• Sustainability

New Science on Carbon Capture Highlights Its Potential

• Antarctica
• carbon capture
• CO2
• conservation
• electrification
• green snow
• recycle
• science

New technology developed in Japan provides a much-needed breakthrough for capturing carbon released from a concentrated source like a thermal power plant and “recycling” it to create other gas fuels like methane, methanol, and gasoline.  And scientists from the U.K. have discovered that green algae known as “green snow” on the Antarctic Peninsula are a significant carbon sink for the continent, absorbing approximately 479 tons of carbon a year through photosynthesis.

Why This Matters: Carbon recycling will help reduce global warming by re-using the CO2, which would otherwise be let go into the atmosphere.

• Sustainability

Starbucks Cups: Testing a New One But Don’t Bring Your Own

• #COVID19
• coffee
• compostable
• coronavirus
• cups
• recycle
• Starbucks
• sustainability

As a result of what they learned in China, Starbucks will not allow people to bring in their own “vessels” to get their cup of joe as a result of the coronavirus outbreak — the “temporary” measure went into effect last week and will remain so for the foreseeable future. 

Why This Matters:  There are times when — particularly with respect to health and safety — single-use plastic items are a necessity.  This coronavirus outbreak is one of those times.

• Sustainability

Recycling Is Becoming More Difficult, But Some Retailers Are Stepping Up To Help

• China
• Greenpeace
• plastic pollutio
• recycle
• Target
• Unilever
• Walmart

Forbes reported this week on retail giant Walmart’s efforts to work with consumers and suppliers on improving sustainable packaging to reduce the amount of “wish-cycling” — people tossing things into recycling bins on the hope that they can be recycled – and to improve packaging design with its end of life in mind. 

Why This Matters:  Consumers produced over 80 million tons of container and packaging waste in 2017, and only 50.1% was recycled, with the rest ending up in landfills or incinerated for energy.

• Sustainability

One Cool Olympic Thing: Recyclable Beds for the Athletes

• olympics
• recycle
• Tokyo

If you are like us, you are really looking forward to the summer Olympics!  The Tokyo games are going to be the greenest ever — and that goes even for the beds that the athletes will sleep in.  According to the Associated Press, the athletes’ bed frames will be made of super-strong cardboard that is […]

• Sustainability

One Cool Thing: Tailgating Goes Sustainable

• aluminum
• Ball Corporation
• beer
• recycle

With fall around the corner and campuses across the country bustling again, it is time for college football season and that means one fun thing — tailgates!  The plastic cup has long been a staple of pre-game parties and post-game celebrations, but Ball Corporation is hoping to change that and make all the fun much […]

• Sustainability

Major Hotels to Eliminate Travel Size Plastic Bottles

• bottles
• Crowne Plaza
• Holiday Inns
• Intercontinental Hotels
• Kimpton
• plastic
• recycle
• toiletries

CNN Business reported last week that by 2021, InterContinental Group hotel — which includes Holiday Inns, Crowne Plaza and Kimpton Hotels, will end the use of small-sized toiletries plastic bottles and stock its rooms with bulk-sized instead. 

• Sustainability

One Cool Tennis Thing: Wimbledon “Aces” Sustainability

• recycle
• renewable energy
• tennis
• vegan
• water
• Wimbledon

Wimbledon crowned its new champions over the weekend (congrats to all the winners), but the biggest winner overall was conservation.  This year, the tournament went all in on sustainability — from donating all the 53,000 used tennis balls to schools and selling them with player signatures rather than throwing them away, to strongly encouraging the […]

• Sustainability

Trudeau Announces Canada Will Ban Single-Use Plastics By 2021

• landfill
• pastic pollution
• plastic ban
• recycle
• single use plastic
• waste

The government of Canada announced this week that it will ban many single-use plastic items by 2021 and also plans to make companies that manufacture or sell plastic products take responsibility for recycling their plastic waste.  According to CBC News, the government is likely to follow the European Union, which voted last March to ban plastic items for which market alternatives exist — such as single-use plastic cutlery and plates — and items made of oxo-degradable plastics, such as bags.

• Sustainability

Coca Cola’s Plastic – It’s The Real Thing

• Coca Cola
• Ellen MacArthur Foundation
• Neslé
• plastic
• plastic pollution
• recycle
• waste

The Coca-Cola Company, in an effort to be more transparent and decrease its environmental footprint, reported that it produced more than 3 million tons of plastic packaging in 2017, and also announced that it will donate $5.4 million to a number of environmental organizations aimed at reducing plastic waste.

• Sustainability

One Mardi Gras Thing: Biodegradable Beads

• beads
• biodegradable
• Mardi Gras
• New Orleans
• recycle

What’s Mardi Gras without the beads?  They are the symbol of the event — a “must have” if you are there for the celebration.  Last year, Huffington Post reports that almost 1,200 tons of trash were collected after the Mardi Gras parade — and much of it was in the form of plastic beads — indeed, in 2017 workers cleaned out 93,000 pounds of beads from storm drains in historic downtown New Orleans.

• Sustainability

Sustainability Innovation: Deliver Products the Old Fashioned Way In Re-usable Containers

• landfill
• ocean
• oceans
• Pepsi
• plastic
• re-use
• recycle
• Unilever
• zero waste

Some of the world’s biggest consumer product brands — Pepsi, Nestlé, Unilever, and Proctor & Gamble — announced yesterday at the World Economic Forum that they have teamed with N.J. based company, TerraCycle, to deliver sustainability the old fashioned way, in re-usable containers.  The company will bring back the “milkman model,” where the company owns the package and delivers it to consumers at the same time it picks up empty containers, and then those containers will be washed, refilled and restocked for delivery to another customer.

• Sustainability

Cities Saying Bye-Bye to Styrofoam

• ban
• carbon emissions
• D.C.
• Forbes
• New York City
• News10
• recycle
• restaurant
• San Diego
• San Francisco
• Seattle
• styrofoam
• trash
• Washington

On Tuesday, the City of San Diego became the latest U.S. city to ban the use of styrofoam within city limits.  The ban covers the use and distribution some very common products like egg cartons, food containers, coolers, ice chests, pool or beach toys, mooring buoys and navigation markers made fully or partially of polystyrene foam, commonly known as styrofoam.  Other major cities like New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Minneapolis and Washington, D.C. also now have styrofoam bans in effect. 

Why This Matters:  Styrofoam needs to go.  The new replacements are better for the planet and completely recyclable.  For example, TemperPack’s  “ClimaCell” packaging produces 97% less carbon emissions in the manufacturing process than styrofoam and will replace tens of millions of pounds of plastic foam that would otherwise be dumped in landfills and never biodegrade.  Good for the economy and good for mother earth.  Good for these cities for taking this bold action.