These days, climate change has a lot of us thinking about the way we treat the environment. But our minds often drift to the obviously offensive images: factory pipes pumping clouds of toxic grey smoke into the otherwise pristine sky. But pollution runs deep, from producers all the way down to consumers, and it can be a result of something as subtle as your last meal. In fact, recent research found that the majority of food waste — a detriment to the environment as well as wasted calories that could feed millions of people —  happens at home.

How Does Food Waste Pollute?

There are two categories when it comes to food waste’s effects on the environment: upstream and downstream. Upstream effects are a result of the production of greenhouse gases through the supply chain of production, storage, manufacturing, and distribution of food. The downstream effects are witnessed after food has been thrown away, either by the consumer or retailer (and often the farmers and distributors themselves). Wasted food is sent to landfills to decompose anaerobically, or without the presence of oxygen. This is when methane is formed.

Food waste is the single biggest occupant in U.S. landfills. When it is discarded and broken down, it produces carbon dioxide. But even more alarming is that it emits methane, a greenhouse gas that is 25-times stronger than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere. Each kilogram of food waste produces 3.8 kilograms of greenhouse gases.

Meanwhile, food waste pollutes the land. Many countries around the world are running out of landfill space. How do they remedy this? They destroy more land to accommodate it. The underground water and runoff is then infected with the food waste. The overuse of fertilizers creates excessive amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus, which poison drinking water and aquatic ecosystems.

11 Facts About Food Waste You Can’t Ignore

1. In the U.S., agriculture itself emits 9% of the country’s total greenhouse gas emissions. Meanwhile, American farmers are throwing away as much as 50% – half! – of all produce because it doesn’t live up to consumers’ aesthetic standards. Imagine how much food waste and agriculture sector green house gas emissions we could cut by learning to love ugly fruits and vegetables!
2. About 60 million tons of produce – $160 billion – are wasted by retailers and consumers each year. This constitutes one third of all foodstuffs.
3. An American family of four wastes $1,600 worth of food each year.
4. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that one-third of the world’s food is lost or wasted. That amounts to nearly $3 trillion.
5. If food waste were a country, it would be the world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases with a carbon footprint of 3.3 gigatonnes of CO2.
6. Food waste is economically driven. Fresh produce makes up 15% of supermarket profits. Reducing food produce waste by 50% would cause supermarkets to go from a 1.5% profit margin to a 0.7% one. And losing 50% of consumer waste would result in a loss of $250 billion in economic activity.
7. According to the UN, reducing food waste by just 25% would be enough to all the currently malnourished people.
8. About 1.4 billion hectares, or nearly 30% of available agricultural land, is used to grow or farm food that ends up wasted.
9. Consumer waste per capita is between 95 and 115 kilograms each year in Europe and North America. Consumer waste per capita in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia is only between six and 11 kilograms per year.
10. In the US, 25% of all the freshwater consumed annually is associated with discarded food.
11. Despite America wasting 50% of total produce, nearly 42 million Americans live in food-insecure households. That means millions of children don’t know where their next meal will come from.

How to Solve the Food Waste Problem

It’s a much longer and more difficult road to start transforming the agriculture sector by targeting farms and distributors. As consumers looking for the prettiest fruits and vegetables, we contribute to their dilemma. How do we expect to transform farming and distribution practices if we continue to refuse to purchase an apple with a minor blemish, even if its quality and taste is completely unaffected by the blemish? Let’s embrace ugly fruits and vegetables and demand them from our local grocery stores. Meanwhile, let’s also download a shelf life cheat sheet and learn about the true lifespan of our favorite foods. Then, let’s purchase food and plan our weekly meals accordingly, understanding how long food stays fresh before spoiling as well as proper storage methods.

Re-use your leftovers as a rule and whenever your fruits or vegetables are rounding their last leg, turn them into a juice, a casserole, soup, fruit pie, or fruit bread. In the meantime, seek out local “ugly” produce companies that make the best of otherwise tossed fruits and vegetables. Companies like Imperfect Produce, Perfectly Imperfect, and Fresh Direct are leading the charge.

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The post 11 Alarming Food Waste Stats That’ll Have You Licking Your Plate Clean appeared first on EcoSalon.

Watch this trailer, and then the movie, and you’ll never use a plastic straw again.

STRAWS documentary film official trailer from By the Brook Productions on Vimeo.

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The post This Film is the ‘Jaws’ for Pollution [Video] appeared first on EcoSalon.

City life has plenty of perks, but the effect on your skin is not one of them. Urban fumes and toxins are not on your side, but green beauty is striking back with anti-pollution skincare.

Protecting your skin from simply the air around you may sound a little extreme (and paranoid), but if ignored day after day, it can eventually take a very real toll on its health.

The concept behind anti-pollution skincare is nothing new. In fact, it’s a refined version of what natural beauty does best–mostly antioxidants, and lots of them. City air, thanks to our good friend fossil fuels (not), is full of free radicals which are the main cause of cell damage.

One of the biggest concerns as a result is premature skin aging, but studies have shown that certain kinds of pollution can also irritate existing conditions such as atopic dermatitis or sensitize your skin.

The enemy may be invisible, but it doesn’t mean you can’t fight back; just get this beauty arsenal on your side and ditch urban skin for good.

5 Anti-Pollution Beauty Solutions

1. De Mamiel Pure Calm Cleansing Dew 

When you’re exposed to city grime on a daily basis, a good cleansing routine isn’t an option, it’s a necessity. Skin needs to be thoroughly cleansed (without over stripping), especially in the evenings, to wash away pollutants and allow it to repair unhindered overnight. Massage this emulsifying cleansing oil deep into all the nooks and crannies of your face to effectively lift away impurities. The added bonus is that free radical fighting botanicals like red raspberry seed oil and barbary fig seed oil will lend a helping hand to your skin’s natural recovery process (and leave it baby soft.)

2. Tata Harper Purifying Mask

Nothing injects life into a dull, tired complexion like a good face mask. After a long week being exposed to all the city has to throw at it, your skin will thank you for this potent dose of detoxing clay and plant extracts. A side of probiotics will also ensure that your skin’s natural protective barrier is balanced and ready for future combat with environmental hazards. Bring on the damage control!

3. 100% Pure Organic Matcha Anti-Aging: Shielding Serum

Because matcha isn’t just good for trendy lattes. Known for having off-the-chart levels of antioxidants, it seems to be the perfect answer to combating all of those pesky, free-floating toxins that come into contact with skin. One particular compound, epigallocatechin gallate, which matcha offers hefty amounts of, has been shown to have strong anti-inflammatory effects and may even protect against sun damage. Just pat this lightweight water-based serum all over your face morning and night and you’re set.

4. Osea Atmosphere Protection Cream

More into your creams than serums for your moisture needs? There are the tried and true ingredients in here like jojoba oil, shea butter, and avocado oil which will meet your skin’s nourishment needs alongside soothing any inflammation caused by environmental factors. The little twist though is Osea’s penchant for marine botanicals, as algae extract is what gives this moisturizer it’s anti-pollution kick. Mineral and antioxidant rich, it boosts the skin’s natural barrier.

5. Intelligent Nutrients PureServe Color Shield

While skin is certainly vulnerable to pollution, hair can be even more so. It is more often than not openly exposed to the elements and has a tendency to absorb anything it comes into contact with, including pollutants. This is especially true for colored hair, as the chemical processes involved with dying your ‘do make it more porous and susceptible to damage. This protective spray does the double duty of defending against oxidization (caused by free radicals, which can fade color) and making hair more manageable and glossy.

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Sometimes you just need a crash course in racism and poverty, and how these subjects relate to pollution and climate change.

The following video from Grist explains how certain people in cities and nations are more impacted by pollution. Because, after all, social justice is an environmental issue. Now, on to the short and sweet environmental justice video.

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A federal appeals court ruled that the EPA can regulate the emissions of large power plants in a recent and critical ruling for the environmental movement. It’s a big setback for conservative states and energy trade groups that had been challenging the power of the Clean Air Act to regulate emissions.

A three-judge panel at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that coal and oil fired power plants must be equipped with mechanisms to reduce mercury emissions by some 91 percent under the Clean Air Act.

The opposition was led by a group of conservative states including Michigan, Alaska, and Idaho that claimed the new regulations would cost $9.6 billion and 16,000 jobs in all.

“Congress was focused on the health hazard of emissions and the slowness of EPA regulation of them, and concluded it was reasonable to make decisions without considering costs,” Judge Judith W. Rogers wrote in the opinion, reported in The Washington Post. There was no congressional requirement for the agency to focus on the economic hit.

But the panel may have been swayed by groups like the American Lung Association stating that mercury regulation could prevent some 11,000 premature deaths, 5,000 heart attacks , and 130,000 asthma attacks due to polluted air.

“Today’s legal victory is another giant step forward on the road to cleaner, healthier air,” Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund said to The Hill. “The court recognized that mercury and other dangerous air toxins from coal-fired power plants are a threat to public health, and that we should all be protected from them. Now we must complete the essential work to achieve these clean air protections for our children and for all Americans.”

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The post Win for the Clean Air Act: Court Decides EPA Can Regulate Mercury Emissions appeared first on EcoSalon.

Near Naples in Italy, the environment is on the verge of destruction, and it’s all thanks to the local Italian mafia. 

Garbage is expensive to dispose of, and in a place like Italy where municipal dumps are filling up fast, getting rid of waste is an ongoing problem. Especially when it comes to hazardous waste.

Legally disposing of hazardous waste is expensive, so what happened in Italy to make it easier and more economical for companies to do? The Italian mafia stepped in. Near Naples, in the region of Campania, the home stomping grounds of the Camorra, started a lucrative business of disposing of hazardous waste from Italian manufacturers and others. How? They buried it in their own backyard.

One of Italy’s three main mafia organizations, the Camorra is now being accused of leaving an environmental disaster behind them, one that the local officials are only now starting to grapple with. The water is polluted, people have cancer and a once pristine landscape has turned into one dotted with garbage and the dark smoke caused from burning trash.

On the question of health, the New York Times reported:

“The biggest question is whether the buried toxic materials could cause a public health crisis. More than 500,000 people live in the region, and the Lancet study and other reports have documented cancer rates far above the national average. While no study has sought to prove a direct link, a World Health Organization report conducted with national and local health institutions documented clusters of liver, kidney, pancreatic and other cancers in areas known as dump sites.”

It’s not just a question of health and environment, it’s also a question of food and agriculture, a rich tradition that the region is known for. Toxic waste in the ground means it can easily seeping into the water stream. “It flows all over the place,” commander of the Naples region for Italy’s environmental police General Sergio Costa told the New York Times. “You can be a farmer who is unwittingly irrigating your land with polluted water.”

But even though they’re the  Italian mafia, shouldn’t the Camorra care that they are literally destroying their backyard? They have a solution for that, according to a wiretapped conversation between a Camorra boss and another mobster, in which the mobster voiced his concerns over polluting their own houses and land, cited in the New York Times article.

“What are we going to drink?” he asked.

“You idiot,” the boss replied. “We’ll drink mineral water.”

But as we all know, bottled water isn’t the solution to our problems, it’s the beginning. Someone might want to inform the boss.

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China is doubling-down on synthetic natural gas in hopes of reducing air pollution. But is this new natural gas any cleaner?

A study published in Nature last month investigated the finer details of China’s recent approval of nine synthetic natural gas power plants (with plans to build 4o more).

As you may know, China is facing an extreme air pollution problem. Government officials say the large-scale synthetic natural gas plants will curb the countries air pollution issues, but the claim is under scrutiny by the scientific community.

To create synthetic natural gas one must essentially turn coal into a liquid energy source.  Extreme heat and steam used to convert mined coal to synthetic gas that can essentially be transported through pipelines, much like traditional natural gas and oil.

Synthetic natural gas is nothing new, as of 2010 China already had 56 plants in operation.  The United State has one too. It’s called the Great Plains Synfuels Plant in North Dakota, and it began operating in 1984 (yes, the date is creepy).

China has often pointed to the North Dakota plant as a success story and claim to have modeled their synthetic natural gas on its production. What they don’t mention, however, is the drastically different scale. China’s plants will fabricate a total capacity of 37.1 billion cubic meters synthetic natural gas each year. By comparison, the Great Plains Synfuels Plant produces just 1.5 billions cubic meters a year.

Transforming coal into synthetic natural gas is extremely energy and water intensive, so why would China be investing in this energy resource?

It actually takes more energy and water to make synthetic natural gas than simply burning coal itself. In fact, the previously mentioned study reported using synthetic natural gas to create electricity will lead to 36 percent to 82 percent more greenhouse-gas emissions than simply burning coal. The report concludes China’s plants would “produce seven times more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional natural gas plants and will use up to 100 times the water as shale gas production.”

Although it’s more energy intensive, using synthetic natural gas to create electricity doesn’t emit as much smog and particulate matter as burning coal. Chinese cities has been under extreme attack by environmental organizations and citizens alike to address the sickeningly dense and ever present air pollution.

All the new synthetic natural gas power plants will be built in far west regions of China around inner Mongolia and Xinjiang. These locations are far enough away from the major that cities that, at least in theory, the plants closer to the cities could shut down, and reducing smog and air pollution in urban areas. These plants might create conditions for less particulate matter being pumped into the atmosphere but the energy and water demands only continue to rise.

Synthetic natural gas might be fixing one issue, but it is undoubtedly creating more. How effective can this patchwork approach be?

Robert B. Jackson, second author on the recent study, Nicholas Professor of Environmental Sciences, and director of the Duke Center on Global Change, says, “Using coal to make natural gas may be good for China’s energy security, but it’s an environmental disaster in the making.”

 Image: Jonathan Kos-Read

The post China’s Synthetic Natural Gas: Is It Really Clean Energy? appeared first on EcoSalon.

China’s urban air pollution went off the charts this past winter, and the world took notice. With aggressive policies on the books, is this industrial giant finally admitting that health is more important than production? 

In a list of the world’s most polluted nations, China is a shoe-in. An accelerated pace of development–including dozens of new textile mills, rubber and fertilizer plants, oil refineries and coal-fired power plants–has left many of China’s cities covered in a thick blanket of life-choking smog.

In early 2013, Beijing made global headlines when NASA images showed the city almost completely obscured in a cloud of airborne particular visible from space. Residents were urged to wear gas masks and advised to stay indoors as much as possible.

No nation, especially one so interested in foreign manufacturing contracts, can afford that type of publicity. So, at least at the legislative level, China has recently announced sweeping changes that could clean up the rampant air pollution and go a long way toward creating healthier cities for its residents.

1. Big Investment

In late July, China’s state media announced a government plan to invest 1.7 trillion yuan ($277 billion) to combat air pollution over the next five years. Citing growing social discontent with China’s air quality as a motivating factor, a government report laid out plans to reduce air emissions by 25 percent by 2017 compared with 2012 levels, especially focusing on urban areas like Beijing.

2. Gasoline Tax

People complain about expensive gas the world over, as if cheap fossil fuels were some kind of human right. They’re not. In fact, countries like America use taxpayer dollars to dish up deep subsidies to Big Oil and Coal. These subsidies are some of the only reasons our gas prices have been so much lower than the rest of the world’s for decades. If people had to pay the true price of gas, they’d probably stop driving so much.

That’s the assumption that led China’s government to unveil a fuel pollution tax that will be added to standard gas prices sometime in the next 12 months. Under current tax law, a liter of gas (about a third of a gallon) is around 8 yuan or $1.30. When the pollution tax is added, a liter of gas will cost ten yuan, or $1.62. This brings it up to about $4.50 a gallon. If this pollution tax is successful in Beijing, the government plans to implement it across the country.

3. Electric Vehicles

As America has so willingly demonstrated, it’s not easy to get a nation of oil-addicted drivers to make the switch to greener vehicles. We like our big engines and our independence. China is the same way, only they have 1.35 billion people to the USA’s 316 million. To help ease the pain of transitioning away from fossil fuels, China’s Ministry of Science and Technology’s (MOST) announced a Five-Year Plan for Electric Vehicles, actively encouraging its citizens to buy electric bikes, scooters, and cars. The nation is targeting 5 million EVs and PHEVs on the road by 2020, although progress has been slower than desired. 

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The post 3 Ways China Is Working To Clean Up Its Air Pollution appeared first on EcoSalon.

Pioneered by NASA, this completely filterless air purification technology eliminates pollutants that aggravate your allergies and make you feel sick.

When someone says “air pollution” I almost instantly envision power plant smoke stacks and smog over Los Angeles. It’s disturbing to realize that the air inside our homes can be much more polluted than what’s outside.

Studies of human exposure to air pollutants by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency indicate that indoor levels of pollutants may be 2 to 5 times – and occasionally more than 100 times – higher than outdoor pollutant levels. Indoor air pollutants have been ranked among the top five environmental risks to public health.

Living in homes full of contaminated air puts our families at risk for serious health problems. Air filtration systems are common, but most do a poor job of actually removing chemicals and other contaminants from the air. After 12 years of rigorous scientific research, NASA recently launched the Airocide, a filterless air purification system that’s been proven to remove the worst indoor air pollutants.

Like many of our most revolutionary technologies, the Airocide was developed in response to a problem in space: space station astronauts needed a way to eliminate the ethylene gas produced by ripening plants. With the help of some University of Wisconsin researchers, NASA engineers came up with a solution.

Tests showed that the filterless air purifier they created was capable of eliminating 99 percent of ethylene gas from the air. This made the researchers wonder what else it could scrub from the atmosphere. More tests revealed that clears the air of virtually 100 percent of the nasty Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC’s)–the harmful gasses emitted by products you have around your home, like aerosol sprays, cleaning supplies, disinfectants, hobby supplies, dry-cleaned clothing, building materials, paints and paint thinners, strippers, pesticides and even air fresheners–swirling around in most houses.

This FDA approved device also completely eliminates all mold, fungi, viruses and bacteria (all major causes of allergy symptoms) that enter the chamber. But how?

“Airocide draws in harmful airborne pathogens and forces them into a densely packed matrix of highly reactive catalysts that are activated by a high intensity 254-nanometer light,” explains the website. “The reaction destroys these harmful pathogens on contact. Nothing is captured so there is nothing to clean. All that exits is crisp, clear air, with zero ozone emissions.” Available for $799

Image: Airocide

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Kids these days. Texting with one hand, solving the world’s problems with the other.

Meet Boyan Slat, a 19-year-old Dutch student who has plans to remove more than 7 million tons of plastic waste currently polluting the world’s oceans. Slat created the Ocean Cleanup Foundation, a non-profit organization that’s helping to develop his novel idea, which he revealed at a TEDx event last year.

The Ocean Cleanup Array is a device Slat developed that includes an anchored network of floating booms and processing platforms capable of being delivered to large areas of the ocean where plastic debris has accumulated, such as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch—a gigantic floating area thick with plastic waste that may be as large as twice that of the U.S.

Among the challenges in dealing with these plastic islands is that the debris is often dispersed over hundreds or thousands of miles, and can be found floating just beneath the ocean’s surface—so the areas are not necessarily visible to the naked eye. But the new technology seems to be capable of working with these conditions and removing the plastic in a low impact and feasible method. Once in the troubled area, the Ocean Cleanup Array would work much like a funnel, forcing plastic towards the platforms where it would be filtered out and later recycled.

Slat’s idea came about through a school paper he wrote that analyzed the plastic particles common in the oceans for size and amount. The paper won him praise and prizes, including Best Technical Design 2012 at the Delft University of Technology.

If dispatched to the oceans, the technology could help to save the lives of countless marine animals and fragile ecosystems impacted by the plastic debris. As well, it could reduce human health risks by eliminating common causes of toxicity in fish including DDT and PCBs.

Keep in touch with Jill on Twitter @jillettinger

Image: Tyler Ingram

The post Ocean Plastic Pollution Meets Its Match: A 19-Year-Old appeared first on EcoSalon.