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How Much Plastic Is Really In The Ocean? | Earth Wise

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The world has produced more than 6 billion tons of plastic to date and much of that has become waste that has not been recycled, incinerated, or otherwise properly contained.  A great deal of it has ended up in the oceans of the world.

Researchers at Kyushu University in Japan have done an analysis to assess just how much plastic has ended up in the ocean.  According to the study, nearly 28 million tons of plastic waste has entered the ocean and nearly two-thirds of that cannot be monitored.

Furthermore, the Kyushu analysis suggests that those 28 million tons are just the tip of the plastic waste iceberg.  Their findings are that there may be another 600 million tons of mismanaged plastic waste trapped on land – nearly 10% of all the plastic ever produced.

The study created models that simulate the processes by which plastics find their way into the ocean, get transported, and fragment into pieces.  According to their models, large plastics and smaller pieces of microplastics floating on the ocean surface each account for only about 3% of all ocean plastics.  Microplastics on beaches account for another 3%, and 23% of ocean plastic waste is larger plastic litter on the world’s shores.

These things account for only about a third of ocean plastic.  The rest of it is in locations that are impossible to monitor such as heavy plastics that settle on the seafloor because they are denser than seawater.  Half of plastic products made today are made from these heavy plastics.

Plastic pollution is not just a big problem; evidently it is a bigger problem than we thought.

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Visible ocean plastics just the tip of the iceberg

Photo, posted February 28, 2010, courtesy of Kevin Krejci via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Energy From Rice Straw | Earth Wise

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Rice straw is produced as a byproduct of rice production.  Globally, as much as a billion tons of rice straw is produced each year, three-quarters of it in Asia.  Straw incorporation in soil for fertilization is not practical in most places because with multiple crops per year, there is not enough time for the material to decompose and become good fertilizer.  As a result, open-field straw burning is increasingly the standard practice.

Scientists at Aston University in Birmingham in the UK are embarking on a project to convert rice straw in Indonesia into low-cost energy on a commercial scale.

Indonesia produces 100 million tons of rice waste each year, of which 60% is burned in open fields, causing air pollution. 

The Aston researchers are developing a biomass conversion process based on pyrolysis.  This involves heating the rice straw to high temperatures over 900 degrees Fahrenheit to break it down, producing vapor and solid products.  Both of these things can be used to generate electricity.

A new combustion engine designed by a company called Carnot Limited is capable of converting 70% of the thermal energy extracted from the rice straw into electricity.

Energy extracted in this way could help low and middle-income countries to create their own locally generated energy, thereby reducing emissions, creating jobs, and improving human health.   The biomass electricity is predicted to be cheaper than solar, geothermal, wind, coal, or even subsidized gas-generated power.

The Aston University project will help develop a business model that could support companies and communities to produce local, cheap energy in Indonesia and other countries with biomass capacity. 

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Aston University to help power Indonesia with affordable energy made from rice straw

Photo, posted September 11, 2006, courtesy of Kristen McQuillin via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

A Green New Year | Earth Wise

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Every year, millions of people around the world make resolutions in hopes of sparking positive changes in the new year.  Popular resolutions include improving health and fitness, traveling more, spending less, and so on.  With the New Year just around the corner, here are seven resolutions we all could make that would collectively have a major impact on the planet: 

1) Eat less meat.  Resource-intensive animal-based foods like meat, dairy, and eggs are one of the chief contributors to climate change. 

2) Get a home energy audit.  It’s a great way to understand your home’s energy footprint and discover ways to improve the energy efficiency of your home. 

3) Buy local whenever possible.  Shopping locally supports the local economy and dramatically cuts down on the carbon emissions associated with shipping.

4) Carry reusable shopping bags on errands. While disposable shopping bags are convenient, they are difficult to recycle and are often thrown away. 

5) Air dry your laundry whenever possible.  Drying clothes outside or using an indoor drying rack can save money and energy.  Americans spend about $9 billion a year on electricity to dry clothing. 

6) Purchase used or pre-owned items.  The market for second-hand items is booming, making it possible to purchase pretty much anything you want at thrift stores or online. 

7) Bring a reusable water bottle everywhere.  According to the EPA, Americans throw away enough plastic bottles each year to circle the earth five times.  Carrying your own bottle helps reduce this waste and will save you money.

As we ring in the new year this weekend, let’s raise our glasses to a cleaner and greener 2023. 

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10 Sustainable New Year’s Resolutions!

New Year’s Resolutions

Photo, posted December 31, 2014, courtesy of Doug Anderson via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Getting Rid Of Hydrogen Sulfide | Earth Wise

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Hydrogen sulfide gas produces the characteristic smell of rotten eggs, sewers, stockyards, and landfills.  The petroleum industry produces thousands of tons of the stuff each year as a byproduct of the processes that remove sulfur from petroleum, natural gas, coal, and other products.  The industry faces substantial fines for emitting hydrogen sulfide, but remediation is expensive.

Researchers at Rice University have developed a method for turning hydrogen sulfide into hydrogen gas and sulfur in a single step.  Called plasmonic photocatalysis, it not only gets rid of an undesirable substance, it does so by producing valuable byproducts.

The established way of getting rid of hydrogen sulfide is called the Claus process.  It requires multiple steps, including some that require combustion chambers heated to 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit.  The end product is sulfur and water.

The Rice University process gets all of its energy from light.  A surface of grains of silicon dioxide is dotted with tiny gold nanoparticles.  These particles interact strongly with a specific wavelength of visible light and cause plasmonic reactions that create short-lived, high-energy electrons that drive the catalysis of hydrogen sulfide.  Given that the process requires only visible light and no external heating, it should be relatively straightforward to scale up using solar energy or very efficient LED lamps.

The new hydrogen sulfide remediation technology has been licensed by a Houston-based startup company with more than 60 employees whose founders include some of the Rice researchers.  The process may end up being efficient enough and cheap enough for cleaning up non-industrial sources of hydrogen sulfide such as sewers and animal waste.

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New catalyst can turn smelly hydrogen sulfide into a cash cow

Photo, posted July 8, 2021, courtesy of Doug Letterman via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Fuel From Coffee Grounds | Earth Wise

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The world drinks a lot of coffee.  Americans alone consume 400 million cups a day.  Each cup of coffee results in about half an ounce of coffee grounds.  Adding that up, this country produces over 6,000 tons of coffee grounds each day.  While coffee grounds are not particularly harmful, that is an awful lot of waste that mostly ends up in landfills or is incinerated.

Researchers at Aston University in the UK have developed a method of producing high-quality biodiesel fuel from coffee grounds.  Their study was published in the journal Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews.

The technique consists of growing a particular species of microalgae (Chlorella vulgaris) directly on spent coffee grounds.  The coffee grounds provide both the nutrients for the microalgae and a structure upon which it can grow.   Exposing the algae to light for 20 hours a day and dark for just four hours a day produced the best quality biodiesel.

Microalgae is well-known as a feedstock for biodiesel production.  Previously, it has been grown on materials like polyurethane foam or nylon which don’t provide any nutrients.   Using the coffee grounds as the substrate for growth means that no external nutrients are needed.

The resultant enhanced biodiesel produces minimal emissions and good engine performance and meets both US and European specifications.  This feedstock for producing biodiesel is ideal since it doesn’t require any competition with food crops and instead makes use of a widely available waste product.  The hope is that it may reduce the cutting down of palm trees to extract oil for biofuel.  In southeast Asia, this has been a major source of deforestation and increased greenhouse gas emissions.

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Aston University researchers ‘feed’ leftover coffee grounds to microalgae to produce low emission biodiesel

Photo, posted October 13, 2007, courtesy of David Joyce via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Whales Eating Plastic | Earth Wise

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Plastic waste has been accumulating in the world’s oceans in greater and greater quantities and much of it is in the form of microplastic particles.  Many kinds of whales – the largest creatures on Earth – feed by gulping up mouthfuls of krill and other tiny creatures and then straining the seawater through bristly filter structures called baleens.  As they do this, they are likely to be swallowing large amounts of plastic.

Scientists at Stanford University recently estimated just how much plastic whales are ingesting by tracking the foraging behavior of 65 humpback whales, 29 fin whales, and 126 blue whales in the Pacific Ocean.  Each of the whales was tagged with a camera, microphone, and GPS device suction-cupped to their back.

After accounting for the concentration of microplastics in parts of the Pacific Ocean, the researchers were able to estimate the amount of plastic the whales were consuming.  Humpback whales likely consume 4 million microplastic pieces each day, adding up to about 38 pounds of plastic waste.  Fin whales swallow an estimated 6 million pieces each – amounting to 57 pounds of plastic.  Blue whales, which are the largest creatures on Earth, eat an estimated 10 million microplastic pieces, or as much as 95 pounds of plastic waste each day.

Despite their enormous size, whales actually eat rather low on the food chain, which puts them close to where the plastic is in the water.   Krill eats plastic and whales eat the krill.   Many marine animals are at risk of eating microplastics, but whales are unique in that they can consume so much of it.  It is just one more way in which the ocean plastic situation is a global crisis.

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Blue Whales Swallowing 95 Pounds of Plastic Daily, Scientists Estimate

Photo, posted October 21, 2005, courtesy of Tobias Begemann via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Food Waste And The Environment | Earth Wise

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It is tragic that 31% of the world’s food production goes uneaten.  About 14% isn’t distributed after it is harvested.  Another 17% ends up wasted in retail or by consumers.  Worldwide, the amount of food that is wasted is enough to feed more than a billion people while at least 828 million people continue to be affected by hunger.  To make matters worse, food waste accounts for 8 to 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions, which is at least double that of aviation.  Food waste, rotting away in landfills, produces methane gas, a major source of global warming.

Around the world, there are efforts being launched to try to improve the situation.  California now has a law that requires grocery stores to donate edible food that would otherwise be disposed of or they face fines.  The state’s cities and counties are required to reduce the amount of organic waste going into landfills by 75% by 2025 and compost it instead.

In London, grocers no longer put date labels on fruits and vegetables because the labels were leading people to trash perfectly good food.  France now requires supermarkets and large caterers to donate food that is still safe to eat.

South Korea has little space for landfills.  So, the country has been campaigning against throwing away food for 20 years.  Nearly all organic waste in the country is turned into animal feed, compost, or biogas.  Koreans even have to pay for throwing out food waste.  There are now trash bins equipped with electronic sensors that weigh food waste.

All of these things can help.  There is no single magic bullet for reducing food waste, but it is essential to do for so many reasons.

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Inside the Global Effort to Keep Perfectly Good Food Out of the Dump

Photo, posted November 30, 2020, courtesy of Marco Verch via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

El Paso’s Water Future | Earth Wise

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El Paso, Texas is part of the Paso del Norte region, which includes Ciudad Juarez in Mexico and Las Cruces, New Mexico.  The population on both sides of the border is booming, approaching 3 million people.  The region’s primary water source is the Rio Grande River.  But that river is declining.

Rising temperatures and decreasing rainfall have led to diminishing flow in the river.  Eighty percent of the river’s flow has historically been diverted to agriculture, but the reduced flow of the Rio Grande has forced many farmers to reduce planting or change to less water-hungry crops.  The river is expected to continue to decrease its flow as time goes by.

The city of El Paso gets 40% of its water supply directly from the Rio Grande.  Urban water authorities in the region are scrambling to find ways to provide cities with alternative supplies of water.

El Paso now gets some of its water from a desalination plant, which is the world’s largest inland municipal desalination plant.  The water comes from brackish groundwater rather than from the sea.  The briny waste from the plant is piped to an injection well many miles way and is permanently stored 4,000 feet underground.

El Paso continues to seek new water sources and reduce its water use.  It gets much of its water from wells drilled in nearby aquifers.  It is working to make this use of groundwater more sustainable.  The city recycles used residential water through its so-called purple pipe system, which cleans up waste water and delivers it for non-potable use on golf courses and park lawns. 

Like many places in the increasingly dry west, El Paso’s water future is uncertain. 

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As Rio Grande Shrinks, El Paso Plans for Uncertain Water Future

Photo, posted April 29, 2018, courtesy of R. Baire via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Turning Plastic Into Protein | Earth Wise

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Our planet is choking on plastic.  According to the United Nations, 79% of the 6.3 billion tons of plastic produced every year accumulates in landfills.  Half of all plastic produced is actually designed to be used just once and thrown away.  But plastic is not only accumulating on land.  In fact, the world’s oceans are projected to contain more plastic by weight than fish by the year 2050.     

According to new research, solving the plastic waste issue could help address another prominent global issue: hunger.  A multidisciplinary team of engineers, chemists, and biologists led by researchers from Michigan Tech University has developed a process to break plastics down to be recycled into useful products, including edible protein powder.

The research team’s process converts plastic into compounds using heat and a reactor that deconstructs the material’s polymer chains. The oil-like substance is then fed to a community of oil-eating bacteria.  The bacteria grow rapidly on the oily diet, producing more bacterial cells composed of roughly 55% protein.  This majority-protein byproduct is then dried out and turned into an edible powder.   The end result doesn’t look like plastic at all.  In fact, it resembles a yeast byproduct that comes from brewing beer. 

This research is funded by an award from the US Department of Defense.  The DoD often deploys soldiers in areas where access to food is challenging.  Converting plastic to protein could be part of a solution to that problem. 

While eating something that began as plastic might take some getting used to, it could be part of the solution to both plastic pollution and global hunger.

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Turning Trash Into Treasure: The Plastic to Protein Powder Solution

Beat Plastic Pollution

Photo, posted February 2, 2022, courtesy of Ivan Radic via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Greening Halloween | Earth Wise

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According to the National Retail Federation, Halloween participation is expected to return to pre-pandemic levels this year.  Spending on Halloween festivities by the 69% of Americans who celebrate is expected to add up to $10.6 billion in 2022 – or more than $100 per person – reaching a new record high. 

Halloween generates a mind-boggling amount of waste.  Picture all the flimsy single-use costumes, plastic candy wrappers, mass-produced decorations, and so on.  Here are some tricks to treat you to a greener holiday.

Our first trick is to invest in quality costumes.  Mass-produced (and often single use) costumes leave the largest carbon footprint from Halloween.  They are often made from unsustainable materials, manufactured in countries with poor labor standards, and too many end up in landfills by mid-November. By renting, thrifting, swapping, or making your own costumes, many of the negative impacts of dressing up for the holiday can be avoided.

Our second trick is to invest in environmentally-friendly decorations and supplies.  For example, carve local pumpkins and save the seeds and flesh to eat later.  Make your own spooky decorations.  If you do buy decorations, ensure that they are durable and reusable.  And use a wicker basket, old bag, or pillowcase to trick-or-treat.

Our third trick is to pass out organic and fair trade candy.  Some of the largest candy manufacturers are major drivers of deforestation and species extinction around the globe due to their demand for sugar, palm oil, and cocoa beans.

If you’ve already spent your $100 this year, consider these changes for next year.  It’s never too late to become a superhero.

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Retail Holiday and Seasonal Trends: Halloween

Photo, posted October 14, 2007, courtesy of Brian via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

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

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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.

A Better Way To Recycle Plastic | Earth Wise

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The current state of plastic recycling is not very effective.  Plastic recycling is only able to replace 15-20% of the fossil-fuel-derived raw material needed to produce society’s demand for plastic.

Researchers at Chalmers University in Sweden have now demonstrated how the carbon content in mixed waste could be used to replace all of the fossil raw materials in the production of new plastic.  In principle, their technology could completely eliminate the climate impact of plastic materials.

According to the researchers, there are enough carbon atoms in waste to meet the needs of all global plastic production.

The Chalmers process is based on thermochemical technology and involves heating waste to 1100-1500 degrees Fahrenheit.  The waste is thereby vaporized and when hydrogen is added, becomes a carbon-based substance that can replace the fossil-fuel building blocks of plastic.  The method does not require sorting the waste materials.  Different types of waste, such as old plastic products and even paper cups, with or without food residues, can be fed into the recycling reactors.  The researchers are now developing the techniques required to utilize their recycling technology in the same factories in which plastic products are currently being made from fossil oil or gas.

The principle of the process is inspired by the natural carbon cycle in which plants break down into carbon dioxide when they wither and die, and then photosynthesis uses carbon dioxide and solar energy to grow new plants.

Producing new plastics would no longer require petroleum or other fossil fuels as raw materials.  If the energy needed to drive the recycling reactors is taken from renewable sources, plastics could become the basis of a sustainable and circular economy.

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Pioneering recycling turns mixed waste into premium plastics with no climate impact

Photo, posted August 10, 2013, courtesy of Lisa Risager via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Who Can Solve The Plastic Waste Problem? | Earth Wise

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Plastic packaging waste is a global problem.  It collects in the oceans, breaks down into microplastics, which are consumed by fish and in turn by people who eat the fish.  Only 14.5% of U.S. plastic waste is recycled.  Most of it ends up in landfills, where is remains undegraded for hundreds of years. 

A new international study explored the global patterns of plastic packaging waste.  The study found that three countries – the U.S., Brazil, and China – are the top suppliers of waste.  In terms of supply, the Americas generate 41% of the world’s production of plastic waste, Europe 24%, and Asia 21%.

That’s the plastics supply.  As far as the consumers actually creating waste are concerned, the Americas represent 36% of the world’s packaging consumption, Asia 26%, and Europe 23%.

Packaging high-protein food such as meat, fish, and dairy is a major contributor to the waste problem.  Plastic for this purpose is hard to replace and international exports exacerbate the problem, accounting for about 25% of plastic packaging waste.

International agreements typically focus on restrictions and fees on production.  But that mostly creates strong incentives to simply relocate polluting activities to developing countries, which is a zero-sum game.  There need to be incentives for consumers to reduce plastic use such as taxes on waste management, refunds on returning bottles, single-use plastic bans, and so on.

Who can solve the plastic waste problem?  Everyone along the supply chain as well as the final consumers have to be part of the solution for reducing plastic waste.

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Producers and consumers must share burden of global plastic packaging waste

Photo, posted March 29, 2022, courtesy of Ivan Radic via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Life In The Great Pacific Garbage Patch | Earth Wise

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The world’s oceans contain five gyres, which are large systems of circular currents created by global wind patterns and the Earth’s rotation.   Gyres act like gigantic whirlpools.  Anything that floats into one of them eventually ends up in the center.   Ever since floating plastic waste started entering the ocean, it has poured into these gyres and created so-called garbage patches.  The largest of these is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, located halfway between Hawaii and California.  According to the Ocean Cleanup Foundation, the Great Pacific Patch contains at least 79,000 tons of plastic.

A recent study has shown that the garbage patch is not just a place where drifting plastics aggregate; it is also a place where drifting animals aggregate.

It turns out that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is absolutely teeming with life, primarily small surface-dwelling animals that are collectively known as neuston.  A ship surveying the garbage patch found that in some places, there were nearly as many neuston as there are pieces of plastic.

Typical creatures in the patch are blue dragon nudibranchs, Portuguese man-o-wars, anemones, sea snails, blue buttons (which are related to jellyfish) and hydrozoans.  It appears that these creatures are reproducing within the garbage patch.  Little is actually known about the life history and ecology of these creatures, so that studying the garbage patch is offering valuable insights to scientists.

Two nonprofit organizations are working to remove floating plastic from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.  Evidently, removing this existing pollution from the ocean is likely to have unexpected effects on the local ecosystem and is a source of at least some controversy.  One thing that isn’t controversial, however, is that we need to stop the flow of plastic into the ocean.

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The Ocean’s Biggest Garbage Pile Is Full of Floating Life

Photo, posted in April, 2012, courtesy of Steven Guerrisi via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Plastic Recycling Isn’t Working | Earth Wise

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A recent report from several environmental organizations shows that plastic recycling rates in the U.S. have actually declined in the last several years from about 8.7% of discarded plastic to less than 6%.   Meanwhile, since 1980, per capita plastic waste generation has increased 263%, totaling 218 pounds of plastic waste per person as of 2018.

Diminishing recycling rates don’t necessarily indicate a lack of interest by the public.  Plastic recycling is a complicated process.  There are multiple types of plastic that can’t be intermingled and there are no simple and sustainable ways to recycle many forms of plastic.   On top of that, the declining recycling rate also reflects the fact that we no longer can export our plastic waste to countries like China and Turkey, which have banned U.S. waste imports.

Recycling in general is a successful practice.  Paper recycling rates are around 66% as of 2020.  Cardboard recycling was at 88.8% in 2020, and metal recycling rates range from 27% to 76%, depending on the type of metal.  Glass recycling rates are a little over 30%.  Only plastic recycling has never reached 10%, even before shipping our waste overseas and declaring it to be recycled was going on.

According to environmental organizations focused on the global plastic problem, there is no circular economy of plastics.  Perhaps if truly biodegradable plastics became practical, economical, and widely utilized, the situation would be different.  As things stand, the only solution is to reduce the production, use, and disposal of plastics.

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Plastics Recycling ‘Does Not Work,’ Environmentalists Stress as U.S. Recycling Rates Drop to 5%

Photo, posted May 13, 2021, courtesy of Ivan Radic via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Sand From Mining Waste | Earth Wise

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The natural resources people use the most are air and water.  It may come as a surprise that in third place is sand.  Sand is used to make glass, computer chips, toothpaste, cosmetics, food, wine, paper, paint, plastics, and more.  It is estimated that 50 billion tons of sand are used each year.

Concrete is 10% cement, 15% water, and 75% sand.  The concrete required to build a house takes on average 200 tons of sand, a hospital uses 3,000 tons, and a mile of a highway requires 15,000 tons.

One would think that there is no shortage of sand, but we are using it up faster than the planet can make it and the extraction of sand from seas, rivers, beaches, and quarries has negative impacts on the environment and surrounding communities.  For example, removing sand leads to erosion in riverbanks, significantly increasing the risk of flooding in some places.

A potential strategy to reduce the impact of extracting sand to meet society’s growing need for is also a strategy for helping to reduce the production of mineral mining waste, which is the largest waste stream on the planet.  Mining produces between 33 and 66 billion tons of waste material each year.

A new study by researchers in Switzerland and Australia looked at the potential for using mining waste as a source of so-called ore-sand.  Sand-like material left over from mining operations could be used for many current applications for sand.  Separating and repurposing these materials before they are added to the waste stream would not only reduce the volume of waste being generated by mining operations but would also create a responsible new source of sand.

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Solution to world’s largest waste stream: Make sand

Photo, posted October 22, 2005, courtesy of Alan via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Phasing Out Disposables | Earth Wise      

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Humans generate a remarkable amount of garbage.  According to the World Bank, humans produce 4.5 trillion pounds of trash every year, with at least 33% of this garbage not managed in an environmentally-safe manner. By 2050, global garbage generation is expected to reach nearly 7.5 trillion pounds a year. 

Globally, an average of 1.6 lbs of waste is generated per person per day.  While high-income countries only account for 16% of the global population, they are responsible for about 34% of the world’s waste. 

But almost everything humans throw away was bought from a company.   Whether it was the packaging or the product itself, we purchased it from somewhere.  There’s a growing movement to hold the companies responsible for the trash they produce. 

Faced with increasing consumer consciousness, many companies are stepping up and announcing initiatives to reduce their waste.  Starbucks is one of them.  The company’s white logo-emblazoned paper cups and clear plastic cups are instantly recognizable symbols of the brand.  But these ubiquitous cups are disposable and also serve as a symbol of our throwaway society. 

By the end of next year, Starbucks is planning to allow customers to use their own personal mugs at every location in the U.S. and Canada.  By 2025, the company wants every customer to be able to use either their own mug or to borrow a ceramic or reusable to-go mug.  This borrow-a-mug program is currently being tested in eight different markets around the globe. 

In lieu of regulation mandating corporate responsibility for waste, we will have to hope that more companies do the right thing.

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Starbucks is planning to phase out its iconic cups

Photo, posted June 11, 2010, courtesy of Sunghwan Yoon via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Getting Rid Of Single-Use Plastics | Earth Wise

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Single-use plastics are used only once before they are recycled – or more likely – simply thrown away.  These are things like plastic bags, straws, coffee stirrers, soda and water bottles, and most food packaging.  They are primarily made from fossil fuel-based chemicals.

Since the 1950s, over 9 billion tons of plastics have been produced, and half of that has been in the past 15 years.  There are uses for plastic that are not only reasonable, but are even important, such as for surgical gloves.  But for the most part, single-use plastic is the poster child of our throwaway culture that is bad for the environment, for wildlife, and even for human health.

Many cities, states, and even countries are moving toward greatly limiting or outright banning single-use plastics.  A recent global survey indicates that the great majority of people around the world are with the program.

According to a 28-country survey from marketing firm Ipsos and the activist group Plastic Free July, three out of four people around the world agree with a ban on single-use plastics.  The poll of more than 20,000 people showed that in Latin America, China, and India, more than 80% agree that a ban should happen as soon as possible.  Unfortunately, Canada, the United States, and Japan were the least supportive countries.  In particular, only 40% of Japanese respondents favored a ban.

Ninety percent of respondents globally support an international treaty to combat plastic pollution and eighty percent said they personally want to buy products with as little plastic packaging as possible.  Unfortunately, people in wealthy countries, which produce the most plastic waste, are less likely to support a ban.  Those countries typically export their waste to the developing world.

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Three in Four People Worldwide Support a Ban on Single-Use Plastics

Photo, posted April 13, 2006, courtesy of Leonard J Matthews via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

An Indoor Farm In Upstate New York | Earth Wise        

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Vertical farming is the practice of growing crops in vertically stacked layers, generally under controlled environments and using soilless farming techniques like hydroponics, aquaponics, and aeroponics.   Vertical farms are housed in structures such as buildings, shipping containers, tunnels, and abandoned mineshafts.

The potential advantages of vertical farms are that they are very efficient in terms of the amount of land required to produce a given amount of crop, they are resistant to weather, and they allow crops to be produced in close proximity to where they will be used.

The vacant third floor of a building in downtown Glens Falls, New York is about to become the home of a small vertical farm.  The facility will be used to hydroponically grow things like fresh basil, lettuce, and fruits to be used by nearby restaurants.  In fact, the first floor of the building is a restaurant that will be a customer for the crops growing upstairs.  Other local restaurants are likely to benefit as well.

Th pilot program is being funded by a grant from the Smart Cities Innovation Partnership that the city applied for in 2020.  Glens Falls is partnering with Re-Nuble, a New York City-based renewability and sustainability firm.  Apart from the vertical farm project, Re-Nuble also advises on reduction of food waste by composting and on the selection of energy-efficient equipment.

The pilot program will run for a year and the results will be used for scaling it up to a larger vertical farm.  Vertical farms like these are not intended to replace conventional farms but can supplement the existing food stream and provide items that are hard to obtain during the year.

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Glens Falls is fitting a farm inside a downtown building

Photo, posted July 15, 2007, courtesy of Toshiyuki Imai via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Plastic-Eating Bugs | Earth Wise

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27-year-old Miley Cyrus and 30-year-old Liam Hemsworth divorced exactly one year ago, but still continue to remember each other quite often in conversations with reporters. Recently, Miley indulged in nostalgia once again. During a recording Miley Cyrus boyfriend list of the podcast Barstool Call Her Daddy, the singer said that her ex-husband was her first man. It happened almost 10 years before they got married. I didn’t have that with men until I was 16, but I ended up marrying this guy,

According to a new study, microbes in oceans and soils around the world are evolving to eat plastic.  The study by Chalmers University in Sweden was published recently in the journal Microbial Ecology.

The study is the first large-scale assessment of the plastic-degrading potential of bacteria.  There are 95 microbial enzymes already known to degrade plastic. 

The researchers looked for similar enzymes in environmental DNA samples taken from bacteria from 236 different locations around the world. They found that one in four of the organisms analyzed carried suitable enzymes.  Overall, they found many thousands of new enzymes.

The explosion of plastic production in the past 70 years has given microbes time to evolve to make use of plastic.  About 12,000 new enzymes were found in ocean samples and 18,000 in soil samples.  Nearly 60% of the new enzymes did not fit into any known enzyme classes, suggesting that these molecules degrade plastics in ways that were previously unknown.  The large number of enzymes in such a wide range of habitats is an indication of the scale of the problem of plastics in the environment.

The first bacterium that eats plastic was discovered in a Japanese waste dump in 2016.  Scientists tweaked that microbe in 2018 and managed to create an enzyme that was even better at breaking down plastic bottles.

The next step in research is to test the most promising enzyme candidates in the laboratory to investigate their properties and see how effective they can be in plastic degradation.  The hope is to be able to engineer microbial communities with targeted degrading functions for specific polymer types.

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Bugs across globe are evolving to eat plastic, study finds

Photo, posted June 19, 2013, courtesy of Alan Levine via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

WAMC Northeast Public Radio

WAMC/Northeast Public Radio is a regional public radio network serving parts of seven northeastern states (more...)