Year: 2023

Saving energy, even in small ways, is good for the environment – and your wallet too. Much of our energy comes from burning fossil fuels which releases greenhouse gasses and other pollutants into the environment. As greenhouse gas emissions blanket the Earth, they trap the sun’s heat. This leads to global warming and climate change. The world is now warming faster than at any point in...

END WASTE COLONIALISM & PLASTIC POLLUTION Reduce Plastic Production, Phase Out Unnecessary Single-Use Plastics and Stop Toxic Recycling The global south is bearing the brunt of what some have characterized as “environmental imperialism”. Trash, climate change and the environment – all this is a joint global effort, but the wealthier nations are simply subjecting the poorer nations to...

Many of the best places are neither home nor work, but “third places” in the public realm: streets and sidewalks, parks and cafes, theaters and sports facilities. Such public places are important venues for a wide variety of activities, of which some – such as social interaction and physical activity – have clear health implications, says a 2003 American Journal of Public Health study....

Mushrooming of Illegal Plastic Recyclers and Continued Pollution in Malaysia after China Bans Plastic Waste Imports For decades China was actually taking in nearly half of the world’s plastic waste. Suddenly in 2018 the Chinese brought an abrupt end to this practice. Much of that waste that was coming from the European Union (EU) – roughly 55 million tons of plastics, cardboard, paper and so...

A new Global Plastic Laws Database has just been launched. It tracks legislation across the full life cycle of plastics and organizes these policies according to life cycle categories and key topics. Adopting policies to reduce plastic pollution on a global scale is widely recognized as a vital step to address this crisis and its associated detrimental impacts on our communities, health, and...

Europe Should Stop Exporting Plastic Wastes to Malaysia and Other Countries A new report issued by the European Commission this summer indicates that 19 out of the 27 European Union (EU) states are at risk of missing their plastics recycling targets. Their collective goal was to recycle 50% of their plastic waste – it doesn’t appear they will get there by 2025. Turkey has in effect, become...

PLASTIC POLLUTION SPILLS AT SEA The X-Press Pearl Cargo Ship Fire and the Environmental Disaster It Created In May 2021 there was an ecological crisis that most people did not hear about, as it happened in the throes of the Covid pandemic. The cargo ship X-Press Pearl caught fire outside of Sri Lanka, spilling nearly 2,000 tonnes of plastic pellets and nearly 10,000 tonnes of toxic chemicals...