Thank you for saying so. A little brutal honesty is a breath of fresh air during the greenwashing bonanza that Earth Day has become.
Synthetic fibers like polyester make up more than 90 percent of the microplastic polluting Arctic waters. And like Adidas points out, 👏 recycling 👏 doesn’t 👏 solve👏 the 👏 problem. But manufacturers can design clothes to last longer, shed less, and find more sustainable materials.
If it still works, keeping it for longer is better for the environment than buying a new one — even if the new controller is made with recycled plastic like this one. Microsoft released this Remix Special Edition Xbox controller ahead of Earth Day 2023, boasting that it’s made “partly” with reclaimed materials like old water jugs and parts from other controllers.
The key word is “partly.” Only one-third of the controller is made with recycled material. That’s because plastic quality deteriorates with each use, so it’s really difficult to make a device using entirely or even mostly recycled plastic. It has to be reinforced with virgin material, which just means more plastic manufacturing and waste in the end.
But Earth Day-adjacent climate pledges for individual products miss the big picture. A company might shrink the carbon footprint of a single device, for instance, but create more pollution overall by making more of those devices.
The most important thing a company can do to tackle climate change is to slash all of its emissions, from its supply chains to its products and operations.
Apple says it has “decreased its comprehensive carbon footprint by over 45 percent since 2015, even as the company’s revenue has grown by over 68 percent during that same period.” That’s the kind of progress to look out for to see if a company is serious about climate change.
And when is it time to let go? We ask folks living on South Carolina’s shifting Sea Islands in the last episode of Hell or High Water, a new podcast I host from Vox Media and Audible.
Hint: building a seawall could hurt more than it might help, which I learned when writing this story last year.
What’s it like to live next to a volcano? Hear what happened on Hawaii’s Big Island after Kīlauea erupted on Episode 5 of Hell or High Water, a new podcast I host from Vox Media and Audible. To read more, check out some of The Verge’s reporting on the eruption in 2018.
[Audible.com]
Carbon removal companies are vying for $3.5 billion in grants from the Biden administration. The plan is to build four “regional hubs” to filter CO2 out of the air, which is still a controversial tactic for coping with climate change.
Reuters has a first look at where these hubs might be located and who the biggest players are. Hint: oil and gas companies want a piece of the pie.
[ReutersGraphics]
And it even pops up at one of America’s most iconic beach getaways — as we find out in Episode 4 of Hell or High Water, a new podcast about disaster that I host for Vox Media and Audible. To learn more about why this is a problem across the US, I spoke with Catherine Flowers, author of Waste: One Woman’s Fight Against America’s Dirty Secret.
We found something nasty in the rising waters inundating Miami for Episode 4 of Hell or High Water, a new podcast I host about disaster from Vox Media and Audible. How did it get there? Dive in to find out.
[Audible.com]
