Fancy reusable bottles have long since replaced brand-name bottled waters as status symbols. But even if Evian doesn’t have the cachet it once did, Americans are far from abandoning the single-use plastic water bottle. Americans drink more bottled water than milk or beer. The average American drank almost 47 gallons of bottled water in 2021, and nearly 19% of us […]
We can all make an effort to reduce our consumption of the plastics that are littering the Earth. And eliminating single-use plastics is a great place to start because so many reusable options are available. It isn’t that daunting if we just eliminate one type of single-use plastic at a time. Start with plastic wrap, disposable cutlery, food storage containers, […]
Much has been written about last week’s Greenpeace report decrying the state of plastic recycling. Our recycling system is not just broken but considered a joke, a defeatist view that will cost us in the long run if we abandon the idea of recycling. Indeed, at a meeting of climate professionals in Seattle last week, several people told me “recycling […]
When you are stuck scrubbing a pan with baked-on grease, you know what a help sponges and scouring pads can be. There’s only so much elbow-grease a person can expend on a single pan. Yet, the sponges and scouring pads you find in most stores pose a host of environmental problems — from manufacture to disposal. How can we use […]
Plastic is a problem in a lot of ways: The fossil fuel-based material generates greenhouse gas emissions throughout its lifecycle; is rarely recycled; contributes to ocean pollution; and even accumulates in the human body. But plastic is so ubiquitous, you can’t just wake up one morning and decide to live plastic-free. Plastic-free living is hard and must be pursued incrementally. […]
Dr. Anja Malawi Brandon, an advisor to the Plastics Pact and U.S. Policy Analyst for The Ocean Conservancy, joins Mitch Ratcliffe to discuss three areas for potential progress in reducing our dependence on plastic and improving recycling rates. She explains how the Plastics Pact, a consortium of 100 companies, NGOs and governments, that has a plan for transforming the plastic […]
You’ve seen them on your plastics, the chasing arrows with a number in the middle. But do you know what they mean? While some people call them plastic recycling codes, they are actually resin identification codes. They identify the type of plastic the product is made from, which is important to know before an item can be recycled. However, contrary […]
A healthy ocean means healthy humans. We depend on the ocean for such fundamental conditions of life as climate regulation, food, and even oxygen (for every second breath you take, thank the oceans’ plankton), but our misuse of single-use plastics is harming our waterways, killing marine life, and releasing toxic chemicals into the environment. Brian Yurasits, a self-described “marine scientist-surfer-fisherman […]
The average American discards 17.7 pounds of PET (also known as PETE) plastic bottles each year. By eliminating your share of PET bottles, you can prevent 108.9 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions, reduce ocean plastic pollution that kills 1 million seabirds and 100,000 ocean mammals a year, and reduce your oil use by 4.9 gallons. Let’s get the plastic out! […]