Andrew Craigie Andrew Craigie

New York Packaging Reduction Bill Faces Ticking Clock

New York’s long-debated and many-times-revised Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act is the center focus again, with days left to move to the Senate and Assembly before the legislative session ends. Proponents say the legislation would address an out-of-control waste problem while providing economic payoffs.

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Andrew Craigie Andrew Craigie

A New Report Details the Climate, Health and Human Rights Impacts of a Plastic Bottle

On May 23, Defend Our Health, in partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Beyond Petrochemicals campaign, released “Hidden Hazards: The Chemical Footprint of a Plastic Bottle,” a new report that explores the impact of PET plastics across their entire life cycle. Its authors find that the proliferation of single-use PET plastics — notably by companies like Coca-Cola and PepsiCo — “may prolong the climate crisis, threaten human health, and promote environmental racism.”

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Andrew Craigie Andrew Craigie

California Expands Plastic Producer Probe Into Bag Manufacturers

California's attorney general on Wednesday sent letters to top plastic bag manufacturers requesting information about their claims that the bags they produce are recyclable, the latest move by the state to scrutinize the plastics industry and their role in the global plastic pollution crisis.

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Andrew Craigie Andrew Craigie

Plastic Bags Are Supposed to Be Recyclable in California. The Attorney General Suspects They Are Not.

Nearly a decade ago, a California law required manufacturers of plastic bags to make their bags recyclable. The state’s top cop says this doesn’t appear to be happening. On Wednesday, Attorney General Rob Bonta sent letters to seven plastic bag producers that supply the bulk of California’s grocery stories, demanding they provide proof that their bags can really be recycled.

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news articles Eve Fox news articles Eve Fox

Plastics Group Recommends Phaseout Of Some Materials

C&EN by Alexander Tullo | January 28, 2022 | The US Plastics Pact—a collaboration between plastic-industry participants, non-governmental organizations, and government agencies—has released a list of 11 items its members aim to eliminate from packaging by 2025. Reviews from industry and environmental groups were mixed.

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Eve Fox Eve Fox

How Bad Are Plastics, really?

The Atlantic | January 3, 2022 | Plastic production just keeps expanding, and now is becoming a driving cause of climate change.

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Eve Fox Eve Fox

Letter: Plastics are the new coal in carbon emissions

It is imperative we switch to renewable energy as quickly as possible to save our planet. It is also extremely important to understand where all our emissions originate. We need to publish the fact that plastic is the new coal.

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Eve Fox Eve Fox

Pena: Climate change and plastic

Climate change and plastic waste are two of the big environmental problems we have today. In almost all the literature I read on print and the internet, these two problems are independent of each other and addressed separately. It is only recently that I stumbled upon a study that links these two global environmental issues.

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Eve Fox Eve Fox

The Climate and Plastic

Plastic pollution is one of the biggest environmental threats to this planet, and according to a report by the advocacy group Beyond Plastics, greenhouse gas emissions from plastic production in the United States are on track to outpace domestic coal emissions. Judith Enck, a former regional administrator of the EPA and founder of Beyond Plastics, co-authored the report and joins Living on Earth’s Bobby Bascomb to discuss.

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Eve Fox Eve Fox

CLIMATE MARCH: ‘PLASTICS ARE THE NEW COAL’

Recent research entitled The new coal: plastics and climate change shows in detail the scale of emissions in each link of the plastic chain in the United States. The chain goes from the extraction of shale gas at one end to the incineration of discarded plastic at the other.

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Eve Fox Eve Fox

US plastics' emissions could overtake coal’s by 2030

US plastics are on course to take over from coal in terms of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. According to a report from Bennington College’s Beyond Plastics project, the plastics industry in the US will be more polluting than the country’s coal industry by the end of the decade.

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