Humans have made 8.3bn tons of plastic since 1950. This is the illustrated story of where it’s gone | US news | The Guardian
Until recently we didn’t know how much plastic was piling up around us. When we found out, the picture wasn’t pretty.
Materials and Waste
NPR
Common Myths About Recycled Pape
Canada produces most waste in the World, United States ranks third
The world is drowning in trash, and the waste generation rates are only increasing, according to the World Bank. Due to population growth and urban areas growth, the amount of trash countries produce is only expected to rise – by some estimates as much as 70% between 2016 and 2050.
While much of the focus is on individuals and families and the amount of trash they generate, residential trash is only a fraction of the garbage produced by certain industries.
Municipal solid waste management (MSW), which is waste generated from companies, buildings, institutions, small businesses, houses, and yards, often comprises less than 5% of the total amount of waste produced in a country.
Between 30% and 35% of the total amount of generated waste in most developed countries is attributed to building sector activities such as building construction, renovation, and demolition processes, according to the official EU statistical data.
PFAS chemicals could be making their way into food from Pennsylvania farms – EHN
PFAS contamination of food is an emerging threat. In addition to being detected in dairy milk in several states, a recently-released study revealed the Food and Drug Administration has found PFAS compounds in everything from sweet potatoes, leafy greens and pineapples to seafood, meat, and chocolate cake, and experts say the use of contaminated biosolids on farm fields is likely a primary source of food contamination. Produce grown in soil contaminated with PFAS uptake the chemicals into their roots, fruit, and leaves, which humans and animals eat.
PFAS can find their way into biosolids through contaminated water used in sewage treatment plants, contaminated waste entering sewage treatment plants from industrial sites that use the chemicals in their operations, or from contaminated feces and urine that have been excreted by people drinking contaminated water or eating contaminated food.
I have a lot of questions about this -- what kind of levels are we talking about and what is the actual harm? Or are we taking the precautionary principal too far? You can definitely see the benefits of using biosolids -- keeping organic waste out of landfills -- and turning it back into dirt, because a lot of sewage solids do end up in landfills, with the nutrient value from farms forever lost.
More Research Needed : Shots – Health News : NPR
Perhaps no question about cancer is more contentious than its causes. People wonder, and scientists debate, if most malignancies stem from random DNA mutations and other chance events or from exposure to carcinogens, or from behaviors that might be avoided. At the conference in Charlotte, N.C., scientists pressed for a reassessment of the role of environmental exposures by applying modern molecular techniques to toxicology. They called for more aggressive collection of examples of human pathology and environmental samples, including water and air, so that cellular responses to chemicals can be elucidated.
The US Recycling System Is Garbage | Sierra Club
FOR NEARLY THREE DECADES your recycling bin contained a dirty secret: Half the plastic and much of the paper you put into it did not go to your local recycling center. Instead, it was stuffed onto giant container ships and sold to China. Around 1992, US cities and trash companies started offshoring their most contaminated, least valuable "recyclables" to a China that was desperate for raw materials. There, the dirty bales of mixed paper and plastic were processed under the laxest of environmental controls. Much of it was simply dumped, washing down rivers to feed the crisis of ocean plastic pollution. Meanwhile, America's once-robust capability to sort, clean, and recycle its own waste deteriorated. Why invest in expensive technology and labor when the mess could easily be bundled off to China?