Headway in Curbing Packaging Waste

Europe is Moving to Reshape Its Packaging Culture

Plastics have brought convenience and benefit to our lives but also pollution, toxicity, and environmental degradation. Globally, almost 500 million tons of plastic are produced each year, 90 percent of which ends up contaminating our planet. Alarmingly, plastic production is forecast to soar and could triple by 2040.

The framework for a global plastics treaty was adopted by 175 countries in 2022 with final negotiations to happen later this year, followed by implementation starting early next year. Despite being a giant step forward, much remains to be done to reverse our plastic polluting ways.

Perhaps the most encouraging are the sweeping measures that the EU (European Union) has just enacted to address packaging waste. The regulations aim to reduce environmental damage and promote sustainable practices. The PPWR (Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation) sets binding targets on throw-away plastics. On average, every person in the EU generates 418 pounds of packaging trash each year, and this figure is growing.

For the first time, the EU has created goals to combat the growing problem of waste by reducing packaging regardless of the material involved. Packaging must be 5 percent less by 2030, 10 percent by 2035, and 15 percent by 2040. The PPWR’s fundamental goal is to reshape packaging habits everywhere in the EU. The protocol requires that almost all packaging material be recyclable by 2030. Plastic packaging is especially singled out with minimum recycled content standards. Takeout restaurants must provide reuseable containers. Single-use plastic bags, straws, utensils, etc. will be banned by 2030. Similarly for miniature packaging of toiletry products, ubiquitous in the hospitality industry. Plastic and metal beverage containers will be collected separately via deposit-return programs.

These EU rules cover the full life cycle of packaging, including the manufacture, composition, and reusable or recoverable nature of materials. The requirements are designed to foster innovation. One example being researched in Singapore is to duplicate the gut flora of a super worm (Zophobas atratus) that degrades plastics. Using the microbes found in the worm’s gut in varying combinations, scientists have been able to efficiently break down the most prevalent types of plastics in a scalable and replicable manner.

While challenges remain, adoption of the PPWR is a big leap forward in the fight against plastic pollution and waste proliferation. Being the biggest producer of packaging waste, the U.S. needs to follow suit. As an added benefit, all these rules, requirements, and measures provide a big boost to creating a circular economy.

Oceans Are a Great Source of Food for the Planet

Sustainable Aquaculture Practices Need to Expand Worldwide

Concerns about human and planetary health have led many to prefer locally produced, organic foods. Despite no pesticides or chemicals, the organic label tells nothing about the nutritive content of food. Only healthy soils such as those restored on regenerative farms can produce foods rich in vitamins, proteins, minerals, and enzymes. Local sourcing means fewer carbon emissions and improved freshness.

Because we have depleted our soil over many centuries, but especially in the past 70 years, the fish, plants, and algae we harvest from our oceans are more packed, in general, with protein and micro-nutrients than terrestrial foods. Seafood is an important and growing source of protein for humans around the world. Data from 2020 indicates that more than half the food harvested from the oceans is from aquaculture, namely, fish farms.

After a rocky beginning, large-scale fish farming has become a truly sustainable method of producing seafood. Some categories of aquaculture are inherently sustainable — mussels, clams, and oysters filter pollutants out of water and create habitat for other sea creatures. Seaweed farms are another — they sequester carbon, offsetting greenhouse-gas emissions, and extract nutrients from fertilizer runoff from land, thereby helping reduce algae blooms.

Some farmed species — such as salmon, tilapia, and shrimp — had many negative environmental impacts in the early years of farming but have undergone a transformation due to technological innovations and new practices. Waste has been significantly reduced: AI camera systems track fish movement in their pens to deliver just the right amount of food at the right time. Bioremediation, another improvement, employs filters that provide surfaces for beneficial bacteria and micro-algae to clean up pollutants in the water. These and other management practices, now incorporated into U.S. regulations, have made a big difference. Unfortunately, they are not implemented in many other countries. Since the U.S. still imports around 70 percent of the seafood consumed here, a serious issue remains as to how to get other countries to improve the sustainability of their aquaculture.

California became the first state to set up a statewide network of marine protected areas (MPAs), the largest component of which is in the Santa Barbara Channel. Our local MPAs protect numerous endangered species, sensitive habitats, kelp forests, and deep-sea coral gardens. The success of these zones has been dramatic, essentially dispelling the initial opposition from local fishermen. Species have rebounded, spilling beyond the reserve boundaries, and greatly increasing the catches of fishermen. Because of our healthy and sustainably managed Channel, buying local seafood makes sense, just like consuming local, organic fruits and produce.

“Our planet is 70 percent ocean” says Kim Selkoe, CEO of the local Get Hooked seafood company. “If we fish sustainably and harvest sustainably, we can meet the protein needs of large numbers of people.”

Reducing the Strain on the Power Grid

Microgrids Are Proliferating and Some Are Incorporating EV Batteries

Renewables are the fastest-growing form of power generation. Moreover, they are the only source of power keeping pace with the expanding demand for electricity as we adopt electric vehicles (EVs) and all-electric buildings. The disconnect that the experts worry about falls on the grid due to the wild fluctuations between supply and demand. Despite ongoing repairs and upgrades, there has been virtually no grid expansion of capacity over the past decades. Change is coming rapidly, however.

Technology is transforming the large batteries in EVs, trucks, and buses into versatile assets. These components are beginning to store excess renewable electricity and make it available for demand spikes. Millions of EVs can be thought of as a huge energy system that can be connected to another huge energy system, the electrical grid. There has been talk about this for years, but we are now seeing tangible results.

In part because of the war in Ukraine and the resulting boycott of natural gas from Russia, Europe is moving rapidly to create microgrids that combine renewable generation with large battery storage and bidirectional flows for large numbers of EVs. Utrecht in the Netherlands is considered the largest bidirectional city. One of their projects is a parking facility, covered by 2,100 solar panels that provide power to 450 bidirectional charging stations and next-door buildings. The city is planning for 10,000 bidirectional EVs, 10 percent of their total.

There are many advantages to this combination beyond the free parking that bidirectional cars receive when plugged in. By connecting EVs to the grid, utilities need less reserve capacity on hand for peak periods. Utility costs are reduced, and car owners can save up to 50 percent on electric bills. For energy purveyors, the price of electricity changes from minute to minute as supply and demand surge or ebb. Those managing bidirectional systems buy power when solar and wind power are abundant and cheap, store it in electric vehicles, and sell it when demand and prices climb. It’s an old business strategy — buy low, sell high.

Ford, GM, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Renault are currently selling EVs with two-way charging software. All EV manufacturers are planning bidirectional cars by 2026. To underline the potency of this approach, California has 70 gigawatts of storage in all the EVs on our roads. In comparison, the total battery storage in all our homes and buildings is only 2-3 gigawatts.

When EV stored power is given back to buildings or the grid, the amount is small and limited by the bidirectional software, or by the decision of the EV owner. Typically, the giveback is equivalent to 10 miles, while keeping enough stored for at least an 80-mile range. However, many EVs giving back, each one only a little, adds up to damping supply and demand swings and big savings to customers and utilities. This approach is also an important tool in countering climate change.

Changing Transportation and Housing Patterns

Addressing Climate Change by Changing Mobility and Housing Biking, small businesses, and social housing are preserving the charm of Paris.

With increasingly bleak reports of atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, are there any places making rapid progress on climate change that can offer hope? Maybe.

Transportation, the second largest source of greenhouse-gas emissions, is becoming electrified. Even better, however, is reducing the use of cars through policies designed to increase walking, biking, and public transportation. In 2021, Paris rolled out a plan to become 100 percent cycle-friendly in five years. This journey was already well underway — car trips in Paris fell by more than 60 percent in the previous two decades, public transit rides increased by 40 percent, and bicycle trips increased by 20 percent. Bicycling in the French capital more than doubled between 2020 and 2024 from 5 percent to 11 percent. Cycling infrastructure, bicycle parking spots, and traffic light changes prioritizing cyclists are mushrooming. Car parking on Paris streets is systematically being eliminated and has shrunk by more than 50 percent.

Another innovation that complements these mobility changes is in housing. Since the start of this century, municipal policies have aggressively been creating social housing to keep middle- and lower-income residents in the heart of the city. One of the goals of this effort is to preserve the ineffable character of Paris — beloved by the French and tourists alike. One-quarter of all Parisians live in public housing, an increase from 13 percent in 2000. The philosophy is that those who produce the riches of the city deserve to live in it. Teachers, sanitation workers, janitors, nurses, university students, bakers, and butchers are all benefiting from this program.

Like cities around the world, Paris is confronting growing homelessness. The initiatives that City Hall has taken to keep low-income citizens from being squeezed out go far beyond what most other cities are doing. Whether Paris will achieve an equitable, diverse city remains to be seen. The challenges are formidable, but the goal is to have 30 percent public housing for low-income residents and 10 percent for middle-income inhabitants by 2035. Paris is already a dense city, but it can use its legal authority to preempt the private sale of a building and convert it into public housing. The city has also sharply restricted short-term rentals, while transforming old train rights-of-way and condemned buildings into social housing. Over the past 25 years, the city has built or renovated 82,000 apartments for families and added 14,000 student units. Rents can be as little as $650 per month for apartments.

Housing is only part of the equation for achieving a balanced city; the other part is creating a healthy mix of small businesses: boulangeries, cheese shops, bicycle repair places, corner delis, flower stalls, and artisan workshops. The city can favor these types of small businesses because it is the landlord of 19 percent of city shops. It limits the number of chain businesses in preference for small operations, thus creating continuity and an enhanced sense of timelessness.