Andrew Craigie Andrew Craigie

Plastic's Health Impacts Are Becoming Impossible To Ignore

Plastic has been creeping into our food, our air, our water, and our bodies for decades now, with most people blissfully unaware of its presence and health risks. But two catastrophes in the past six months suddenly made it impossible to ignore how plastic affects Americans' lives, health, and future. The catastrophes I'm referring to are the East Palestine, Ohio, train derailment and the smoke from Canadian wildfires that enveloped U.S. cities for days. If you're not already aware—and many aren't—these two moments have everything to do with plastic. Let me explain.

Read More
Andrew Craigie Andrew Craigie

Microplastics Are Filling the Skies. Will They Affect the Climate?

Recent studies reveal that tiny pieces of plastic are constantly lofted into the atmosphere. These particles can travel thousands of miles and affect the formation of clouds, which means they have the potential to impact temperature, rainfall, and even climate change.

Read More
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.

Read More
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.

Read More
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.

Read More
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.

Read More
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.

Read More
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.

Read More
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.

Read More