Editor's Blog: Why is Food Waste Increasing?
It’s projected that food waste will increase by a third in less than 10 years. By 2030, we will be tossing out 72 tons each second.
What we should be considering for circular building design
Today's guest blog is authored by Jon Smieja of GreenBiz Group. The original post can be read here.
We spend over 90 percent of our time indoors. Most of you are probably reading this newsletter indoors. Have you ever spent time thinking about circularity in the built environment? The question I’m thinking about today is: Can buildings be truly circular?
We are a long way from that ideal future right now, so I took a look at some of the numbers for construction and demolition (C&D) and building waste, and suggest a couple strategies to move this sector towards circularity.
Let’s start with a couple of staggering numbers:
- We generate an estimated 600 million tons of C&D waste each year in the U.S. This number is double that of all municipal…
Breweries Reduce Waste Through Reuse, Recycling, and Organics Diversion
Today's guest blog is authored by
Breweries across Massachusetts are demonstrating their commitment to sustainability through waste reduction, reuse, recycling, and organics diversion opportunities. Here are just a few recent examples.
Untold Brewing is a Scituate-based microbrewery with sustainability efforts focused on waste reduction, reuse, recycling, composting, and water conservation. As recently reported by The Hingham Anchor, the micro-brewery diverts spent grain to a local farmer in West Bridgewater to use as cattle feed, and it collects by-products such as beer hop, and sediment for composting. Their comprehensive recycling program includes…
It’s time for resale to grow up
Today's guest blog is authored by Deonna Anderson of GreenBiz Group. The original post can be read here.
When I was reporting for my piece in the 2022 State of Green Business report, focused on the 2.0 of resale, I was blown away by the numbers:
- In the United States alone, the secondhand goods market is expected to grow to $77 billion in 2025 from $36 billion in 2021.
- And last year, a lot of money was invested in the fashion recommerce space. For example, Trove, which partnered with Patagonia, REI and Eileen Fisher on recommerce programs,…
Reloop reimagines the bottle bill for Northeastern states
The NERC Advisory Member publishes a 67-page report, Reimagining the Bottle Bill, which details the benefits of modernized deposit return schemes in five Northeastern states.
Is Recycling a Fraud?
Over the last few years, recycling has been subject to a barrage of bad press. First it was the bad markets caused largely by the Chinese decision to ban the imports of recyclables. Then came the stories claiming that our recyclables get tossed into landfills or are sent overseas to be dumped. That was followed by easily quotable and highly misleading statistics such as only nine percent of plastics are recycled. No wonder many people are suspicious about recycling.
Why is composting so hard in the United States?
Today's guest blog is authored by Suz Okie of GreenBiz. The original post can be read here.
To anyone who knows me, it should come as no surprise that I compost. Between my thrifty, waste-not-want-not nature and the potent greenhouse gas emissions of food waste in landfills, throwing food scraps in the bin is simply not an option in my book.
So when I transplanted to Portland, Maine three months ago — a non-circular life update I’m simply delighted to share — I quickly discovered I had three options: I could drop off my organics for free at five city-run locations, pay a local private company for weekly curbside pick-up, or I could go it alone and start my very own backyard operation.
In many ways, having a choice marks me as lucky. I’m part of the privileged
The Case for Recycled Content Standards
Today's guest blog is courtesy of Ocean Conservancy. The original post can be read here.
“It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.” – James Wooden.
This quote came to mind as we at Ocean Conservancy launched our latest report, Recommendations for Recycled Content: Requirements for Plastic Goods and Packaging. After all, this was not the first time that Ocean Conservancy has looked at the issue of recycled content. When we published our Plastics Policy Playbook in 2019, we identified recycled content standards as a promising policy measure to improve recycling and keep plastics out of our ocean.
When Congress passed the Save Our Seas 2.0 Act in 2020, we saw an opportunity…
Confronting the reality of inequitable access to recycling
Today's guest blog is authored by Deonna Anderson of GreenBiz. The original post can be read here.
Many of the systems in place today can be seen as microcosms of our larger world. Therefore, they’re impacted by the same social issues people have to deal with in their daily lives — poverty, gender inequality, racial disparities, to name a few.
Read more | Comments (0) | Mar 29, 2022
Investors take on plastic pollution
Back in 2018, the shareholder advocacy organization As You Sow launched the Plastic Solutions Investor Alliance, “an international coalition of investors that will engage publicly traded consumer goods companies on the threat posed by plastic waste and pollution.” Even casual readers of NERC’s weekly blogs are likely to be well aware of the danger to the environment posed by plastic pollution, given the prominent attention given to it in mainstream publications.
At the time of its inception, As You Sow’s Alliance consisted of 24 investment organizations with a combined $1 trillion in assets under management. As of January 14, the number of signatories has increased to 53 and the total assets under management at present exceeds $2.7 trillion, ratcheting up shareholder pressure on corporations to address the following measures:
- Transition…