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Sprite is retiring its green plastic bottles after more than 60 years. Coca-Cola said Wednesday it's changing the packaging from green to clear plastic beginning August 1 as part of broader efforts to become more environmentally responsible. Sprite's current plastic contains green polyethylene terephthalate (PET), an additive that can't be recycled into new bottles, a key initiative for the company as it looks to reduce plastic waste. "Taking colors out of bottles improves the quality of the recycled material," Julian Ochoa, CEO of R3CYCLE, a plastic group helping Coca-Cola improve its recycling, said in a statement. "When recycled, clear PET...

For decades, hopeful techies have been promising a world where absolutely every object you encounter—bandages, bottles, bananas—will have some kind of smarts thanks to supercheap programmable plastic processors. If you’ve been wondering why that hasn’t happened yet, it’s that nobody has built working processors that can be made in the billions for less than a penny each. It hasn’t been for want of trying; in 2021 Arm reproduced its simplest 32-bit microcontroller, the M0, in plastic, but even this couldn’t hope to meet the mark. The problem, according to engineers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and at British flexible-electronics...

KEY POINTS: Canada is banning the manufacture and importation of single-use plastics by the end of the year, the government announced on Monday, in a major effort to combat plastic waste and address climate change. The ban includes checkout bags, cutlery, straws and food-service ware made from or containing plastics that are hard to recycle, with a few exceptions for medical reasons. It will come into effect in December 2022, and the sale of those plastic items will be prohibited as of December 2023, the government said. Restaurants and grocery stores worry about a supply of alternative products as the...

Ford Motor Co.’s hot-selling Mustang Mach-E electric SUV and other plug-in models are being rendered unprofitable by rising raw material costs. “We actually had a positive bottom line profit when we launched the Mach-E, commodity costs have wiped that out,” Chief Financial Officer John Lawler said Wednesday at the Deutsche Bank Global Automotive Conference, referring to 2020, when the vehicle went on sale. “You’re going to see pressure on the bottom line when we launch our EVs, they’re not going to be positive.”

Americans are feeling the pinch of inflation. Wages are up but consumers are worse off. Average hourly earnings have risen by 5.5% over the last year. But factoring in rising costs, real earnings are down 2.6%. So, how are Americans making ends meet? They’re charging it. Consumer debt continues to climb at a staggering rate. Total consumer debt rose by $52.4 billion in March, a 14% increase according to the latest data released by the Federal Reserve. Outstanding consumer debt now stands at $4.54 trillion. The Federal Reserve consumer debt figures include credit card debt, student loans and auto loans,...

Disease-causing parasites could be pouring into oceans and infecting humans and wildlife after hitching a ride on microplastics, a new study warns. In lab tests, California experts found three different pathogens adhere to surfaces of microplastics – tiny plastic pieces under 0.2 of an inch (5mm) in diameter. These pathogens form a biofilm – a slimy layer made from a community of microbes – making them ultra-resilient to any rough waters. By 'hitchhiking' on microplastics, harmful microbes can disperse throughout the ocean, reaching places a land parasite would normally never be found. This can ultimately lead to fish and seafood...

Microplastic fibres were found deep in the lower lungs of living human beings in almost every person sampled in a recent study by scientists at Hull York Medical School, UK.The study, ‘Detection of microplastics in human lung tissue using μFTIR spectroscopy’, published on 29 March 2022 discovered microplastic particles – present in many Covid masks – in the lung tissue of 11 out of 13 patients undergoing surgery.Polypropylene (“PP”) and polyethylene terephthalate (“PET”) were the most prevalent substances present in the lungs. Detection of microplastics in human lung tissue using μFTIR spectroscopy Some of the microscopic plastic fragments and fibres...

Coal production is set to hit an all-time high according to the International Energy Agency (IEA) despite the curbing of production across several countries and aims for decarbonization following COP26. Coal demand has continued to increase through 2021 mainly due to the needs of large Asian countries that still rely on the fossil fuel, as well as gas shortages forcing European states to shift back to coal. Coal has experienced a dramatic rebound this year, with production levels set to hit an all-time high in 2021 and demand levels to peak in 2022. Even after worldwide power generation from coal...

U.S. consumers are spending more and ramping up credit card balances, reversing a shift during the COVID-19 crisis, when they scaled back spending and substantially paid down debt, a Federal Reserve Bank of New York report showedon Tuesday. After rising by $17 billion in both the second and third quarters, credit card use appears to be returning to pre-pandemic patterns, the researchers said. However, balances were still $123 billion lower than at the end of 2019, according to the quarterly report on household debt and credit. "As pandemic relief efforts wind down, we are beginning to see the reversal of...

Docked at a Canadian port, crew members returned from a test run of the Ocean Cleanup’s system to rid the Pacific of plastic trash were thrilled by the meager results — even as marine scientists and other ocean experts doubted the effort could succeed. The non-profit, launched in 2013 amid buoyant media coverage, hopes to clear 90% of floating plastic from the world’s oceans by 2040. But the group’s own best-case scenario — still likely years away — envisions removing 20,000 tonnes a year from the North Pacific, a small fraction of the roughly 11 million tonnes of plastic flowing...

The board of supervisors in Fairfax County, Va., voted Tuesday to impose a 5-cent tax on plastic bags used at grocery stores, convenience stores and drugstores. The measure, passed in a 9-1 vote, takes effect Jan. 1. The new tax will not apply in certain situations, such as bags used for dry cleaning, prescription drugs, garbage, pet waste and leaf removal. Revenue raised by the tax will help fund environmental cleanup and litter mitigation programs in the state.

Senate Democrats are considering several ways to tax Americans in order to pay for their leftist wishlist, otherwise known as the $3.5 trillion budget resolution. According to a four-page document obtained by NBC News, one of the ways Democrats propose to pay for their wildly expensive plan, which includes carveouts for a civilian climate corps, universal pre-K, and other woke legislation, is through a “plastics excise tax

They were elementary and homemade at first before becoming commercialized and mass-produced, but plastic dividers became as commonplace during the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic as the paper masks that now litter city streets. Put up with the aim of blocking droplets from the noses and mouths of the COVID-infected among us, they became a sort of virtue signal for businesses to show that they cared about the safety of their customers and employees. Plastic dividers popped up to separate Uber drivers from their passengers, supermarket cashiers from customers, students from teachers, and virtually every place there used to be unimpeded face-to-face...

[H/T CheshireTheCat ]The plastic barriers that shot up at sales counters and order windows across America during the COVID-19 pandemic may actually be facilitating the spread of the virus, not protecting people from it.Multiple studies have now shown that the plastic barriers, common everywhere from grocery stores to restaurants to schools, impede air flow and redirect germs from one person to another. Several experts told The New York Times that, in many cases, the barriers provide no protection from COVID-19 and instead make it more likely to spread.Robby Soave on Twitter: "More pandemic theater: The plastic barriers are worse than...

An estimated 1.6 billion disposable masks wound up in the ocean in 2020, creating a vast pile of floating plastic waste and threatening marine life across the planet. ... The throwaway masks sent 5500 metric tonnes of plastic into the oceans, which will take up to 450 years to biodegrade ... In China, an estimated 450 million disposable masks were manufactured every day during the height of the pandemic in April 2020. The looming environmental catastrophe prompted one French ecologist to warn last year: “Soon there will be more masks than jellyfish.”

DENVER (KDVR) — Single-use plastic bags and Styrofoam takeout containers will eventually be a thing of the past in Colorado after Gov. Jared Polis signed a bill to phase them out. The Plastic Pollution Reduction Act goes into full effect in 2024. Polis signed the law on Tuesday after Colorado Democrats passed the bill without any Republican support. The measure also repeals a pre-emptive law that bars local governments from passing stronger plastics restrictions than the state’s.

AsiaOne has launched EarthOne, a new section dedicated to environmental issues — because we love the planet and we believe science. Find articles like this there. China is the biggest generator of plastic waste, with one-fifth of the world's single-use plastic coming from the country in 2019, according to an Australian study. In its inaugural Plastic Waste Makers Index published on Tuesday, the Perth-based Minderoo Foundation said just 20 companies contributed half of the world's single-use plastic items thrown away yearly. And a quarter of those were firms headquartered in mainland China. "China is the world's most populous country. So...

Chinese scientists say they have identified a blend of marine bacteria that appears capable of breaking down polythene, one of the most ubiquitous plastics on the planet and source of much of the pollution in the world's oceans. While the plastic-eating qualities of bacteria are already well known to the scientific community, the research by the Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences in Qingdao, east China's Shandong province, is the first to establish a direct link to polythene (PE). In the study, which was published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials on April 23, a team led by Sun...

Mask Burning Will Commence In Cooperation With Law Enforcement... American freedom lovers will gather in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida on Saturday April 10 to protest for Face Freedom... “You are invited to the Million Maskless March and Mask Burning, Saturday April 10, 2021 at 3pm at the Corner of A1A and Las Olas in Ft Lauderdale!,” writes protest organizer Chris Nelson, who has organized viral flash mobs at chain stores that re-popularized Twisted Sister’s protest anthem “We’re Not Gonna Take It.” “April 10 marks one year of mask tyranny in Broward County and we will mark that date with a celebration...

Have you been unfortunate fortunate enough to try a paper straw? Being on the West Coast, I’ve had the pleasure. Many, many times. For those of you yet to partake, you’ll love it — assuming you have the digestive system of a goat. As for function, the straw pulls double duty. For the first 4 minutes, it allows you to swallow liquid. At 4:01 and beyond — in my experience — it feeds you a paper stick. MMMmmmMMM good.Apropos, Coca-Cola’s about to try a paper bottle. From The Daily Wire: Coca-Cola plans to do a test-run of 2,000 paper bottles...