Dumpster dive | January 29, 2024

• Yertle the turtle eats a nurdle? A "nurdle" is a small plastic pellet, the raw material used to manufacture plastic products. In the past year, there have been four major reported nurdle spills, resulting in trillions of the pellets floating in the oceans and millions washing onto the beaches of France, India, Dubai, and most recently, Spain. [BBC]

• Enter the "nurdle hunters," combing beaches for these tiny bits of plastic. There's even a website, The Great Nurdle Hunt. [The Guardian]

• A disquieting but fascinating look inside Pyongyang, North Korea's capital of control, is reminiscent of George Orwell's dystopian novel "1984." Every aspect of life is controlled, starting when the city-wide alarms wake everyone at 7 a.m. Leisure time, "spontaneous" events, clothing and hairstyles, and yes, even the disposal of garbage, are strictly regimented. [Atlas Obscura]

• If you're not familiar with the Atacama Desert in Chile, it's the most arid desert on earth. It's also home to what is now the largest heap of discarded clothing in the world, spanning an estimated 741 acres and comprised mainly of synthetic fibers—essentially a huge pile of plastic. [Refinery29]

• In June of 2022 that heap of clothing went up in flames, releasing toxic gasses that reached neighboring communities for 15 days before it was finally extinguished. [Wired]

• Meet Sungai Watch, the newest Garbage Hero, and learn about their remarkable efforts to clean up some of the world's most polluted waterways in Bali and East Java.

• Here in the US, students from the University of Wisconsin-Oskosh removed thousands of pound of debris from Lake Michigan, including picnic tables, ovens, and 600-pound tires, but mostly plastic. [The Cool Down]

• Canada, Rwanda, Kenya, Germany, Norway, France, Chile, Sweden, Peru, and India. These are the top 10 countries doing the most to tackle plastic pollution. While their measures are touted as "drastic," honestly, they just seem like common sense? [Good With Money]

• Similarly, Newsweek has published their latest top 100 list of America's most responsible companies. The list comprises 14 different industries, such as automotive, consumer goods, retail, software & telecommunications, and transportation, and companies are measured against environmental, social, and corporate governance concerns. Not on the list? The world's top plastic polluters—Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Nestlé—and of course, Amazon.

• I enjoy cooking shows yet can't help but to think about sustainability and the amount of waste that unfolds during each episode. (So much meat! So much plastic wrap!) This article spoke to me: Eat plants and go electric: how to break food TV’s bad climate habits. [The Guardian]

• In case you need another reason to cut back on meat consumption: A slaughterhouse sewage loophole allows for that waste to be dumped into our waterways, bringing 9 million pounds of nitrogen and 8 million pounds of phosphorous that many municipal water treatment facilities aren't equipped to handle. Dead fish and algae blooms are part of the downstream problem. [The Hill]

Image by -Rita-👩‍🍳 und 📷 mit ❤ from Pixabay