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Throughout the coronavirus crisis, there have been countless heroes who have emerged to take care of the sick, protect the healthy, and ensure that our society functions as best as it can in extraordinary times. But some of our lesser-acknowledged heroes are the people who are cleaning up our waste and sanitizing our hospitals and […]
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Nearly 5 years ago, Mayor Bill de Blasio pledged New York City would send zero waste to landfills by 2030, in part by scaling up an aggressive composting program to turn food scraps into nutrient-rich soil. It’s now 2020 and the city is nowhere near meeting the mayor’s stated goals.
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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.
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An ambitious startup called Blueland launched two weeks ago with a simple concept, but the company is hoping to revolutionize the way we buy cleaning products. They are selling a set of durable, reusable plastic bottles along with tablets that dissolve in water that can be re-ordered, thus eliminating the need to buy household items in single-use plastic containers. Blueland is convinced that its customers over time can eliminate the need for 100 billion single-use plastic bottles in the U.S. alone.
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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.
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Compostable cups, bags and cutlery were supposed to be the answer to single-use plastic products, but recent news reports say that instead they are causing problems for recycling plants and also ending up in landfills where the conditions are not right for them to decompose. According to The Wall Street Journal and the Daily Caller, in order to decompose, compostables need high heat and moisture — they were actually intended to be sent to specially designed disposal sites, where they will break down properly and can add nutrients to the soil.
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