper cups need to be treated with a surface coating. The most common coating is polylactide, which is a type of bioplastic. It is generally considered to be biodegradable, but the study shows that it can still be toxic. Bioplastics still contain many different chemicals and the potential toxicity of each of them is not well known.

The UN is trying to develop a binding agreement by the world’s countries to end the spread of plastics in society and nature. For such an agreement to be effective, the plastics industry will need to clearly report what chemicals all products contain, including such mostly invisible products as the coating on paper drinking cups.

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Paper cups are just as toxic as plastic cups

Photo, posted October 23, 2016, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Bidding ‘Adieu’ To Single-Use Plastics | Earth Wise

July 27, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Since the 1950s, more than nine billion tons of plastic have been produced, and 50% of that has been during the past 15 years. While there are some use cases for plastic that are important, it generally serves as the poster child of our throwaway culture.

Plastic pollution can be found everywhere on earth, from the top of the tallest mountains to the bottom of the deepest oceans. It’s in our food, water, and air.

By 2040, researchers predict that there will be nearly 90 million tons of plastic pollution entering the environment each year. By some estimates, single-use plastics account for half of all our plastic waste.

Many cities, states, and even countries are limiting or even banning single-use plastics. Canada recently announced a ban on single-use plastics. The ban includes things like plastic shopping bags, cups, cutlery, straws, stirrers, and take-out food containers.

The ban will phase in over the next several years, beginning with a ban on the manufacture and import of single-use plastics by the end of this year. Sales of these items will be prohibited in 2023, and the export of plastics will cease by the end of 2025.

Canada’s southern neighbor, the United States, leads the world in plastic waste generation. While some states have approved single-use plastic reforms, most of the effort at the federal level has focused on improving recycling rates. However, a recent report from several environmental organizations found that plastic recycling rates in the U.S. have actually declined in the last several years, from an already-dismal 8.7% to less than 6%.

Suggesting the plastic waste problem can be solved with improved recycling rates is greenwashing the issue.

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Canada is banning single-use plastics, including grocery bags and straws

Photo, posted October 31, 2011, courtesy of Mara via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Coffee And Climate Change | Earth Wise

December 20, 2021 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Over 2.25 billion cups of coffee are consumed in the world each day. Americans spend $80 billion dollars a year on coffee. Coffee in grown across 12.5 million largely smallholder farms in more than 50 countries. In other words, coffee is a big deal.

Like many things, coffee is subject to the effects of climate change. Many coffee-producing regions are experiencing changing climate conditions, which don’t only affect the yield and sustainability of the crop but have an impact on taste, aroma, and even dietary quality. Coffee drinkers care very much about these things.

New research at Tufts University and Montana State University looked at how coffee quality can be affected by shifts in environmental factors associated with climate change. The researchers looked at the effects of 10 prevalent environmental factors and management conditions associated with climate change and climate adaptation.

The most consistent trends were that farms at higher altitudes were associated with better coffee flavor and aroma, while too much light exposure was associated with a decrease in coffee quality. They also found that coffee quality is also susceptible to changes due to water stress and increases in temperature and carbon dioxide levels.

They evaluated current efforts to mitigate these effects, including shade management, selection of climate resistant coffee plants and pest management. The hope is that if we can understand the science of the changes to the environment, it will help farmers and other stakeholders to better manage coffee production in the face of increasing challenges. It will take a concerted effort to maintain coffee quality as the climate continues to change.

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Coffee and the Effects of Climate Change

Photo, posted May 22, 2009, courtesy of Olle Svensson via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Replacing Plastic Tableware | Earth Wise

December 30, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Plastics have been described as the “ubiquitous workhorse material of the modern economy.” But their versatility, pliability, and durability comes at a heavy price to the environment. Plastic pollution is quite literally everywhere. Plastic debris and microplastic particles can be found in every corner of the globe, including the Arctic and Antarctic.

The scourge of plastic pollution is driving scientists to create ecologically-friendly alternatives. According to a paper recently published in the journal Matter, scientists have developed “green” tableware made from sugarcane and bamboo that doesn’t sacrifice on convenience or functionality. This eco-friendly tableware could serve as a permanent replacement for plastic cups and other disposable plastic containers.

Traditional plastic polymers, a product of petroleum, can take as long as 1,000 years to decompose in landfills. The new material only takes 60 days to break down.

To create this material, scientists used bamboo and bagasse, also known as sugarcane pulp. Bagasse is one of the largest food-industry waste products. The researchers wound the fibers together to form a mechanically stable and biodegradable material. They added an alkyl ketene dimer, an eco-friendly chemical, to increase the oil and water resistance of the material. The green material is durable enough to hold liquids like hot coffee and hot greasy foods like pizza.

There’s another advantage: the green material’s manufacturing process emits 97% less CO2 than the process to make commercial plastic containers. The next step is to lower the manufacturing cost. While the cost of cups made from the green material is $2,333 per ton, traditional cups made from plastic are still slightly cheaper at $2,177 per ton.

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This tableware made from sugarcane and bamboo breaks down in 60 days

Photo, posted May 19, 2013, courtesy of Henry Burrows via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The Problem Of Microplastics

February 15, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

In recent years, there have been multiple reports of microplastic contamination seemingly everywhere: in the ocean, in lakes and rivers, in beverages and foods, and in the bodies of birds, fish, and even people. As the world tries to come to grips with this growing problem, there are many things that we simply don’t know.

Microplastics are usually formed by the breakdown of larger pieces of plastic. Shopping bags and cups degrade into microplastics. Microfiber clothing generates microplastics in washing machines. And some manufacturers still intentionally add microplastics to personal care products like toothpaste and facial scrubs.

Technically, a microplastic is any piece of plastic measuring five millimeters in size down to one micron – which is one thousandth of a millimeter. But there can be even smaller plastic particles classified as sub-microplastics and even nanoplastics.

A real concern is that it is not actually clear how dangerous microplastics are for living organisms. We know that aquatic and terrestrial species – including humans – can and do absorb microplastic particles, but whether there is actual toxicity and the nature of any detrimental effects is not yet well understood.

Another real problem is that it is actually not easy to distinguish microplastics from other particles in a given sample. When you are looking at a particle that is smaller than a millimeter in size, it is not easy to tell whether it is a grain of sand, a bit of cellulose from a plant, or a microplastic. There are reliable and definitive ways to analyze samples for microplastics, but they are not as simple and commonplace as just looking through a microscope.

Microplastics are a rapidly growing problem and we don’t even really know how big and how bad the problem is.

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How dangerous is microplastic?

Photo, posted January 10, 2015, courtesy of Daria Nepriakhina via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.