By Ryan Johnson Legislation requiring 100 percent post-consumer plastic in beverage containers is gaining traction in California. Meanwhile, recently released data shows recycled plastic usage remains relatively low in the state’s bottling industry. Under Assembly Bill 792, beverage containers would be subject to phased-in recycled plastic mandates. By 2021, beverage containers would be made of […]

By Christopher Thompson It’s the first state to prohibit restaurants, caterers, coffee shops and grocery stores from using the to-go foam containers because they cannot be recycled locally. Democratic governor, Janet Mills signed the bill on Tuesday and the law will come into full effect in 2021. Styrofoam (or polystyrene) is a form of plastic […]

By Christopher Thompson Sainsbury’s, which was recently targeted by environmental campaigners, has announced several measures to tackle plastic waste. The retailer will introduce a trial scheme for customers to ‘pre-cycle’ by providing an area for customers to remove unwanted primary and secondary packaging in store and leave it for recycling. This means that food remains […]

By Ryan Johnson Air pollution kills. In the United States, 1 of every 25 deaths occurs prematurely because of exposure to outdoor air pollution. It kills more Americans than all transportation accidents and gun shootings combined. More than diabetes or than breast cancer plus prostate cancer. More than Parkinson’s disease plus leukemia plus HIV/AIDS. And […]

By Christopher Thompson Instead of a few centimetres of thaw a year, several metres of soil can destabilize within days Permafrost in some areas of the Canadian Arctic is thawing so fast that it’s gulping up the equipment left there to study it. “The ground thaws and swallows it,” said Merritt Turetsky, a University of […]

By Ryan Johnson In June 2018, a pilot whale was found suffering in a Thai canal and, after failed rescue attempts, died because of the 80 plastic bags found in its stomach. Fast forward to April 1, when a pregnant sperm whale was found dead on the shores of Sardinia  —  the whale had 50 pounds of plastic garbage […]

By Christopher Thompson Research finds even supposedly pristine region of the Pyrenees is polluted Microplastic is raining down on even remote mountaintops, a new study has revealed, with winds having the capacity to carry the pollution “anywhere and everywhere”. The scientists were astounded by the quantities of microplastic falling from the sky in a supposedly […]

By Ryan Johnson Consumers don’t have access to much information about how businesses operate, but they can ask questions and focus on one tangible item, the bottle. The exquisite vulnerability of grapes to nuances of weather makes wine both particularly susceptible to climate change and a harbinger of what’s to come for many other agricultural products. […]

By Christopher Thompson The Florida Senate on Tuesday passed an environmental bill that includes prohibiting local governments from enforcing regulations on plastic straws over the next five years. On a 24-15 vote, the Senate imposed a moratorium on plastic-straw bans, the latest example of the constant tug-of-war between the Legislature and cities and counties over […]

By Ryan Johnson We’re going to go ahead and be party poopers: Balloons are bad, and now it is scientifically proven. A recent study published in Naturereveals that those plastic party decorations are the deadliest plastic out there for seabirds. To make that determination, the researchers looked at the stomach contents of more than 1,700 marine birds, comparing […]