UpdatedWed, Mar 3, 2021 at 2:48 pm ET
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State Representative Tim Briggs sample Valley Creek in Valley Forge National Historic Park. (Hannah Pittel)
BUCKS COUNTY, PA Of the 53 waterways tested across Pennsylvania, microplastic contamination was found in every one of them, including the Delaware River and Bucks County streams.
That s according to a new report released by the PennEnvironment Research & Policy Center using methodology developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The report provides new data on the presence of microplastics in water samples taken from Delaware River, Neshaminy Creek and Tohickon Creek. Microplastics are defined as pieces of plastic less than 5 millimeters in diameter, which is smaller than a grain of rice.
Shopping for Plastic: The 2021 Supermarket Plastics Ranking greenpeace.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from greenpeace.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
To Regulate or Not to Regulate?
As power changes hands in Washington, some change in federal policy toward sustainability is also expected, and that might involve packaging, especially plastics.
Jan 27th, 2021 As I type this on January 20th, President Biden is being sworn into office after a tumultuous few months of politics. What that will mean to we who labor in the packaging arena isn’t entirely clear, but it’s probably a safe bet that we’ll see a tilt toward more regulation aimed at protecting the environment. And since consumers have long viewed packaging waste, particularly plastic, as an environmental villain, we should probably expect a renewed interest in some form of regulation seeking to address packaging waste.
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President-elect Joe Biden will have a long to-do list the moment he takes over the White House this month. Plastic trash should be one of his priorities. Here’s why. Single-use plastic is a climate change issue as well as an observable, measurable menace to the environment that has only been exacerbated by the pandemic and the need for plastic protective gear. Most plastic is made from fossil fuels, and millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions are released from the extraction of these resources, and the manufacture and incineration of plastic.
The end life of plastic is just as concerning. Very little of the plastic produced has been recycled, less than 10%. Even more of it has been burned. But the vast majority has been left to molder in landfills and, increasingly, pollute the environment. We hear mostly about ocean plastic and the harm done to marine life that mistakes plastic bags and bits for food. But microplastic is even more worrisome. Plastic doesn’t