Dumpster dive | December 5, 2023
Looking for some not-horrible-for-the-planet gifts? Check out my greener gift guide for some suggestions.
ICYMI, DuPont, 3M, and Chemours were recently inducted into the GIC Hall of Shame over their reckless practices and proliferation of toxic PFAS chemicals (aka "forever" chemicals).
In that article, I mentioned that North Carolina was slated to receive 4 million pounds of toxic PFAS waste from a Chemours plant in The Netherlands, so it was shockingly great to hear that Backlash forces EPA to pause toxic PFAS waste imports to US from Netherlands. [Guardian]
Thanks to microplastics, we consume about 5 grams of plastic each week (equivalent to the weight of a credit card). That's one reason Why You Should Stop Using Plastic Cutting Boards Right Now. [Outside]
Speaking of microplastics: After reading My Delirious Trip to the Heart of Swiftiedom [NYT], I started fretting about how much glitter Swifties will have deployed by the time Taylor's Eras tour will wrap in December. After a 10-month run and an estimated 10,872,000 attendees, that's a lot of glitter/microplastic. So I was so happy to learn that The EU's Ban on Glitter Has Officially Gone Into Effect. I hope the US and other countries follow suit. [Allure]
I'm pretty lax about keeping my email tidy but will be changing my ways after learning Why You Should Delete Emails Instead of Archiving Them. Storage is one factor, but I also had no idea that in the US, emails older than 180 days are considered abandoned and can be accessed by the government without a warrant. Creepy! [How-To Geek]
Global plastic waste is already out of control and expected to triple by 2060, so the outcome of the recent UN Environment Assembly is promising: 175 nations commit to developing a legally binding agreement on plastic pollution by 2024. Let's hope big oil doesn't run interference. [UN Environment Programme]
Perhaps attendees of the assembly were inspired by photos of the waste pickers of Nairobi's Dandora dump site—within 8 miles from where the summit took place—or by the reality that every minute in sub-Saharan Africa, enough plastic waste to cover a football pitch is openly dumped or burned. [The Guardian]
South Pacific Islanders are especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change, as photographer Nick Brandt conveys in these haunting "pre-apocalyptic" underwater photos. [CNN]
Image by Chris Clark from Pixabay
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