Earth Protect Blog

    Polystyrene products banned starting in ’24 By Alex Burness The Denver Post Gov. Jared Polis signed a new law Tuesday that’s meant to force Colorado businesses and consumers to reduce their use of single-use plastic and polystyrene products. “We know that plastic pollution affect...

Over the past few decades, it has become a well-known fact that the packaging industry has had a huge impact on the environment. With each passing year, tons of plastic waste from packaging containers and bags end up in landfills and the ocean, at increasingly alarming rates. Marine life is under t...

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg left office in 2013, but his plan to ban styrofoam is finally coming to fruition. Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration announced Thursday that stores, food service establishments and manufacturers won’t be able to possess, sell or offer single...

Paper or plastic? It used to be a simple – and free – choice. But if Gov. Jerry Brown signs the plastic bag bill, California grocers, pharmacies, liquor stores and convenience stores will no longer be able to provide single-use bags to customers at no charge. They will be required to offer pape...

According to a new study, 99% of plastic waste that enters the ocean cannot be located. While initially hearing that there's less plastic in the ocean than we believed sounds like great news, it's actually a frightening prospect. After all, if the plastic isn't in the ocean ... where is it going?! ...

California has become an interesting test-case for both approaches to one plastic problem.Back in 2006, California passed a law that mandated a system for recycling plastic shopping bags. Today, supermarkets and other large stores have receptacles where plastic bags can be returned for recycling. H...

When did everything become Plastic? When I was a kid, we collected shells on the beach, not plastic trash. There wasn't enough disposable plastic in those days for plastics to collect on the beaches. Plastic bags came into heavy use in American grocery stores when I was in high school in the late '...

Very exciting news for Los Angeles. The Los Angeles City Council voted on Tuesday, June 18 to approve a ban on single-use plastic shopping bags. The Council voted 11 to 1 in favor of the ordinance, and a final vote is scheduled for next week. Last year, the Council voted 13 to 1 to move f...

    Global plastic production has increased from 1.5 million tonnes per year in 1950, to 245 million tonnes in 2008, reveals MEP The European Commission recently presented a green paper on plastic waste. Plastic has become a symbol of our throw-away society. The use of plastic has sky...

When that plastic water bottle that you brought to basketball practice was empty, you probably recycled it. But lots of plastics don’t end up in the recycling bin. (Think deli containers and straws.) So where do they go? One place is the Pacific Ocean, in an area that has been called the Great Paci...

Plastic bags are perhaps the largest source of waste from our modern consumer culture. Stores give them out without question for all products big and small. Later, they can be found littered on the sides of roads and highways, hanging from tree branches, floating in rivers and clogging up our landfi...