In an ambitious effort to stop ocean pollution, the European Commission on Monday proposed banning the 10 most common single-use plastic products as well as lost and abandoned fishing gear. The European Union’s executive arm targeted the products that are most often found on the continent’s beaches and seas, which together account for 70 percent […]
Earth Day 2018 is focused on the all-important theme of reducing plastic litter and pollution. Of course, we shouldn’t just reduce our plastic footprint, we should try to reduce waste in all shapes, sizes and forms. It’s said that the average American generates a staggering 4 pounds of trash every day—but you don’t have to […]
Researchers in the UK and the U.S. have inadvertently engineered an enzyme that eats up plastic. The enzyme is able to digest PET (polyethylene terephthalate)—the same material used in the ubiquitous plastic bottle that’s clogging up landfills, coastlines and oceans around the world. Amazingly, this discovery only happened by chance. Scientists from the University of […]
By Brett Walton Anthony Spaniola knew something was off with his town’s water. He read accounts in the Detroit Free Press and attended community meetings hosted by state health and environment agencies. Until last summer Spaniola was concerned but didn’t think the situation was out of control. Then he saw foam on Van Etten Lake. […]
The environmental impact of the world’s plastic consumption is profound. Plastic trash and the tiny pieces that chip off it can be found everywhere—in oceans, marine life, land and our bodies, too. To help solve this planetary crisis, Nestlé pledged Tuesday to make all its plastic packaging 100 percent recyclable or reusable by 2025. The […]
Declaring Flint‘s drinking water now safe, the Michigan government announced Friday that it would stop providing free bottled water to the city’s residents, Reuters reported. A statement from the office of Republican Governor Rick Snyder said that tests taken over the past two years had shown the water to be just as safe as or […]
The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) has granted Nestlé Waters a permit to increase groundwater withdrawal from 250 gallons per minute to 400 gallons per minute from its White Pine Springs well for the purpose of bottling drinking water. The approval comes despite near universal opposition from residents, who cite the Swiss food and […]
An online petition calling on the nation’s largest supermarket chain to open a plastic-free aisle has surpassed 85,000 signatures. The Care2 petition, launched less than a week ago, asks Kroger Co. to curb plastic packaging in its 2,800 branches. The campaigners were inspired to take action after Dutch grocery store chain Ekoplaza launched the world’s […]
Last year, China—the world’s largest importer of waste—announced it no longer wanted to take in other countries’ trash so it could focus on its own pollution problems. This unexpected policy shift, which took effect Jan. 1, has left exporters in the U.S., Canada, Ireland, Germany and other European countries scrambling for solutions for their growing […]
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