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NewSecurityBeat

The blog of the Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Program
Showing posts from category China Environment Forum.
  • Why We Need Extended Producer Responsibility for Plastic Packaging

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    China Environment Forum  //  October 14, 2022  //  By Sydney Harris & Scott Cassel
    PSI piece for today
    This blog is a shortened version of an Op Ed that will be featured in CEF’s upcoming InsightOut issue on closing the loop on plastics in the United States and China.

    Recycling in the United States is failing. Only 50 percent of packaging is currently recycled. For plastics the rate is lower, only nine percent. The U.S. packaging recycling rate is far below many other countries and has been stagnant for over a decade because our waste management infrastructure is fragmented, inefficient, and underfunded. U.S. city and county governments spend millions of taxpayer dollars each year to manage an expanding and increasingly complex array of packaging waste they had no input in designing or creating. U.S. recyclers are struggling with poorly designed packaging that cannot be recycled and adds cost to the recycling system, and brand owners are unable to source the recycled content they need to honor their public sustainability commitments. Under the current system, consumer packaged goods companies have little incentive to change. 

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  • The Complex Dance Around China’s Overseas Projects

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    China Environment Forum  //  Guest Contributor  //  Vulnerable Deltas  //  October 6, 2022  //  By Alvin Camba & Victoria Chonn Ching
    Padalarang,/,Indonesia,-,August,18,,2020:,Established,Aerial,View

    China dominates the world in its overseas development finance into power plants, mines, dams, and other infrastructure. However, while many projects sail through, a good many get stalled. The results have less to do with Beijing and more with the strength of the host country partners. There is a complex dance between governments, elites, and bureaucrats to win the best “deal” with China, including Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects. These deals may benefit not just the economy, but also may empower one of these three actors. 

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  • Fighting the Flood of Nurdles: Texas Fisherwoman takes on Taiwan Plastic Company

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    China Environment Forum  //  Q&A  //  September 29, 2022  //  By Ruoyi (Angela) Pan
    Diane Wilson

    Over decades, billions of small lentil-sized plastic pellets, called nurdles, flooded out of the wastewater pipes of Formosa Plastic’s plant in Calhoun Texas into the Gulf of Mexico. For decades, Diane Wilson, a fourth-generation fisherwoman in a rural fishing town called Seadrift, has been tracking and collecting data on the company’s nurdle pollution. In 2019, after three years of constant sampling, she and her scrappy volunteers won a dramatic legal victory with a consent decree mandating 50 million in penalties for past pollution and fines if they do not clean up previous pollution or maintain zero discharge of plastic.

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  • What China’s Heatwave from Hell Tells us About the Future of Climate Action

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    China Environment Forum  //  Guest Contributor  //  September 1, 2022  //  By Scott Moore
    Scott Moore header shutterstock_1940082055

    The summer of 2022 has been a season of climatic extremes across the globe, including record-breaking heatwaves and droughts in both the United States and Europe. But even these unprecedented extreme weather events pale in comparison with China’s heatwave from hell. For more than two months, a huge swath of the world’s most populous nation has been baking under temperatures of up to 113 degrees Fahrenheit. According to state media, this extreme heatwave affects an area of over 500,000 square miles, equivalent to more than twice the size of Texas. In terms of duration, intensity, and area affected, it is almost certainly the most severe heatwave ever recorded anywhere in the world.

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  • Biodegradable Plastic in Chinese and U.S. Agriculture: Hero or Villain?

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    China Environment Forum  //  July 28, 2022  //  By Karen Mancl
    Agriculture,,Field,,Mulch,Film,Biodegradable,Plastic
    Biodegradable plastic mulch seems like a dream come true for organic farming. Its use eliminates the need for herbicides and pesticides, conserves water, extends the growing season, and allows for the harvesting of clean fruits and vegetables. This mulch also lightens the load of farmers. Rather than assuming the expense and labor to gather up and haul plastic mulch to a landfill, farmers can till biodegradable mulch safely back into the soil. Yet these benefits will only be realized if biodegradable mulch films are 100 percent degradable by microbes in nature, and if they break down to carbon dioxide, water, and minerals without damaging the soil. 
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  • Greenhouse Plastic Boom Blights Vietnam’s Vegetable Basket

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    China Environment Forum  //  Guest Contributor  //  Vulnerable Deltas  //  June 30, 2022  //  By Govi Snell & Thinh Doan
    1 Large flower-filled greenhouse in Dalat. Each flower is wrapped in plastic nets to maintain the flowers' shape.
    Cam Ly landfill was, until it was shut down in 2020, the primary dumping ground for the city of Dalat. A hilltop locale 5 kilometers from central Dalat, the landfill was the final destination for the majority of plastic used in agriculture in Vietnam’s Central Highlands region. But in August 2019, heavy rain prompted an outpouring of trash, sending plastic sheeting from greenhouses and untreated agrichemical bags and bottles rushing downhill. The incident covered lowland farms in thousands of metric tons of waste.
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  • Plastic River: Following the Waste That’s Choking the Chao Phraya

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    China Environment Forum  //  Guest Contributor  //  Vulnerable Deltas  //  June 16, 2022  //  By Wanpen Pajai & Mailee Osten-Tan (Photographer)
    illustration of plastic waste flowing through the river, courtesy of Neutron T / The Third Pole.
    This article is a collaboration between The Third Pole and the China Environment Forum’s Turning the Tide on Plastic Waste in Asia initiative. Read more plastic pollution articles and webinars from the Wilson Center here. This article will be cross-posted on The Third Pole.
    The Chao Phraya River is born from mountain streams in northern Thailand, flowing hundreds of kilometers south to the sea. By the time the river travels through Bangkok and empties into the Gulf of Thailand, it is carrying huge quantities of plastic waste – an estimated 4,000 metric tons every year, equal to the weight of 26 blue whales. The plastic clogs the river along its course, drastically impacting communities and the waterway’s ecology. The Third Pole traveled from the Chao Phraya’s beginnings to the sea to explore what’s happening to one of Southeast Asia’s most important rivers.
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  • Chile’s Conundrum: Will Saving a Desert Hinder Global Energy Transition?

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    China Environment Forum  //  Guest Contributor  //  June 9, 2022  //  By Vince Beiser
    SQM plant tour2

    Cristina Dorador has decided that science is not enough. The Chilean microbiologist’s decades of research have convinced her that the unique ecosystem of her country’s Atacama desert is threatened by ever-expanding lithium mines. She has spent years trying to convince the nation’s leaders to protect the place, with little success.

    Now, she’s seizing a historic opportunity: Her election to Chile’s constitutional assembly in 2021 has given Dorador a chance to try to change not only Chile’s lithium industry, but the country’s whole approach to natural resources. But will her endeavor have broader implications for the worldwide shift to renewable energy?

    MORE
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