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Are the new ideas to stop climate change crazy or potential panaceas?
Michelle R. Matisons Waste Management & EnvironmentalWhat do reflective sand, water pumps, tiny flying robots and space umbrellas all have in common? They are all projects intended to stop climate change and the disastrous melting of Arctic ice. Now that climate change is more widely accepted, we have just as many solutions as we do concerned people. After all, the idea that the Arctic Ocean may be ice-free by 2030 is overwhelming, unimaginable and devastating to many people. But is there one magic bullet that can make all this warming disappear?
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Getting the training right for flammables
Andrew Gaved EngineeringAs any reader of past columns will know, the ongoing mechanism of the F-Gas regulation, with its emphasis on moving the industry to lower-GWP refrigerants via bans and quota reductions, has caused European cooling businesses to do a lot of soul-searching. Now, the urgency of the message appears to be percolating through the industry. But, the advent of lower-GWP refrigerants also brings with it serious longer-term considerations. The fact that the majority of alternatives in the future will have some degree of flammability has given rise to concerns that the current engineering base does not have the right skills to handle them.
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Straws are at front lines of plastic reduction war
Scott E. Rupp Waste Management & EnvironmentalThe U.K. Parliament is taking steps to ban all sales of single-use plastics, including plastic straws and Q-tips, as early as next year. Prime Minister Theresa May announced the ban, noting that plastic waste is one of the greatest environmental challenges the country faces. The ban is part of a larger effort by the U.K. to eliminate avoidable plastic waste as part of a 25-year environmental plan, designed to help to clean up England's rivers, beaches and oceans from plastic, which is often ingested by marine life.
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Why recycling fluorescent light bulbs is important
Lawrence Lichtenfeld Waste Management & EnvironmentalScientists have studied the effects of mercury exposure for decades, and the information is undeniable — mercury is a dangerous neurotoxin. Mercury has been definitively connected with neurological and behavioral disorders, and yet, lamp manufacturers still make mercury-based fluorescent bulbs. In fact, even with this knowledge, the EPA banned the production of incandescent bulbs more than 20 years ago, putting much of America’s lighting future into fluorescents.
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Can lawsuits spur climate change action?
Michelle R. Matisons Waste Management & EnvironmentalWhether or not you believe humans are responsible for climate change, we are all inundated with information about climate change and what we can do to fight back. Recycling, driving less, buying green, opposing pipelines, stopping fracking and supporting alternative energy are all examples of common climate-conscious actions.
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Enzyme that eats plastic could change the world
Scott E. Rupp Waste Management & EnvironmentalScientists have discovered a "naturally occurring enzyme" that can digest some of mankind's most common plastics known as polyethylene terephthalate (PET), the strong plastic typically used in bottles that takes hundreds of years to break down in the environment.
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EPA resources for managing and reducing waste
Scott E. Rupp Facilities & GroundsThe Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) offers a guide to reducing waste for commercial building facility managers. For those in the profession, the guide might be old news, but for rookies and veterans alike it serves as a good educational tool for those who manage office buildings, schools, stores, hotels, restaurants and other commercial and institutional buildings.
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Environmental fallout from 2017 hurricanes still ongoing
Michelle R. Matisons Waste Management & EnvironmentalAmong much disagreement about almost everything, there is one thing everyone is likely to agree on: it has been a challenging seven months. Complex geopolitical developments and ongoing social issues, like mass shootings and gun control, remain difficult to ignore as we go about our daily lives.
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EPA to roll back fuel economy rules as battle with California looms
Ross Lancaster Transportation Technology & AutomotiveThe Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on April 2 that it would begin the process of rolling back scheduled national fuel economy standards that would come into effect for the 2022 to 2025 model years of cars and light trucks. While this move aims to ease regulatory burdens on the auto industry, it could prove to be even more troublesome in the end thanks to a looming battle with California.
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Great Pacific Garbage Patch now twice the size of Texas
Scott E. Rupp Waste Management & EnvironmentalThe Great Pacific Garbage Patch that so many of us have heard about in recent years is much bigger than previously thought. In fact it's estimated to be more than twice the size of Texas and at least three times the size of France. The garbage patch is a "floating" island that surpasses more than 600,000 square miles, according to a study published in Scientific Reports.
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