Materials and Waste
Kroger, nation’s largest grocery chain, eliminates plastic bags – CBS News
Kroger, the nation's largest grocery chain, will phase out the use of plastic bags in its stores by 2025. The grocer orders about 6 billion bags each year.
Based in Cincinnati, Kroger operates 2,779 stores in 35 states and the District of Columbia, serving almost 9 million people daily through two dozen different grocery chains.
Kroger said Thursday that will start the project at its Seattle chain QFC, where it expects to be plastic-bag free by next year.
While I didn't think that much about plastic bags in the past, they are kind of a nuisance when you find them in the woods and flapping in the trees. It's certainly easy enough for them to blow away, and we really should be getting away from single-use plastics. Alas, I will probably have to start using my reusable bags -- and just dump my camp garbage in a bucket, and wash it out form time to time.
Why glass recycling in the US is broken
Glass is indefinately recycable in theory, but like most things, theory is different then practice. The problem is that glass is heavy, and the cullet has to be relatively clean if they want to recycle it. Dual stream recycling or deposit systems are better for recovering the material, but that doesn't help with glass with it's weight or breakage -- which can be very problematic with litter on beaches or anywhere else in the woods, with cut feet. Needless to say, I'm not a big fan of disposable glass products, due to the amount of it you find up in the wilderness.
Hudson Valley Incinerator One of Top Polluters in U.S.
A new report ranked a Hudson Valley incinerator as one of the top polluters in the U.S., which can significantly threaten our health. Download the Hudson Valley Post App According to the Tishman Environment and Design Center at The New School in New York City, 4.4 million people in the U.S. are exposed to pollution from waste incinerators. -advertisement- The waste incinerators reportedly emit mercury, lead, particulate matter 2.5 and 10, sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxide, and carbon monoxide, all of which can pose significant dangers to public health.
Sunscreen Chemicals Soak All the Way Into Your Bloodstream | WIRED
If they sink into tissues and get absorbed into the bloodstream, that could be a problem. Then, like other over-the-counter drugs the Food and Drug Administration oversees, sunscreens should be studied to make sure they don’t mess up people’s hormones, affect their reproductive systems, or cause cancer. Such safety testing has never been done on the active ingredients in sunscreen, because those chemicals were approved decades ago, before anyone suspected they could be absorbed into the body. Now we know it’s more than just a suspicion.
China’s recycling ban has sent America’s plastic to Malaysia. Now they don’t want it – CNN
Dozens of laborers and factory operators sit hand-cuffed in rows on the pavement at an industrial park in Malaysia. They've been detained in a government raid on unlicensed plastic recyclers as the country seeks to curb a growing illicit industry. "It's illegal," said Yeo Bee Yin, Malaysia's Minister of Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change, who attended the raid and had invited journalists to watch. Sources of plastic waste imports into China in 2016 and cumulative plastic waste export tonnage (in million MT) in 1988--2016. Sources of plastic waste imports into China in 2016 and cumulative plastic waste export tonnage (in million MT) in 1988--2016. Expand the map "It's against the Environmental Quality Act because they do not have licenses and they are polluting."
Malaysia is cracking down on opportunists who are trying to cash-in on China's decision last year to ban plastic waste imports. Since July 2018, officials have shut down at least 148 unlicensed plastic recycling factories -- but have only pressed charges against a handful of suspects. Much of the waste comes from countries outside Malaysia, including the US, which angers Yeo who says wealthy nations shouldn't be using her country as a trash dump. "I will take care of my own rubbish," she says. "You should take care of yours."
There’s just no getting away from microplastic contamination | Ars Technica
Every year, millions of tonnes of plastic are produced. In 2016, this figure was estimated to be around 335 million tonnes. We have no idea where most of this ends up. The amounts that are recovered in recycling plants and landfill don't match the amount being produced. Some of it stays in use, sometimes for decades, which explains part of the discrepancy. An estimated 10 percent ends up in the oceans. Although these numbers could change with further research, there's still a gap.
Wherever that plastic is ending up, we know that it's breaking down over time, disintegrating into micro particles less than 5mm in size, and some even breakdown to the nanoscale at less than one micrometer. (For context, the micrometer is a unit that's often used to discuss bacteria and cells—the human sperm head is around 5 micrometers in length.) The effect that these particles will have on a global scale as they continue to accumulate is not even remotely understood.