Climate: The fight over the future of plastics – NYT Newletter

. . . . .”The global debate on plastics

The plastics industry has also found itself navigating a tricky global landscape. Some of the world’s biggest oil- and gas-producing countries are aligned with the industry’s position. Nations are aiming to hammer out a draft of the treaty by the end of the year, at the final round of negotiations in South Korea. On top of reining in plastic production, scientists are urging negotiators to aim for a treaty that mandates testing of the chemicals in plastics.

According to the U.N. Environment Program, the world produces more than 430 million metric tons of plastic a year. Two-thirds are short-lived products that soon become waste.

“We will continue to need plastic for specific uses, such as renewable energy technologies,” said Inger Andersen, U.N.E.P.’s executive director. “But there is growing agreement that short-lived and single use can go.” ” . . . . .

Source: Climate: The fight over the future of plastics

Trash or Recycling? Why Plastic Keeps Us Guessing. – The New York Times

By Winston Choi-Schagrin and Hiroko Tabuchi
Illustrations by Rinee ShahApril 21, 2022

The universal symbol for recycling, known as the “chasing arrows” logo, is stamped on so many things. But that doesn’t mean they’re recyclable.

Manufacturers can print the logo on just about any product. That’s because its main purpose isn’t to say whether it’s recyclable, but to identify the type of plastic it’s made from. (For example, if there’s a “3” in the center, it’s PVC, which most curbside recycling programs don’t accept.) The logo is so widely misunderstood that last year California banned its use on things that aren’t recyclable.

There are efforts to improve the system. But first, the central question:

Why is this so hard?

The rules are confusing.

The unhelpful symbol is just one aspect of a recycling system that is far too confusing to be broadly effective. It puts the burden on individuals to decode a secret language — to figure out not only whether a thing is recyclable, but also if their local recycling program actually accepts it.” . . . .

PBS NewsHour | Why ‘ghost gear’ is being removed from the Gulf of Maine | Season 2023 | PBS

‘Ghost gear’ piles up in the Gulf of Maine amid plastic onslaught on oceans

Source: PBS NewsHour | Why ‘ghost gear’ is being removed from the Gulf of Maine | Season 2023 | PBS

Michael Bloomberg Goes After Petrochemicals – The New York Times

By David Gelles

David Gelles met with Michael Bloomberg in New York and traveled to Louisiana to report this article.

Sept. 20, 2023

“Michael Bloomberg is many things: former New York City mayor, founder of a financial data company, failed presidential candidate and the 11th richest man in the world.

Since leaving public office 10 years ago, Mr. Bloomberg, 81, has also emerged as perhaps the world’s single largest funder of climate activism, making himself an expensive thorn in the side of the fossil fuel industry. The former mayor says that so far he has spent $500 million in an effort to shut down coal and gas plants. This month he said he planned to spend another $500 million on the effort.

The campaign against coal was largely successful. Coal is dirty and expensive, and Mr. Bloomberg’s money helped retire more than 70 percent of the coal-burning power plants in the country, according to the Sierra Club and other organizations, or about 370.

Now he is going after a more challenging target: new petrochemical plants that make fertilizer, plastics and packaging. It won’t be easy.

In recent years, coal had become an increasingly costly and uneconomical way to generate electricity, making plant closures easier to achieve. But plastics and chemicals face no such economic headwinds. In fact, the petroleum industry sees these industries as its future as cars electrify and the burning of fossil fuels declines, so it is investing heavily.

While the new campaign, called Beyond Petrochemicals, has scored a few wins, the petrochemicals business is booming and highly profitable, and plastics remain cheap and in demand. And the industry is fighting back with its own counter effort: Beyond Bloomberg.

Companies and local economic development groups argue that Mr. Bloomberg’s efforts are a heavy-handed approach to a nuanced problem and that the world needs more products made with petrochemicals, not less. They add that his efforts are costing people jobs and hurting an area badly in need of economic growth.

“Attempts to shut down American chemical manufacturing are a bet against millions of hard-working men and women in our industry,” Chris Jahn, the chief executive of the American Chemistry Council, said in a statement. He added that Mr. Bloomberg’s efforts “would send essential jobs overseas and threaten America’s leadership to innovate and compete with countries like China.”

Petrochemicals remain an essential part of modern life, used to make clothing, cars, electronics, fuel and fertilizer, not to mention solar panels and other equipment needed in the transition to cleaner energy sources. There are no easy substitutes for most of the products, and the heavy global demand means that if chemical and fertilizer plants aren’t built in the United States, many will instead simply be built in other countries that may have weaker regulations to protect workers and the environment.

But the petrochemical industry is also a major source of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that are dangerously warming the world.

During a recent interview at the headquarters of Bloomberg LP, the financial data company that has given him an estimated net worth of $96 billion, Mr. Bloomberg said he was trying to help slow climate change, which he regarded as an existential threat to humanity.

“If there’s something that can destroy the Earth and kill all living people, then it’s hard to argue you shouldn’t focus on that,” he said. “I want my kids, your kids, to be able to have a life.” ” . . .

Cities Turn to Trash Skimmer Boats to Clean Local Waters – The New York Times

By Rebecca Carballo

June 14, 2023

“As plastics accumulate in rivers and bays, localities across the country are seeking creative, affordable solutions to keep their waterways clean. Many have turned to “trash skimmers,” boats that are designed to remove litter.

Tampa, Fla., is one of the latest cities to invest in such a vessel, a $565,000 boat that it has named the “Litter Skimmer.” It skims single-use plastics and other trash — as well as organic materials such as branches and leaves — from the water and onto a conveyor belt that pulls it into a storage area, a city spokesman said.

The boat debuted about a year ago and has since gathered about 13 tons of debris, said Alexis Black, an environmental specialist with Tampa’s Department of Solid Waste and Environmental Program Management.

As far back as the 1950s, scientists have been warning that marine life was getting stuck in discarded fishing gear and other types of plastic waste. Since then, consumption of single-use plastics has risen to the point where tens of millions of tons of plastic enter Earth’s oceans each year. Over the years, plastics have harmed local ecosystems and disrupted storm water management, leading to flooding.”

Boyan Slat | To Keep Plastic Out of Oceans, Start With Rivers – The New York Times

By Boyan Slat

Mr. Slat is the founder and chief executive of The Ocean Cleanup.

“The world is finally getting serious about plastic pollution.

Next week, delegates from U.N. member states will gather in Paris to debate the shape of what some hope will become the plastic-pollution equivalent of the Paris Climate Agreement.

There is no time to waste. Plastic is one of the biggest threats our oceans face today, causing untold harm to ecosystems, tremendous economic damage to coastal communities and posing a potential health threat to more than three billion people dependent on seafood.

The U.N. Environment Program has put forward a proposal to keep plastics in circulation as long as possible through reuse and recycling. Some activists and scientists advocate capping and reducing plastic production and use.”

Mark O’Connell | What Is the Plastic in Our Bodies Doing to Us? – The New York Times

By Mark O’Connell

Mr. O’Connell is the author, most recently, of “Notes from an Apocalypse: A Personal Journey to the End of the World and Back.”

• • April 20, 2023

13 MIN READ

“There is plastic in our bodies; it’s in our lungs and our bowels and in the blood that pulses through us. We can’t see it, and we can’t feel it, but it is there. It is there in the water we drink and the food we eat, and even in the air that we breathe. We don’t know, yet, what it’s doing to us, because we have only quite recently become aware of its presence; but since we have learned of it, it has become a source of profound and multifarious cultural anxiety.

Maybe it’s nothing; maybe it’s fine. Maybe this jumble of fragments — bits of water bottles, tires, polystyrene packaging, microbeads from cosmetics — is washing through us and causing no particular harm. But even if that were true, there would still remain the psychological impact of the knowledge that there is plastic in our flesh. This knowledge registers, in some vague way, as apocalyptic; it has the feel of a backhanded divine vengeance, sly and poetically appropriate. Maybe this has been our fate all along, to achieve final communion with our own garbage.”

Trying to Live a Day Without Plastic – A. J. Jacobs – The New York Times

By A. J. Jacobs

Jacobs is a journalist in New York who has written books on trying to live by the rules of the Bible and reading the Encyclopaedia Britannica from A to Z.

• • Published Jan. 11, 2023  Updated Jan. 13, 2023

11 MIN READ

“On the morning of the day I had decided to go without using plastic products — or even touching plastic — I opened my eyes and put my bare feet on the carpet. Which is made of nylon, a type of plastic. I was roughly 10 seconds into my experiment, and I had already committed a violation.

Since its invention more than a century ago, plastic has crept into every aspect of our lives. It’s hard to go even a few minutes without touching this durable, lightweight, wildly versatile substance. Plastic has made possible thousands of modern conveniences, but it has come with downsides, especially for the environment. Last week, in a 24-hour experiment, I tried to live without it altogether in an effort to see what plastic stuff we can’t do without and what we may be able to give up.

Most mornings I check my iPhone soon after waking up. On the appointed day, this was not possible, given that, in addition to aluminum, iron, lithium, gold and copper, each iPhone contains plastic. In preparation for the experiment, I had stashed my device in a closet. I quickly found that not having access to it left me feeling disoriented and bold, as if I were some sort of intrepid time traveler.”

” . . . . .    Plastics Present and Past

The world produces about 400 million metric tons of plastic waste each year, according to a United Nations report. About half is tossed out after a single use. The report noted that “we have become addicted to single-use plastic products — with severe environmental, social, economic and health consequences.”

I’m one of the addicts. I did an audit, and I’d estimate that I toss about 800 plastic items in the garbage a year — takeout containers, pens, cups, Amazon packages with foam inside and more.

Before my Day of No Plastic, I immersed myself in a number of no-plastic and zero-waste books, videos and podcasts. One of the books, “Life Without Plastic: The Practical Step-by-Step Guide to Avoiding Plastic to Keep Your Family and the Planet Healthy,” by Mr. Sinha and Chantal Plamondon, came from Amazon wrapped in clear plastic, like a slice of American cheese. When I mentioned this to Mr. Sinha, he promised to look into it.

I also called Gabby Salazar, a social scientist who studies what motivates people to support environmental causes, and asked for her advice as I headed into my plastic-free day.

“It might be better to start small,” Dr. Salazar said. “Start by creating a single habit — like always carrying a stainless-steel water bottle. After you’ve got that down, you start another habit, like taking produce bags to the grocery. You build up gradually. That’s how you make real change. Otherwise, you’ll just be overwhelmed.”

That Reusable Trader Joe’s Bag? It’s Rescuing an Indian Industry. – The New York Times

By Sameer Yasir

Oct. 10, 2022, 3:00 a.m. ET

“NADIA, India — When shoppers in places like America take a woven reusable bag to the store, they aren’t just saving the planet. They are reviving a storied industry thousands of miles away in India.

Jute, a coarse fiber used to make fabrics like burlap, has been cultivated for centuries in the warm and humid climate of the Ganges Delta. Some of India’s jute factories have been in operation for more than a century, and today the country is the world’s largest producer.

But in recent decades, the industry has struggled as less expensive synthetic substitutes have flooded the market. Farmers turned to other crops, cheap labor moved elsewhere and mills deteriorated from lack of investment.

Now, though, what had been jute’s weakness is its potential strength. As much of the world seeks biodegradable alternatives to synthetic materials like plastics, Indian jute is making its way around the planet, from supermarkets in the United States to fashion houses in France to wine producers in Italy.”