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Excluding Climate Change From Infrastructure Planning | Earth Wise

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According to a new Trump administration proposal, federal agencies would no longer need to take climate change into account when evaluating infrastructure projects.  The proposed changes to the 50-year-old National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) are aimed at speeding up approvals for highway construction, pipelines, oil and gas leases, and other major infrastructure projects.   

Under NEPA, federal agencies are required to consider how their proposed actions would affect everything from water quality to wildlife to greenhouse gas emissions.  They’re also required to understand how rising seas and other consequences of climate change might affect a given project.  These requirements have proven to be an obstacle to projects like the Keystone XL pipeline, for example. 

According to reporting in the New York Times, the administration also plans to narrow the range of projects that require environmental review in the first place.  That could make it more likely for projects to be approved without having to disclose plans to do things like cut down trees, discharge waste, or increase air pollution. 

The administration says that the changes would improve the environmental review and permitting process while ensuring a safe, healthy, and productive environment. Environmentalists say the proposed changes would weaken critical safeguards for air, water, and wildlife. 

The proposed changes to NEPA would revise the rules that guide the implementation of the law, as opposed to amending the act itself.  Once these proposed changes appear in the federal register, the public will have 60 days to comment on them. 

A decision on whether or not to weaken the nation’s benchmark environmental law is expected before November.

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Trump Rule Would Exclude Climate Change in Infrastructure Planning

Photo, posted February 23, 2016, courtesy of Lissy Wild via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Plastic-Eating Mushrooms

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Plastic waste has become one of the most pressing environmental issues in the world.  Whether it is about drinking straws, grocery bags, or six-pack rings, getting rid of plastic items in the waste stream is a major focus of attention for more and more people.

A really promising way to deal with all the plastic ending up in landfills has grown out of research that was being conducted in the Amazon rain forest in 2012.  Back then, a group of students from Yale University discovered a fungus that eats only polyurethane.  It is a mushroom known as Pestalotiopsis microspore and it not only can survive exclusively on the plastic, but it can do it in anaerobic (that is, oxygen-free) environments.  Thus, these plastic-eating mushrooms could potentially thrive at the bottom of landfills.

More recently, other studies have identified additional mushroom species that can eat plastic.  Some of them are common, such as the oyster mushroom, which itself is edible.  In 2018, the first ever State of the World’s Fungi symposium took place in London.  The event focused on multiple applications for mushrooms, including their use as building materials, their ability to remove pollutants from soil, and their capacity to enable the conversion of waste into biofuels.

Under controlled conditions, it takes just a few weeks for plastic-eating mushrooms to start breaking down plastics.  After a few months, all that is left are puffy white mushrooms which, even if they are not used for anything themselves, can be composted and turned into soil.

So far, there has been relatively little exploitation of mushrooms for improving the environment, but they may well be a big help in dealing with the growing problem of plastic waste.

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Scientists discovered a mushroom that eats plastic, and believe it could clean our landfills

Photo, posted August 12, 2014, courtesy of Tim Sheerman-Chase via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

A Green Way To Turn Blue

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Indigo dye is what is used to color denim cloth and blue jeans.  Historically, the dye came from a tropical plant most often found on the Indian subcontinent.  Eventually, it became economically favorable to synthesize the dye instead and almost all of the 50,000 tons of the dye used annually is synthetic.

The processes used to make synthetic indigo are efficient and inexpensive, but they often require toxic chemicals and create a lot of dangerous waste.  Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Joint BioEnergy Institute have now developed an eco-friendly production platform for a blue pigment called indigoidine.  It has a similarly vividly saturated blue hue as synthetic indigo.

The researchers were investigating the ability of various fungal strains to express large enzymes known as NRPSs.  They chose an NRPS that converts two amino acid molecules into indigoidine – a blue pigment – in order to make it easy to tell if the strain engineering had worked.  Having the culture turn blue was an effective indicator.

Their primary interest was not the pigment but when they saw just how blue the culture was for one particular fungus, they realized that the fungal strain did not just produce indigoidine; it produced large amounts of it.

Thus they have found a way to efficiently produce a blue pigment that uses inexpensive, sustainable carbon sources instead of harsh chemicals.  There is already a great deal of interest from the textile industry, where many companies are eager for more sustainably sourced pigments because customers are increasingly aware of the impacts of conventional dyes.

Thanks to a talented fungus called Rhodosporidium toruloides, there may now be a green way to turn blue.

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Blue Pigment from Engineered Fungi Could Help Turn the Textile Industry Green

Photo, posted March 7, 2006, courtesy of Willi Heidelbach via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Powering Cars With Cactus Juice

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Back in 2016, a company called Nopalimex, located in Micoacan, central Mexico, built the world’s first cactus-powered energy plant.  The facility utilizes a biodigester to make biogas from nopal, also known as prickly pear cactus.  The nopal plant has been called the ‘Green Gold of Mexico’ and is a staple in Mexican diets, medicine and cosmetics.

Nopalimex is now using the cactus to make biofuel for vehicles.

The fruit of the cactus is pureed, mixed with manure, and then left to decompose, producing methane.  The methane produced – about eight tons a day – fuels the biodigester which powers the company’s corn chip and cactus chip production and is being tested in a fleet of government vehicles.

The biogas will cost just 65 cents per liter, which is about a third cheaper than the cost of regular gasoline.  Using prickly pear as a feedstock for biofuel is attractive because it can be grown in places where traditional energy crops cannot.  One can imagine vast fields of cacti in remote, arid areas of the country where normal crops cannot grow.  It would not suck up the resources or space needed to feed people, which is an ongoing criticism of current bioenergy crops.

As long as the nopals are regularly replanted, the process is almost entirely sustainable, producing only water and nopal waste, which can be used to fertilize other crops.

Finding sustainable ways to produce fuel while doing minimal damage to the environment is an important challenge for countries around the world.  In Mexico, harnessing the power of the prickly pear cactus is a unique and clever solution.

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Mexico’s ‘green gold’: The company powering cars with cactus juice

Photo, posted July 8, 2006, courtesy of Christian Frausto Bernal via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

A Sensor For Spoiled Milk

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A new sensor technology developed at Washington State University may eventually make expiration dates on milk a thing of the past.  The sensor essentially can ‘smell’ whether milk is still good or has gone bad.

The sensor consists of chemically coated nanoparticles that react to the gas produced when bacterial growth on milk has taken place.  When such bacteria grow, they produce a volatile compound that doesn’t smell good.  So, when we open a carton of milk that has begun to spoil, our noses tell us so immediately.

The new sensor does not have to be in contact with the milk.  It detects the volatile gases produced by the bacteria and it changes color. So far, it has only been demonstrated in a controlled lab environment.

To really be useful, the sensor would ideally be able to show how long the milk has before it spoils.  Currently, it only shows whether it is ok or already spoiled. The researchers are working on the enhanced version of the sensor.

The researchers envision working with the dairy industry to integrate the sensor technology into a milk bottle’s plastic cap so that consumers can easily see how much longer the milk will stay fresh.  Current expiration dates on milk are based on best-case scenarios. They are only accurate if the milk has been stored at the correct temperature the entire time.  Unfortunately, milk can inadvertently spend time above refrigerator temperature during shipment or transportation home from the store.  If the new sensor technology can be successfully developed, it will be possible to know for sure whether that bottle of milk is good.

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Sensor can detect spoiled milk before opening

Photo, posted March 8, 2011, courtesy of Roxanne Ready via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Meal Kits And The Environment

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Meal kit services have become extremely popular in recent years.  These are companies that deliver a box of pre-portioned ingredients and a chef-created recipe to your door to make home-cooked meals easy and practical for busy people.  Leading companies like Blue Apron, HelloFresh, and Plated have been joined by dozens of others competing in the meal kit market.  As of last year, annual sales for these things were over $3 billion and growing at more than a 20% annual rate.

A major rap against meal kits has been their environmental impact, mostly centered around the amount of packaging waste they generate.  While there is most certainly lots of packaging waste associated with meal kits, it turns out that their overall carbon footprint is actually rather good compared with conventional ways to make homecooked meals.

A study from the University of Michigan looked at the cradle-to-grave impact of meal kits, taking into account every major step in the lifetime of the food ingredients and the packaging – agricultural production, packaging production, distribution, supply chain losses, consumption, and waste generation.

Surprisingly, meal kits have a much lower overall carbon footprint than the same meals made from ingredients purchased at the grocery store – even including their packaging.  The main reason is that pre-portioned ingredients and a streamlined supply chain lower overall food losses and waste for meal kits compared to store-bought meals.  Pre-portioning simply results in fewer ingredients that end up being wasted.  Meal kits also have radically different supply chain structures than foods sold in supermarkets.

Whether the economics and culinary aspects of meals kits are advantageous for many people is an open question, but apparently from an environmental perspective, they are just fine.

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Climate change has worsened global economic inequality

Photo, posted June 11, 2018, courtesy of Marco Verch via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Making Roads From Ocean Plastic

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Like many other places around the world, India has a big problem with plastic waste.  Its 1.3 billion people each use an average of 24 pounds of plastic per year and much of it ends up in the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean.

Fishermen in India’s southern state of Kerala have taken on the battle against plastic waste in the ocean by launching a campaign called Suchitwa Sagaram, or Clean Sea, in which they are collecting the plastic and bringing it back to shore.

In the first 10 months of the program, fisherman have removed 25 tons of plastic from the Arabian Sea.  Once the plastic waste reaches shore, it is fed into a plastic shredding machine.  As is the case for many of India’s plastic recycling schemes, the shredded plastic from the sea is converted into material that is used for road surfacing.

There are more than 20,000 miles of plastic roads in India, mostly in rural areas.  In fact, more than half the roads in the southern state of Tamil Nadu are plastic.  Such roads have become popular because they are more resilient to India’s searing heat.  The melting point of plastic roads is around 150 degrees Fahrenheit as compared to 122 degrees for conventional roads.

Roads made from recycled plastic are also cheaper than ones using conventional plastic additives.  A mile of plastic road uses the equivalent of a million and a half plastic bags and saves about a ton and a half of asphalt.  Overall, plastic roads are about 8% cheaper than conventional roads and create jobs for people in the fishing communities.

India’s plastic roads are a promising way to fight the problem of ocean plastic pollution.

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These Indian fishermen take plastic out of the sea and use it to build roads

Photo, posted April 25, 2016, courtesy of Bo Eide via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Antibiotics In The Environment

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Antibiotics make their way into the environment in many ways.  Sources of antibiotic pollution include the waste from large-scale animal farms and the wastewater from hospitals, municipalities, and antibiotic manufacturing.

A new study has discovered concentrations of antibiotics in some of the world’s rivers exceed safe levels by up to 300 times.  In the project, researchers looked for 14 commonly used antibiotics in rivers in 72 countries across six continents.  They found antibiotics at 65% of all the sites they examined. 

The antibiotic ciproflaxacin was the compound that most frequently exceeded safe levels, surpassing that threshold in 51 places. The antibiotic metronidazole exceeded safe levels by the biggest margin.  Concentrations of this antibiotic at one site in Bangladesh was 300 times greater than the safe level.  The most prevalent antibiotic was trimethoprim.  It was detected at 307 of the 711 sites. 

Some of the world’s most iconic rivers were sampled as a part of this study, including the Danube, Mekong, Seine, Thames, Tiber and Tigris. 

The project, which was led by the University of York, found that high-risk sites were often located near wastewater treatment systems, waste or sewage dumps, and in some areas of political unrest. 

Safe levels for antibiotics, which were recently established by the AMR Industry Alliance, range from 20,000 to 32,000 nanograms per liter depending on the compound. 

According to the research team, solutions to the problem of antibiotic contamination should include infrastructure investment, tighter regulation, and the remediation of already contaminated sites. 

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Antibiotics found in some of the world’s rivers exceed ‘safe’ levels, global study finds

Photo, posted October 7, 2013, courtesy of Nicola via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Supermarkets And Zero-Waste

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There are about 38,000 supermarkets in the United States alone and they are responsible for vast quantities of waste in the form of single-use plastic bags, plastic containers that store food products, and food waste as well.  Globally, over 80% of poll respondents feel strongly that companies should help improve the environment.  Responding to this message, markets are starting to make changes.

In a number of places, there are now markets that are package-free.  The Nada grocery store in Vancouver and Precycle in Brooklyn are examples of zero waste grocery stores.  Websites like Litterless provide online help for customers trying to find packaging-free grocery stores.

Markets are not only changing their packaging, they are using artificial intelligence to develop more sustainable production processes and seeking other ways to reduce waste.

On average, Americans throw away over 300 plastic bags a year, but an increasing number of grocery retailers are making commitments to more sustainable, plastic-free options.  It isn’t just small stores either.  Grocery giant Kroger plans to eliminate plastic bags in its stores by 2025.  When that happens, it means that 6 billion plastic bags will no longer be distributed.  Big Y stores will fully transition to reusable bags by next year.  More and more cities and states are banning or imposing fees on plastic bags. 

An interesting statistic shows that the age group of Americans that is leading the adoption of reusable grocery bags is not millennials but in fact is people over 50.  With multiple generations now indicating that they want shopping to be more sustainable, it is likely that supermarkets will strive to help make that happen.

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Why More Supermarkets Are Committing to Zero-Waste

Photo, posted March 4, 2013, courtesy of Dean Hochman via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Rare Earths From Mining Waste

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The 17 rare earth elements have become important parts of much of modern technology.  Despite their name, most of these elements are relatively plentiful in the earth’s crust, but because of their geochemical properties they are typically dispersed and not often found concentrated in minerals.  As a result, economically exploitable ore deposits are uncommon.  There are no significant sources in the U.S.

Rare earths play important roles in high-performance magnets, electric motors in vehicles, wind turbines, microphones and speakers, and in portable electronics like cell phones.  As these applications become ever larger, the need for additional sources of rare earths increases.

Researchers at Idaho National Laboratory and Rutgers University have studied a method for extracting rare-earth elements from mining waste that could greatly increase the world’s supply of these valuable materials.

It turns out that large amounts of rare earths exist in phosphogypsum, a waste product from producing phosphoric acid from phosphate rock.  The U.S. alone mined 28 million tons of phosphate rock in 2017.  (Phosphoric acid is used in the production of fertilizers and other products).

The researchers estimate that more than a billion tons of phosphogypsum waste sits in piles at storage sites across the U.S. alone.   World-wide, about 100,000 tons of rare earth elements per year end up in phosphogypsum waste.  This compares to the total current world-wide production of rare earth oxides of 126,000 tons.

The researchers studied methods for extracting the elements from the waste. A method utilizing a common environmental bacterium showed great promise.

There are concerns about residual radioactivity and other environmental issues in dealing with the waste material, but the world’s supply of rare earth elements might become much greater based on this research.

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Critical Materials: Researchers Eye Huge Supply of Rare-Earth Elements from Mining Waste

Photo, posted June 19, 2015, courtesy of David Stanley via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

China And Plastic Waste

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In January 2018, China enacted its “National Sword” policy which banned the import of most plastics and other materials headed for that country’s recycling processors.  Those processors had handled nearly half of the world’s recyclable waste for the past quarter century.  China took this step because the deluge of soiled and contaminated materials was overwhelming its processing facilities and creating yet another environmental problem for the country, this time not even of its own making.

Prior to China’s ban, 95% of the plastics collected for recycling in the European Union and 70% in the U.S. were sold and shipped to Chinese processors.  A combination of favorable rates for shipping in cargo vessels that carried Chinese goods abroad and low Chinese labor rates made it a very profitable enterprise.

Before China’s ban, only 9% of globally discarded plastics were being recycled and 12% were burned.  The rest ended up in landfills or simply dumped into the environment.  Over the coming decade, as many as 11 million tons of plastic will have to find a new place to be processed or otherwise disposed of.  There is already evidence that plastic waste is accumulating in countries that are dependent on exporting.  In many places, including a number of American cities, there are curtailed collections and new restrictions on what kinds of plastics are accepted.

Some experts are hopeful that China’s ban might actually have an upside if it leads to better solutions for managing the world’s waste.  North America and Europe need to expand processing capabilities and manufacturers need to make their products more easily recyclable.  Mostly, the Chinese ban should be a wake-up call to the world on the need to greatly reduce single-use plastics.

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Piling Up: How China’s Ban on Importing Waste Has Stalled Global Recycling

Photo, posted August 8, 2017, courtesy of Sino-German Urbanisation Partnership via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Defusing The Methane Time Bomb

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Permafrost is defined as soil that remains frozen for two or more consecutive years.  It is generally composed of rock, soil, sediments, and varying amounts of ice that binds it all together.  The permafrost of the Arctic represents one of the largest reservoirs of organic carbon in the world.  It covers vast regions of Siberia, northern Canada, Alaska and Greenland.

When permafrost thaws, microbes in the previously-frozen soil go to work digesting organic materials and release carbon dioxide and methane, both of which are greenhouse gases.  Methane is 25 times more effective in trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, so it represents the greater threat.  The massive amounts of methane that could be released by thawing permafrost have been described as a ticking time bomb threatening the world’s climate.  Unfortunately, the permafrost in the Arctic is already starting to thaw as a result of climate change.

A new study by researchers at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis looked into the prospects for neutralizing the threat posed by the release of methane from thawing permafrost.  They analyzed the relative contributions of potential methane emissions from the permafrost and existing ones from human activities.  Human-caused methane emissions from fossil fuel activities, waste dumps, and livestock constitute a major source of the gas.  

Their conclusion is that if we can greatly reduce human-generated methane release, the effects of uncontrolled Arctic methane emissions could be mitigated.   It is unclear whether we can do much to stave off the Arctic methane release at this point, but the release of methane from human activities is something we can do something about.  But the clock is ticking.

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Diffusing the methane bomb: We can still make a difference

Photo, posted August 14, 2011, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Car Parts From Agricultural Waste

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A new bio-composite material made from date palm fiber biomass could be used to produce sustainable, lightweight and low-cost parts for the automobile and marine industries.

A team of researchers from the UK has developed a date palm fiber polycaprolactone composite that is completely biodegradable, renewable,sustainable and recyclable, in contrast to synthetic composite materials reinforced by glass and carbon fibers. The team tested the mechanical properties of the material and found that it achieved better low-velocity impact resistance than traditional man-made composites.

The idea would be to use the material in non-structural auto parts such as car bumpers and door linings.   The result would be to reduce the weight of vehicles, contributing to less fuel consumption and lower emissions.  The new material can be produced using less energy than glass and carbon fibers and is biodegradable and therefore easier to recycle.

Date palm fibers are one of the most available natural fibers in many parts of the world.  The trees produce a large quantity of agricultural waste, which is mostly burned or land-filled,causing serious environmental problems.

Convincing industry to use a new class of materials such as natural-fiber reinforced composites is challenging.  First it is necessary to obtain consistent,reliable properties from the material. Then the industries need to work closely with the developers to test the materials and convince themselves of the viability of using them.  The team, led by researchers at the University of Portsmouth, has been working with industry to test the viability of parts made from a variety of other sustainable materials as well including flax, hemp, and jute.  Someday, our cars may have bumpers made from agricultural waste.

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Agricultural waste drives us closer to greener transport

Photo, posted October 27, 2017, courtesy of David Stanley via Flickr. 

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Can We Remove Enough CO2 From The Air?

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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.

The Earliest Overshoot Day Ever

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Earth Overshoot Day marks the date when humankind’s demand for ecological resources and services in a given year exceeds what our planet can regenerate in that year.  The deficit for the remainder of the year means we are liquidating stocks of ecological resources and accumulating waste, primarily carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

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Reducing Food Waste

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Food waste is a huge problem.  About a third of all food produced globally goes to waste, and the numbers are even worse in the US.  If food waste was a country, it would be the world’s third largest emitter of greenhouse gases.  Worse yet, all of this takes place in a world where 850 million people are chronically undernourished.

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