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"bio": "\u003ca href=\"http://www.MarkFiore.com\">MarkFiore.com\u003c/a> | \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/markfiore\">Follow on Twitter\u003c/a> | \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mark-Fiore-Animated-Political-Cartoons/94451707396?ref=bookmarks\">Facebook\u003c/a> | \u003ca href=\"mailto:mark@markfiore.com\">email\u003c/a>\r\n\r\nPulitzer Prize-winner, Mark Fiore, who the Wall Street Journal has called “the undisputed guru of the form,” creates animated political cartoons in San Francisco, where his work has been featured regularly on the San Francisco Chronicle’s web site, SFGate.com. His work has appeared on Newsweek.com, Slate.com, CBSNews.com, MotherJones.com, DailyKos.com and NPR’s web site. Fiore’s political animation has appeared on CNN, Frontline, Bill Moyers Journal, Salon.com and cable and broadcast outlets across the globe.\r\n\r\nBeginning his professional life by drawing traditional political cartoons for newspapers, Fiore’s work appeared in publications ranging from the Washington Post to the Los Angeles Times. In the late 1990s, he began to experiment with animating political cartoons and, after a short stint at the San Jose Mercury News as their staff cartoonist, Fiore devoted all his energies to animation.\r\nGrowing up in California, Fiore also spent a good portion of his life in the backwoods of Idaho. It was this combination that shaped him politically. Mark majored in political science at Colorado College, where, in a perfect send-off for a cartoonist, he received his diploma in 1991 as commencement speaker Dick Cheney smiled approvingly.\r\nMark Fiore was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for political cartooning in 2010, a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award in 2004 and has twice received an Online Journalism Award for commentary from the Online News Association (2002, 2008). Fiore has received two awards for his work in new media from the National Cartoonists Society (2001, 2002), and in 2006 received The James Madison Freedom of Information Award from The Society of Professional Journalists.",
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"content": "\u003cp>It’s a disturbing thought: At this very moment, tiny crumbs of plastic are trickling through our bodies, a parade of unwelcome houseguests ready to take up residence in some tissue or organ.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A wave of new studies has come out recently, and each one seems to paint an ever more vivid picture of how microplastics — and their smaller counterparts, nanoplastics — have infiltrated the \u003ca href=\"https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11342020/\">deepest corners\u003c/a> of our anatomy. The \u003ca href=\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35364151/\">lungs\u003c/a>, liver and \u003ca href=\"https://pubs.acs.org/doi/epdf/10.1021/acs.est.2c07179\">heart\u003c/a>, guts and \u003ca href=\"https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11406405/\">brain\u003c/a>, even the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/05/22/1252831827/microplastics-testicles-humans-health\">testicles\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://hsc.unm.edu/news/2024/02/hsc-newsroom-post-microplastics.html\">placenta\u003c/a> — nothing seems to be spared.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The outpouring of research has brought enormous visibility to how these fragments permeate our daily lives. Long studied in oceans, waterways and marine life, researchers have now shifted focus to human health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A decade ago, \u003ca href=\"https://momentummicroplastics.nl/about-us/participants/heather-leslie/\">Heather Leslie\u003c/a> could scarcely find anyone to fund her work in this area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It seemed like nobody wanted to touch it,” says Leslie, a microplastics researcher in the Netherlands whose team was the \u003ca href=\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35367073/\">first to detect these particles\u003c/a> in the human bloodstream several years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the work has gained momentum, so have questions about the damage microplastics could be doing inside of us. Researchers tend to be wary about making pronouncements because the field is still in a “pioneering phase,” as Leslie put it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And yet there are \u003ca href=\"https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adl2746\">undoubtedly concerns\u003c/a>. Some of the strongest evidence comes from lab studies using animals as well as what’s already known about the damaging effects of chemicals added to plastics. A review of the \u003ca href=\"https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.3c09524\">data published\u003c/a> Wednesday concludes that microplastics are “suspected” to harm human reproductive, digestive and respiratory health, with a possible link to colon and lung cancer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a signal that we should be acting now,” says \u003ca href=\"https://profiles.ucsf.edu/tracey.woodruff\">Tracey Woodruff\u003c/a>, a senior author on the study who directs the Program on Reproductive Health & the Environment at the University of California, San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://agsci.oregonstate.edu/users/susanne-brander\">Susanne Brander\u003c/a>, an ecotoxicologist at Oregon State University, says it’s not helpful to “elicit a gigantic state of alarm,” but she agrees that we already know enough about the health risks to push for substantive changes, including \u003ca href=\"https://environment.ec.europa.eu/news/eu-regrets-inconclusive-global-plastics-treaty-2024-12-02_en#:~:text=EU%20regrets%20lack%20of%20conclusion,failed%20to%20reach%20an%20agreement.&text=The%20EU%20regrets%20that%20the,yesterday%20in%20Busan%2C%20South%20Korea.\">a global agreement\u003c/a> to curb the rising production of plastics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As they push to solve the puzzle of microplastics, here are six questions scientists are trying to answer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12019242\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12019242\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn_4-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1067\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn_4-copy.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn_4-copy-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn_4-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn_4-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn_4-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Scraps of plastic trash have inundated the oceans and waterways. \u003ccite>(Olivier Morin/AFP/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>1. Which microplastics are actually in our bodies?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Our soil, drinking water and food supply, the air we breathe, all carry microplastics, \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/water-research/microplastics-research\">defined as\u003c/a> any plastic particle as small as 1 nanometer and as large as 5 millimeters. Some have built up in the environment over many years, while others arrive daily, as they shed from tires, our clothing, food packaging, personal care products and more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Plastics are probably one of the largest exposures we experience as humans and it’s been ongoing most of our lives and our parents’ lives,” says \u003ca href=\"https://sph.emory.edu/faculty/profile/index.php?FID=douglas-walker-12628\">Douglas Walker\u003c/a>, a professor of environmental health at Emory University, Rollins School of Public Health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These particles are endlessly varied, making them challenging to study. Their size and shape, the type of polymer and the chemical makeup can all have consequences for how they accumulate in our bodies and the potential health effects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even one microplastic represents an “analytical nightmare,” says Leslie. “So it’s really hard to make statements over such a broad range of contaminants.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Walker says scientists are still sorting out how to accurately measure microplastics in humans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The particles that tend to be studied in lab experiments often don’t reflect the weathered debris that ends up inside us; labs use a variety of approaches, making it hard to tie together the findings from different studies; and despite advances in technology, detecting the tiniest pieces remains technically difficult.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would imagine we’re underestimating nanoplastics across the board, including in human tissues,” says Brander.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://hsc.unm.edu/directory/campen-matthew-j.html\">Matthew Campen\u003c/a>, whose team has found plastic in a variety of organs, says these can resemble “shard-like, stabby things,” which, in some cases, \u003ca href=\"https://www.ciel.org/breathing-plastic-the-health-impacts-of-invisible-plastics-in-the-air/\">are smaller than a virus\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You realize, wait a minute, you could fit a lot of these inside even a single cell,” says Campen, who researches environmental health and toxicology at the University of New Mexico.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists can isolate microplastics, pull them out of human tissue and take pictures, but seeing where they are inside the body remains a real “struggle,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite all the caveats, Campen says the new studies showing microplastics in tissue should be viewed as “linchpins” that will push the field forward. “We need an all-hands-on-deck approach,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>2. Once inside of us, do they ever leave?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Imagine being transported to a plastic-free paradise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How long do you suppose it would take for all those tiny shards to exit your system? Would they ever?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This thought experiment can’t be replicated in the real world, since plastic pollution is so ubiquitous.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In essence, Leslie says all of us are being “microdosed” with microplastics around the clock, so there’s no way to systematically track how much is coming and going. Even if our bodies are doing an admirable job at clearing out this debris, the constant exposure could make it look like a losing battle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Research finds microplastics in our stool and urine. And \u003ca href=\"https://scholar.google.pt/citations?user=tSX0Bi8AAAAJ&hl=en\">Joana Prata\u003c/a> says her review of animal data suggests that, in principle, most of what we ingest or inhale will leave the body during a trip to the bathroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Only a small portion gets absorbed,” says Prata, an auxiliary professor at the University Institute of Health Sciences — CESPU in Portugal. “There’s still a lot of uncertainty,” because the evidence doesn’t necessarily reflect the complexities of real-world microplastics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Campen says you don’t see a correlation between age and the concentration of microplastics in human tissue. In other words, it doesn’t appear to endlessly accumulate inside us. It’s possible that our bodies may reach some sort of “equilibrium” based on how much is around us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t have enough data,” he says, “but [our work] suggests there’s a very rapid time to saturation — you do hit a limit and eventually you’re clearing it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048969723034630?via%3Dihub\">study of Zebrafish\u003c/a> (sometimes used in biomedical research) found the uptake of microplastics did plateau at a certain point and levels decreased when the animals weren’t being exposed. The problem is the saturation point went up proportionally to how much the animals were exposed to, says Campen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s basically where we are right now,” says Campen. “Our environmental exposure keeps going up because we’re doing nothing to stop it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12019245\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12019245\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn_3-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1058\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn_3-copy.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn_3-copy-800x529.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn_3-copy-1020x674.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn_3-copy-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn_3-copy-1536x1016.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Examples of plastic trash found on the shore of the Thames Estuary in 2018 in Rainham, Kent. Once in the environment, plastic gradually degrades into smaller and smaller microplastics, which can find their way into the food chain and the air we breathe. \u003ccite>(Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>3. What do microplastics do once they get inside our bodies?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Instead of passing through us, some particles move across the thin membrane lining our gut and eventually find their way into the bloodstream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Size makes a big difference here, Prata says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The larger particle will be less likely to cross the biological barrier, but we cannot say that it will never cross,” she says. “You can just say it’s less probable. ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brander says there’s still debate about the exact size cutoff, in part because that can also depend on the shape of the particle. For example, a long skinny microfiber might be able to sneak through the barrier in our gut more easily than other pieces.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Airborne plastics — particularly common indoors — can also be inhaled. Larger particles are expected to be filtered out to some extent, perhaps snagged in our nose or coughed up. Only the most “ultrafine” pieces will reach the deepest parts of the lungs where they can enter the circulatory system, says Leslie.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once absorbed into our bloodstream, microplastics and nanoplastics tend to be quickly coated in proteins and fats, creating a corona, or crown-like appearance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And then it’s essentially going on a trip around your body,” Leslie says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their exact itinerary remains unclear. But Brander says research on animals has long shown that microplastics can move all over. The same is probably true for humans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These foreign travelers seem to find a home in many organs, as well as bodily fluids like \u003ca href=\"https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4360/14/13/2700\">breast milk\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38802004/\">semen\u003c/a>. They can \u003ca href=\"https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10141840/\">even cross\u003c/a> the blood-brain barrier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s very unlikely that they’re actually metabolized into anything because these are solid particles,” says Walker. “So they would be difficult to break down.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our immune system \u003ca href=\"https://vimeo.com/490794220\">can’t dispatch\u003c/a> these bits of plastic as it would other foreign invaders like bacteria. Immune cells, known as macrophages, will release enzymes that do their best to attack these particles, but the “plastic doesn’t mind at all,” says Leslie. “It remains intact and becomes like a stubborn opponent for your immune system.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whether microplastics pile up in certain organs more than others remains a big unknown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Campen and his team suspect the liver is on the “frontline,” doing its best to deal with this debris and push it back into the gut with digestive fluids. Their hypothesis is that smaller plastics like nanoplastics slip through the cracks and are repackaged with fats and circulated throughout the body.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This \u003cem>could\u003c/em> mean that microplastics build up in organs with greater energy needs, such as the brain, where Campen’s \u003ca href=\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38765967/\">lab has documented\u003c/a> higher concentrations than in other organs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12019246\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12019246\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn_2-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1067\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn_2-copy.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn_2-copy-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn_2-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn_2-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn_2-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Plastic trash gradually degrades into tiny particles that spread around the environment and ultimately into human bodies. \u003ccite>(Alistair Berg/Digital Vision/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>4. Are they harming us?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Scientists don’t have definitive answers yet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Humans encounter many pollutants over our lifetime. And given that researchers are still sorting out the best models for analyzing microplastics, many are cautious not to get ahead of the data.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, several recent studies have raised troubling warning signs. They’ve shown associations — not a direct causal link — between the accumulation of microplastics and health problems in humans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One that gained attention \u003ca href=\"https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2309822\">earlier this year came\u003c/a> from Italian researchers who found that people with microplastics in the plaques in their arteries were more likely to have a heart attack, stroke or to die. Some small studies have found higher levels in people with \u003ca href=\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34935363/\">inflammatory bowel disease\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35835713/\">liver disease\u003c/a>. The review published this week from UCSF also included observational research linking microplastics to reproductive health and chronic sinusitis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the concern comes from lab studies involving animals or cell lines — scientists observed toxic effects of microplastics on the cellular and molecular levels. The “next puzzle piece” is now to figure out how this research translates to health outcomes for an individual or a whole population, says Leslie.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brander points to evidence that microplastics \u003ca href=\"https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11117644/\">lead to oxidative stress,\u003c/a> which can damage proteins and genetic materials, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405665024000702\">spark inflammation\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If that’s happening in fish and in rodents in experiments that are being peer-reviewed and published, it’s probably happening in us too,” says Brander. “We just haven’t demonstrated it yet.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This body of research suggests fertility problems, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0304389424006332\">neurological diseases\u003c/a>, harms to metabolism and the immune system, and changes that signal increased risk of cancer, among other effects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These are potential effects because of the mechanisms we know about,” says Prata.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can only extrapolate so much from these studies. For example, the doses given to animals in a lab may be much larger than what humans are ingesting and may not reflect the “wild” microplastics we encounter in our daily lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the absence of clear data, Leslie says it can be tempting to make microplastics the “culprit for every disease.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’d like to get to the truth of the matter,” she says. “I have the feeling that sometimes we might be blaming plastics for things that they shouldn’t be blamed for.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the UCSF analysis, the suggested link with cancer was mostly based on animal research, but Woodruff says this is “standard” for identifying cancer risks and can still be considered high-quality evidence. “In the field of environmental health, when we have concerning signals, we should be concerned.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12019247\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12019247\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn-1-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1067\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn-1-copy.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn-1-copy-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn-1-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn-1-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn-1-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Plastics and micro plastics of different shapes and colors are laid on the fine sand of the Grand Crohot beach in Lege-Cap-Ferret in New Aquitaine in France on April 29, 2019. \u003ccite>(Vincent Feuray/Hans Lucas/Hans Lucas via AFP)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>5. What about the chemicals in plastics — are they hazardous?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Chemicals added to plastics represent another threat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of these can mess with hormones, affect reproductive health, increase the \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/pfas/our-current-understanding-human-health-and-environmental-risks-pfas\">risk of some cancers\u003c/a> and cause \u003ca href=\"https://environment.ec.europa.eu/news/exposure-chemicals-plastic-and-other-sources-possible-causal-factor-obesity-2022-11-30_en\">metabolic problems\u003c/a> like obesity, among other things.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Phthalates and bisphenol A, or BPA, are two of the most well-studied examples.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals,” are \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/04/10/1243775736/epa-pfas-forever-chemicals-drinking-water-limits\">also gaining attention\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in reality, Brander says there are more than 16,000 \u003ca href=\"https://ikhapp.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/SCEPT_Policy_Brief_chemicals_polymers_of_concern_en.pdf\">chemicals used or found in plastics\u003c/a>, about a quarter of which are known to be “hazardous” and many of the others are not well studied.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s s\u003cem>ubstantial\u003c/em> evidence that many of these chemicals cause disease,” says Brander.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists worry microplastics could potentially act as “as long-term sources of plastic-related chemicals in your body,” says Walker.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the uncertainties, Brander believes there’s enough evidence to take collective action to limit our exposure to microplastics, both in our lives and on a policy level.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12019248\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12019248\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1067\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn-copy.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Scientists say we can reduce our exposure to microplastics to some extent by avoiding single-use plastic and plastic food packaging, among other measures. \u003ccite>(Peter Dazeley/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>6. How can we reduce our exposure to microplastics?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Scientists are still investigating the biggest sources of microplastics in our daily lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ideally, the task of reducing your exposure shouldn’t fall entirely on the individual. But the fact is policy changes — such as a \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/12/03/nx-s1-5214556/more-than-150-countries-failed-to-agree-on-a-plan-to-cut-plastic-pollution\">global plastics treaty\u003c/a> — aren’t going to happen overnight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So here’s how you can get started in reducing your own exposure: Eliminate single-use plastic as much as you can, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2024/12/01/single-use-plastics-reuse-risk/\">don’t reuse these items\u003c/a>. Cut back on foods that come in plastic packaging or cans that have plastic linings. \u003ca href=\"https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11356-023-25433-7\">Aim for shorter\u003c/a> dishwasher cycles, with fewer plastic items.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Never cook your food in plastic,” says Brander. “The heat will drive those particles and more of those chemicals into your food.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sadly, this applies to your to-go cup of coffee, which is often lined with polyethylene. When possible, buy cleaning products, both for your household and hygiene, that don’t come in plastic containers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Consider investing in a \u003ca href=\"https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10054062/\">filter for tap water\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our clothing can also shed a lot of microplastics, which is why Leslie tries to wear fabrics like wool and linen. When you have a choice, avoid synthetic materials in your rugs and furniture, too. Dust can carry microplastics, which you may breathe in. \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S026974912201171X?via%3Dihub\">Research suggests\u003c/a> vacuuming can help limit what’s in your house.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The concentration of these particles \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41370-023-00634-x\">indoors is greater\u003c/a> than outdoors, so try to keep windows open and improve ventilation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leslie’s philosophy? There’s only so much you can control, so “don’t feel guilty” about using plastics — just try to limit your use when possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can just experiment with saying no to what you don’t want,” she says. “The resistance to plastic pollution is in our noncompliance. I’m going to keep on doing just that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Plastic particles are found in our organs, blood and even semen. But do they stay in us forever? What damage are they doing? Here are the questions scientists are working to answer.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>It’s a disturbing thought: At this very moment, tiny crumbs of plastic are trickling through our bodies, a parade of unwelcome houseguests ready to take up residence in some tissue or organ.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A wave of new studies has come out recently, and each one seems to paint an ever more vivid picture of how microplastics — and their smaller counterparts, nanoplastics — have infiltrated the \u003ca href=\"https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11342020/\">deepest corners\u003c/a> of our anatomy. The \u003ca href=\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35364151/\">lungs\u003c/a>, liver and \u003ca href=\"https://pubs.acs.org/doi/epdf/10.1021/acs.est.2c07179\">heart\u003c/a>, guts and \u003ca href=\"https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11406405/\">brain\u003c/a>, even the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/05/22/1252831827/microplastics-testicles-humans-health\">testicles\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://hsc.unm.edu/news/2024/02/hsc-newsroom-post-microplastics.html\">placenta\u003c/a> — nothing seems to be spared.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The outpouring of research has brought enormous visibility to how these fragments permeate our daily lives. Long studied in oceans, waterways and marine life, researchers have now shifted focus to human health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A decade ago, \u003ca href=\"https://momentummicroplastics.nl/about-us/participants/heather-leslie/\">Heather Leslie\u003c/a> could scarcely find anyone to fund her work in this area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It seemed like nobody wanted to touch it,” says Leslie, a microplastics researcher in the Netherlands whose team was the \u003ca href=\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35367073/\">first to detect these particles\u003c/a> in the human bloodstream several years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the work has gained momentum, so have questions about the damage microplastics could be doing inside of us. Researchers tend to be wary about making pronouncements because the field is still in a “pioneering phase,” as Leslie put it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And yet there are \u003ca href=\"https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adl2746\">undoubtedly concerns\u003c/a>. Some of the strongest evidence comes from lab studies using animals as well as what’s already known about the damaging effects of chemicals added to plastics. A review of the \u003ca href=\"https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.3c09524\">data published\u003c/a> Wednesday concludes that microplastics are “suspected” to harm human reproductive, digestive and respiratory health, with a possible link to colon and lung cancer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a signal that we should be acting now,” says \u003ca href=\"https://profiles.ucsf.edu/tracey.woodruff\">Tracey Woodruff\u003c/a>, a senior author on the study who directs the Program on Reproductive Health & the Environment at the University of California, San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://agsci.oregonstate.edu/users/susanne-brander\">Susanne Brander\u003c/a>, an ecotoxicologist at Oregon State University, says it’s not helpful to “elicit a gigantic state of alarm,” but she agrees that we already know enough about the health risks to push for substantive changes, including \u003ca href=\"https://environment.ec.europa.eu/news/eu-regrets-inconclusive-global-plastics-treaty-2024-12-02_en#:~:text=EU%20regrets%20lack%20of%20conclusion,failed%20to%20reach%20an%20agreement.&text=The%20EU%20regrets%20that%20the,yesterday%20in%20Busan%2C%20South%20Korea.\">a global agreement\u003c/a> to curb the rising production of plastics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As they push to solve the puzzle of microplastics, here are six questions scientists are trying to answer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12019242\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12019242\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn_4-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1067\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn_4-copy.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn_4-copy-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn_4-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn_4-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn_4-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Scraps of plastic trash have inundated the oceans and waterways. \u003ccite>(Olivier Morin/AFP/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>1. Which microplastics are actually in our bodies?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Our soil, drinking water and food supply, the air we breathe, all carry microplastics, \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/water-research/microplastics-research\">defined as\u003c/a> any plastic particle as small as 1 nanometer and as large as 5 millimeters. Some have built up in the environment over many years, while others arrive daily, as they shed from tires, our clothing, food packaging, personal care products and more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Plastics are probably one of the largest exposures we experience as humans and it’s been ongoing most of our lives and our parents’ lives,” says \u003ca href=\"https://sph.emory.edu/faculty/profile/index.php?FID=douglas-walker-12628\">Douglas Walker\u003c/a>, a professor of environmental health at Emory University, Rollins School of Public Health.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These particles are endlessly varied, making them challenging to study. Their size and shape, the type of polymer and the chemical makeup can all have consequences for how they accumulate in our bodies and the potential health effects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even one microplastic represents an “analytical nightmare,” says Leslie. “So it’s really hard to make statements over such a broad range of contaminants.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Walker says scientists are still sorting out how to accurately measure microplastics in humans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The particles that tend to be studied in lab experiments often don’t reflect the weathered debris that ends up inside us; labs use a variety of approaches, making it hard to tie together the findings from different studies; and despite advances in technology, detecting the tiniest pieces remains technically difficult.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would imagine we’re underestimating nanoplastics across the board, including in human tissues,” says Brander.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://hsc.unm.edu/directory/campen-matthew-j.html\">Matthew Campen\u003c/a>, whose team has found plastic in a variety of organs, says these can resemble “shard-like, stabby things,” which, in some cases, \u003ca href=\"https://www.ciel.org/breathing-plastic-the-health-impacts-of-invisible-plastics-in-the-air/\">are smaller than a virus\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You realize, wait a minute, you could fit a lot of these inside even a single cell,” says Campen, who researches environmental health and toxicology at the University of New Mexico.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists can isolate microplastics, pull them out of human tissue and take pictures, but seeing where they are inside the body remains a real “struggle,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite all the caveats, Campen says the new studies showing microplastics in tissue should be viewed as “linchpins” that will push the field forward. “We need an all-hands-on-deck approach,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>2. Once inside of us, do they ever leave?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Imagine being transported to a plastic-free paradise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How long do you suppose it would take for all those tiny shards to exit your system? Would they ever?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This thought experiment can’t be replicated in the real world, since plastic pollution is so ubiquitous.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In essence, Leslie says all of us are being “microdosed” with microplastics around the clock, so there’s no way to systematically track how much is coming and going. Even if our bodies are doing an admirable job at clearing out this debris, the constant exposure could make it look like a losing battle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Research finds microplastics in our stool and urine. And \u003ca href=\"https://scholar.google.pt/citations?user=tSX0Bi8AAAAJ&hl=en\">Joana Prata\u003c/a> says her review of animal data suggests that, in principle, most of what we ingest or inhale will leave the body during a trip to the bathroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Only a small portion gets absorbed,” says Prata, an auxiliary professor at the University Institute of Health Sciences — CESPU in Portugal. “There’s still a lot of uncertainty,” because the evidence doesn’t necessarily reflect the complexities of real-world microplastics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Campen says you don’t see a correlation between age and the concentration of microplastics in human tissue. In other words, it doesn’t appear to endlessly accumulate inside us. It’s possible that our bodies may reach some sort of “equilibrium” based on how much is around us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t have enough data,” he says, “but [our work] suggests there’s a very rapid time to saturation — you do hit a limit and eventually you’re clearing it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048969723034630?via%3Dihub\">study of Zebrafish\u003c/a> (sometimes used in biomedical research) found the uptake of microplastics did plateau at a certain point and levels decreased when the animals weren’t being exposed. The problem is the saturation point went up proportionally to how much the animals were exposed to, says Campen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s basically where we are right now,” says Campen. “Our environmental exposure keeps going up because we’re doing nothing to stop it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12019245\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12019245\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn_3-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1058\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn_3-copy.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn_3-copy-800x529.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn_3-copy-1020x674.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn_3-copy-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn_3-copy-1536x1016.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Examples of plastic trash found on the shore of the Thames Estuary in 2018 in Rainham, Kent. Once in the environment, plastic gradually degrades into smaller and smaller microplastics, which can find their way into the food chain and the air we breathe. \u003ccite>(Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>3. What do microplastics do once they get inside our bodies?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Instead of passing through us, some particles move across the thin membrane lining our gut and eventually find their way into the bloodstream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Size makes a big difference here, Prata says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The larger particle will be less likely to cross the biological barrier, but we cannot say that it will never cross,” she says. “You can just say it’s less probable. ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brander says there’s still debate about the exact size cutoff, in part because that can also depend on the shape of the particle. For example, a long skinny microfiber might be able to sneak through the barrier in our gut more easily than other pieces.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Airborne plastics — particularly common indoors — can also be inhaled. Larger particles are expected to be filtered out to some extent, perhaps snagged in our nose or coughed up. Only the most “ultrafine” pieces will reach the deepest parts of the lungs where they can enter the circulatory system, says Leslie.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once absorbed into our bloodstream, microplastics and nanoplastics tend to be quickly coated in proteins and fats, creating a corona, or crown-like appearance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And then it’s essentially going on a trip around your body,” Leslie says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their exact itinerary remains unclear. But Brander says research on animals has long shown that microplastics can move all over. The same is probably true for humans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These foreign travelers seem to find a home in many organs, as well as bodily fluids like \u003ca href=\"https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4360/14/13/2700\">breast milk\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38802004/\">semen\u003c/a>. They can \u003ca href=\"https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10141840/\">even cross\u003c/a> the blood-brain barrier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s very unlikely that they’re actually metabolized into anything because these are solid particles,” says Walker. “So they would be difficult to break down.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our immune system \u003ca href=\"https://vimeo.com/490794220\">can’t dispatch\u003c/a> these bits of plastic as it would other foreign invaders like bacteria. Immune cells, known as macrophages, will release enzymes that do their best to attack these particles, but the “plastic doesn’t mind at all,” says Leslie. “It remains intact and becomes like a stubborn opponent for your immune system.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whether microplastics pile up in certain organs more than others remains a big unknown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Campen and his team suspect the liver is on the “frontline,” doing its best to deal with this debris and push it back into the gut with digestive fluids. Their hypothesis is that smaller plastics like nanoplastics slip through the cracks and are repackaged with fats and circulated throughout the body.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This \u003cem>could\u003c/em> mean that microplastics build up in organs with greater energy needs, such as the brain, where Campen’s \u003ca href=\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38765967/\">lab has documented\u003c/a> higher concentrations than in other organs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12019246\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12019246\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn_2-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1067\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn_2-copy.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn_2-copy-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn_2-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn_2-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn_2-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Plastic trash gradually degrades into tiny particles that spread around the environment and ultimately into human bodies. \u003ccite>(Alistair Berg/Digital Vision/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>4. Are they harming us?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Scientists don’t have definitive answers yet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Humans encounter many pollutants over our lifetime. And given that researchers are still sorting out the best models for analyzing microplastics, many are cautious not to get ahead of the data.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, several recent studies have raised troubling warning signs. They’ve shown associations — not a direct causal link — between the accumulation of microplastics and health problems in humans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One that gained attention \u003ca href=\"https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2309822\">earlier this year came\u003c/a> from Italian researchers who found that people with microplastics in the plaques in their arteries were more likely to have a heart attack, stroke or to die. Some small studies have found higher levels in people with \u003ca href=\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34935363/\">inflammatory bowel disease\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35835713/\">liver disease\u003c/a>. The review published this week from UCSF also included observational research linking microplastics to reproductive health and chronic sinusitis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the concern comes from lab studies involving animals or cell lines — scientists observed toxic effects of microplastics on the cellular and molecular levels. The “next puzzle piece” is now to figure out how this research translates to health outcomes for an individual or a whole population, says Leslie.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brander points to evidence that microplastics \u003ca href=\"https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11117644/\">lead to oxidative stress,\u003c/a> which can damage proteins and genetic materials, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405665024000702\">spark inflammation\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If that’s happening in fish and in rodents in experiments that are being peer-reviewed and published, it’s probably happening in us too,” says Brander. “We just haven’t demonstrated it yet.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This body of research suggests fertility problems, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0304389424006332\">neurological diseases\u003c/a>, harms to metabolism and the immune system, and changes that signal increased risk of cancer, among other effects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These are potential effects because of the mechanisms we know about,” says Prata.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can only extrapolate so much from these studies. For example, the doses given to animals in a lab may be much larger than what humans are ingesting and may not reflect the “wild” microplastics we encounter in our daily lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the absence of clear data, Leslie says it can be tempting to make microplastics the “culprit for every disease.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’d like to get to the truth of the matter,” she says. “I have the feeling that sometimes we might be blaming plastics for things that they shouldn’t be blamed for.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the UCSF analysis, the suggested link with cancer was mostly based on animal research, but Woodruff says this is “standard” for identifying cancer risks and can still be considered high-quality evidence. “In the field of environmental health, when we have concerning signals, we should be concerned.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12019247\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12019247\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn-1-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1067\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn-1-copy.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn-1-copy-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn-1-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn-1-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn-1-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Plastics and micro plastics of different shapes and colors are laid on the fine sand of the Grand Crohot beach in Lege-Cap-Ferret in New Aquitaine in France on April 29, 2019. \u003ccite>(Vincent Feuray/Hans Lucas/Hans Lucas via AFP)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>5. What about the chemicals in plastics — are they hazardous?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Chemicals added to plastics represent another threat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of these can mess with hormones, affect reproductive health, increase the \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/pfas/our-current-understanding-human-health-and-environmental-risks-pfas\">risk of some cancers\u003c/a> and cause \u003ca href=\"https://environment.ec.europa.eu/news/exposure-chemicals-plastic-and-other-sources-possible-causal-factor-obesity-2022-11-30_en\">metabolic problems\u003c/a> like obesity, among other things.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Phthalates and bisphenol A, or BPA, are two of the most well-studied examples.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals,” are \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/04/10/1243775736/epa-pfas-forever-chemicals-drinking-water-limits\">also gaining attention\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in reality, Brander says there are more than 16,000 \u003ca href=\"https://ikhapp.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/SCEPT_Policy_Brief_chemicals_polymers_of_concern_en.pdf\">chemicals used or found in plastics\u003c/a>, about a quarter of which are known to be “hazardous” and many of the others are not well studied.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s s\u003cem>ubstantial\u003c/em> evidence that many of these chemicals cause disease,” says Brander.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists worry microplastics could potentially act as “as long-term sources of plastic-related chemicals in your body,” says Walker.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the uncertainties, Brander believes there’s enough evidence to take collective action to limit our exposure to microplastics, both in our lives and on a policy level.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12019248\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12019248\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1067\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn-copy.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/12/npr.brightspotcdn-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Scientists say we can reduce our exposure to microplastics to some extent by avoiding single-use plastic and plastic food packaging, among other measures. \u003ccite>(Peter Dazeley/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>6. How can we reduce our exposure to microplastics?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Scientists are still investigating the biggest sources of microplastics in our daily lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ideally, the task of reducing your exposure shouldn’t fall entirely on the individual. But the fact is policy changes — such as a \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/12/03/nx-s1-5214556/more-than-150-countries-failed-to-agree-on-a-plan-to-cut-plastic-pollution\">global plastics treaty\u003c/a> — aren’t going to happen overnight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So here’s how you can get started in reducing your own exposure: Eliminate single-use plastic as much as you can, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2024/12/01/single-use-plastics-reuse-risk/\">don’t reuse these items\u003c/a>. Cut back on foods that come in plastic packaging or cans that have plastic linings. \u003ca href=\"https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11356-023-25433-7\">Aim for shorter\u003c/a> dishwasher cycles, with fewer plastic items.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Never cook your food in plastic,” says Brander. “The heat will drive those particles and more of those chemicals into your food.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sadly, this applies to your to-go cup of coffee, which is often lined with polyethylene. When possible, buy cleaning products, both for your household and hygiene, that don’t come in plastic containers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Consider investing in a \u003ca href=\"https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10054062/\">filter for tap water\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our clothing can also shed a lot of microplastics, which is why Leslie tries to wear fabrics like wool and linen. When you have a choice, avoid synthetic materials in your rugs and furniture, too. Dust can carry microplastics, which you may breathe in. \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S026974912201171X?via%3Dihub\">Research suggests\u003c/a> vacuuming can help limit what’s in your house.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The concentration of these particles \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41370-023-00634-x\">indoors is greater\u003c/a> than outdoors, so try to keep windows open and improve ventilation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Leslie’s philosophy? There’s only so much you can control, so “don’t feel guilty” about using plastics — just try to limit your use when possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can just experiment with saying no to what you don’t want,” she says. “The resistance to plastic pollution is in our noncompliance. I’m going to keep on doing just that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "you-cant-recycle-your-way-out-californias-plastic-problem-and-what-to-do-about-it",
"title": "'You Can't Recycle Your Way Out': California's Plastic Problem and What We Can Do About It",
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"headTitle": "‘You Can’t Recycle Your Way Out’: California’s Plastic Problem and What We Can Do About It | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated Nov. 2, 2022: This story was originally published Jan. 24, 2022. Since then, \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB54\">a version of Senate Bill 54\u003c/a>, covered in this article, was signed into law in June. The new law requires most single-use plastic packaging and foodware be reusable, compostable, refillable or recyclable by 2032 — with definitions for what is “recyclable” to be set by state agency CalRecycle. Plastic producers will also be required to pay into a plastic pollution mitigation fund. Because of the passage of SB 54, proponents of a voter initiative addressing very similar goals removed their measure from the November 2022 ballot.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Original Article:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California dumps more than 12,000 tons of plastic into landfills every day — enough to fill 219 Olympic-size swimming pools, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www2.calrecycle.ca.gov/Publications/Details/1666\">CalRecycle\u003c/a>, the state’s recycling and waste management agency. The state boasts one of the highest recycling rates in the country, especially of cans and bottles, but despite decades of investment in infrastructure and machinery, the system remains overwhelmed by plastic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A trip to a recycling processing center helps explain why.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inside one of Republic Services’ massive facilities in Milpitas, an impressive array of high-tech machines sort through tons of material from residents’ recycling bins, separating metal from plastic from paper. Some of the machines use magnets, eddy currents or puffs of air blown through hundreds of nozzles to sort the materials; others identify different kinds of plastic with optical scanners. Whizzing conveyor belts ferry it all from one machine to the next, until the recyclables are sorted, baled, and eventually shipped and sold.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Not all plastic is created equal\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>One of plastic recycling’s success stories is HDPE, or high-density polyethylene, the translucent plastic commonly used in milk jugs, shampoo bottles and cutting boards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In today’s marketplace, this is the most valuable commodity that we produce at this location,” said Pete Keller, the company’s vice president of sustainability. “These materials are non-pigmented, so any downstream consumer of this material could turn it into any color they want to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>HDPE is currently fetching a price of $1 per pound, or over $2,000 per ton, according to Keller. “I wish we had more of it,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That price is partially driven by demand resulting from so-called sustainability commitments major manufacturers have made to use recycled plastic. Naked Juice, for instance, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nakedjuice.com/goodness-outside/\">makes its juice bottles\u003c/a> from 100% post-consumer recycled plastic, while Danone has \u003ca href=\"https://www.danone.com/impact/planet/packaging-positive-circular-economy.html\">pledged\u003c/a> to make all of its evian water bottles from 100% recycled plastic by 2025.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://youtu.be/-bTCCB6wbks\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a push to boost demand for plastic that is recycled, like HDPE, California lawmakers in 2020 passed a “minimum recycled content” bill. \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB793\">Assembly Bill 793\u003c/a>, which went into effect on Jan. 1, mandates that most plastic beverage bottles contain a minimum amount of recycled content. Specifically, all plastic bottles that can be redeemed for $0.05 or $0.10 must contain no less than:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>15% recycled plastic starting Jan. 1, 2022\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>25% recycled plastic starting Jan. 1, 2025\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>50% recycled plastic starting Jan. 1, 2030\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>The law, one of the first of its kind in the nation, is targeted at bottle manufacturers, most of whom still use new plastic — or “virgin resin” — which is typically cheaper than recycled plastic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11901454\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11901454 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS52999_IMG_5331_v2-qut-800x450.jpeg\" alt=\"Workers in green safety jackets and helmets sort trash along a conveyor belt. \" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS52999_IMG_5331_v2-qut-800x450.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS52999_IMG_5331_v2-qut-1020x574.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS52999_IMG_5331_v2-qut-160x90.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS52999_IMG_5331_v2-qut-1536x864.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS52999_IMG_5331_v2-qut.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Workers at Recology’s San Francisco recycling facility pick out plastic that can’t be recycled, including plastic bags, on July 16, 2021. \u003ccite>(Monica Lam/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In addition to HDPE, PET plastic, or polyethylene terephthalate, can be recycled into clamshells — the clear boxes that strawberries are often packed in — or spun into polyester for clothing. Some denser plastics can also be recycled into pipes, plastic lumber, carpets or buckets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But current recycling markets only accept a fraction of the plastic that’s marked with the three-arrow recycling symbol. Until a few years ago, this problem was largely concealed because the U.S. shipped most of its plastic waste to China, where it was ostensibly being recycled. But in 2018, citing its own environmental concerns, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-20741-9#:~:text=In%202017%2C%20China%20announced%20an,are%20enormous%20but%20yet%20unexamined\">China began banning imports of most solid materials\u003c/a>, including most plastics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s forcing domestic recyclers to confront the real challenges of recycling plastic. For one, plastic comes in a myriad of chemical formulations, densities, transparencies and colors. Many products are made of mixed materials: a bottle of hand soap, for example, might contain four different kinds of plastic, plus a metal spring nestled inside the pump.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even if there were markets for all these different kinds of plastic, sorting and separating them would be a gargantuan task.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s just so many types of plastic. We can’t recycle them all. We can’t manage them all,” said Robert Reed, public relations manager for Recology, which handles San Francisco’s waste and recycling. “You can’t recycle your way out of the larger plastic problem.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So most plastic — in fact, almost all of it — ends up in landfills: plastic forks and knives, coffee cups and takeout boxes, used cosmetics, styrofoam trays, and most kinds of plastic bags, from shopping bags to those used for frozen peas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11901455\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11901455 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53000_IMG_5387_edit_v3-qut-800x532.jpeg\" alt=\"Three men talk underneath an open-air canopy in a parking lot. \" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53000_IMG_5387_edit_v3-qut-800x532.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53000_IMG_5387_edit_v3-qut-1020x678.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53000_IMG_5387_edit_v3-qut-160x106.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53000_IMG_5387_edit_v3-qut-1536x1021.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53000_IMG_5387_edit_v3-qut.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">State Assemblymember Phil Ting visits a prototype for a mobile recycling program that aims to bring recycling collection trucks to various San Francisco neighborhoods, on July 16, 2021. \u003ccite>(Monica Lam/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Legislative efforts bogged down\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>San Francisco Democratic Assemblymember Phil Ting, who introduced AB 793, has tried to expand the law’s reach by proposing a similar bill requiring the recycling of \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB478\">thermoform plastic\u003c/a>, a group of plastics formed using heat. That legislation, however, got bogged down last year over concerns that infrastructure wasn’t yet in place to accommodate an additional plastic recycling mandate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, many of the more ambitious plastic recycling-related bills floated last year didn’t survive, including \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billVotesClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB1371\">AB 1371\u003c/a>, introduced by state Assemblymember Laura Friedman, D-Burbank, which would have banned the use of plastic packaging for online purchases. The bill failed to receive the 41 votes necessary to make it out of the Assembly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Globally, the e-commerce industry uses nearly 2.1 billion, with a ‘B,’ pounds of plastic packaging. … With almost a third of the world’s population now buying online, the amount of plastic packaging generated is estimated to double by 2025,” Friedman told the Assembly Natural Resources Committee last April. “This is low-hanging fruit, members, and something that is really, really a scourge.”[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Jennifer Fearing, president, Fearless Advocacy\"]‘I can’t tell you and point to a particular member of the Legislature who’s been ‘bought,’ but I can tell you, we are deeply outgunned on the environmental front.’[/pullquote]“Even with our super-duper Democratic majority and consistently two-thirds of Californians saying this is a huge problem that needs to get addressed, we have really struggled to get enough votes,” said Jennifer Fearing, an environmental lobbyist who helped promote AB 1371.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, state Sen. Ben Allen, D-Santa Monica, last year shelved \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB54\">SB 54\u003c/a>, his bill to ban all single-use plastic products that aren’t recyclable or compostable — opting to buy more time to work out details with various stakeholders, in the face of formidable industry opposition.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘Deeply outgunned’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The list of trade groups that weighed in against the bill underscores the depth of plastic’s reach within multiple industries. During an early hearing on SB 54, associations representing farming and agriculture, pet food, personal care, household products and restaurants voiced their opposition — in addition to the Plastics Industry Association, the American Institute for Packaging and the Environment, and the Flexible Packaging Association.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can’t tell you and point to a particular member of the Legislature who’s been ‘bought,’” said Fearing. “But I can tell you, we are deeply outgunned on the environmental front.”[aside postID=news_11898724,news_11883400,lowdown_29456 label=\"Related Stories\"]More incremental efforts to reduce plastic waste, however, have proved fruitful, including a \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB343\">“Truth in Labeling” bill\u003c/a>, approved by lawmakers last year, which prohibits manufacturers from calling their products recyclable or using recycling symbols or other suggestions of recyclability unless they meet CalRecycle’s criteria. The agency has until Jan. 1, 2024, to formalize a list of products it deems recyclable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tim Shestek, the American Chemistry Council’s senior director of state affairs, said his organization opposed SB 54 and several other bills last year because they failed to recognize why so many businesses use plastic over other materials in the first place: its durability and value.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Does it go too far? Does it provide opportunities for the business community to comply in a reasonable fashion?” Shestek said. “In our view, it didn’t take into account some of the other trade-offs that we like to discuss: lightweighting, fuel efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions associated with potential alternatives.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, Shestek acknowledged that more can be done to cut down on plastic waste. His group, for example, has \u003ca href=\"https://www.americanchemistry.com/chemistry-in-america/chemistry-sustainability/circularity\">set goals\u003c/a> for its members to produce 100% recyclable plastic packaging containing at least 30% recycled plastic by 2030.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our focus is trying to get that circular loop completely closed and to be part of the solution,” he said. “I think we recognize that we have a role to play.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11901452\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11901452 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS52997_DSC_1513_edit-qut-800x450.jpeg\" alt=\"Two women standing near the bay pour water samples.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS52997_DSC_1513_edit-qut-800x450.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS52997_DSC_1513_edit-qut-1020x574.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS52997_DSC_1513_edit-qut-160x90.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS52997_DSC_1513_edit-qut-1536x864.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS52997_DSC_1513_edit-qut.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rebecca Sutton, left, and Alicia Gilbreath of the San Francisco Estuary Institute strain water collected from the San Francisco Bay through two sieves to sample for microplastics. \u003ccite>(Monica Lam/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Microplastics and human health\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Since plastic was first invented in the mid-1800s, worldwide production has grown to an estimated 400 million tons annually. In the U.S., \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/plastics-material-specific-data\">less than 9%\u003c/a> of plastic gets recycled, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates. Meanwhile, the production of plastic, which is made from petroleum and natural gas, is projected to increase as the fossil-fuel industry faces competition from alternative energy sources. Dozens of plastic plants are currently being built or planned, most of them on the Gulf Coast and in the Ohio River Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While a fair bit of attention has been paid to the impact of plastic pollution on marine animals, who often ingest it, research on human health has only recently started to ramp up. In 2018, California legislators directed the State Water Resources Control Board to \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB1422\">start studying levels of microplastics\u003c/a> — plastic particles smaller than 5 millimeters — detected in municipal drinking water supplies. Some microplastics, like those used in adhesives or paints, are manufactured at a small size, while some are generated when larger pieces of plastic degrade over time. [pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Scott Coffin, senior scientist, California State Water Resources Control Board\"]‘I think a better question would be, where have microplastics not been found? We’ve found them from Mount Everest to the Mariana Trench. … I’m not sure that there exists a place that is not impacted by plastic pollution.’[/pullquote]“One of the reasons that plastic in drinking water has received recent attention, especially by California’s legislators, is that we know that the amount is increasing,” said Scott Coffin, a senior scientist with the state water board. “Additionally, plastic never goes away. So these two factors, they necessitate some concern.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Coffin’s team is tasked with eventually establishing safety thresholds for the level of microplastics in the state’s water supply. He estimates that there are more than \u003ca href=\"https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.1c00976\">2,400 chemicals\u003c/a> commonly added to plastic that are potentially dangerous for human health, including known toxins like bisphenol A (commonly known as BPA), phthalates, and a class of flame retardants called \u003ca href=\"https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/pbde.html\">PBDEs\u003c/a>, or polybrominated diphenyl ethers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can think of plastic as a carrier for other chemicals, and in many ways, it’s like a sponge,” Coffin said. “Once it’s in the environment, it can pick up all of the other pollutants that are already there.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some microplastics are even small enough to enter into our cells, he noted. \u003ca href=\"https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4923/13/7/921\">One German study\u003c/a> found microplastics in the placentas of pregnant women — on both the maternal and fetal side.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The smaller the particle, the deeper it’s going to make it into our bodies, and the more likely it is to interact with our cells, causing toxicity,” Coffin said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One major \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfei.org/projects/microplastics\">study \u003c/a>published in 2019 by the San Francisco Estuary Institute found microplastics throughout the San Francisco Bay — in the water, the mud, and both stormwater runoff and treated wastewater. The study’s authors concluded that the bay likely has higher levels of microplastic pollution than most major water bodies in the United States because it’s surrounded by dense, urban areas and has a relatively restricted water flow. The two most common particles found were fibers from clothing and bits from tires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We found microplastics in just about every sample we collected,” said Rebecca Sutton, who led the three-year study. “This is pretty consistent with what you see all around the world. Pretty much everywhere you look for it, you are going to find microplastics.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Coffin echoed that sentiment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think a better question would be, where have microplastics not been found?” he said. “We’ve found them from Mount Everest to the Mariana Trench. Every organism that we’ve ever looked at, we’ve found some levels, and at this point, I’m not sure that there exists a place that is not impacted by plastic pollution.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The climate change impact\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>With that grim assessment in mind, the students in Jacqueline Omania’s fifth grade class at Oxford Elementary in Berkeley have set themselves an ambitious goal: to make so little trash over the course of the school year that the entire class’s garbage fits into a tiny little container about the size of a jam jar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The larger issue is that these youth are growing up in a climate crisis,” said Omania.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The main type of trash that ends up in the class’s container is plastic, so for starters, every student brings a reusable cutlery kit to school to use while eating lunch. Inside the classroom, they use unpainted pencils so that the shavings can be composted. Birthday parties feature home-baked treats instead of anything that comes in a plastic wrapper.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Omania’s students were part of a successful campaign to pass a citywide ordinance in 2019 \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyside.org/2019/01/23/berkeley-says-good-riddance-mostly-to-disposable-plastic-foodware\">limiting single-use plastics in Berkeley restaurants\u003c/a>. Her students even showed city councilmembers the tiny container they were using as a garbage can.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11901451\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11901451 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS52996_Copy-of-beach-cleanup-2_edit-qut-800x450.jpeg\" alt=\"Three young people stand on a rock pile. One hands an orange bucket to another.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS52996_Copy-of-beach-cleanup-2_edit-qut-800x450.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS52996_Copy-of-beach-cleanup-2_edit-qut-1020x574.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS52996_Copy-of-beach-cleanup-2_edit-qut-160x90.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS52996_Copy-of-beach-cleanup-2_edit-qut-1536x864.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS52996_Copy-of-beach-cleanup-2_edit-qut.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students Sam (left), Alina and Sasha pick up trash off the beach at the Berkeley Marina, Oct. 7, 2021. \u003ccite>(Rick Santangelo/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I believe the adults need to step up so we don’t make the environmental waste in the first place,” Oxford student Jae Marie Howard told a crowded council meeting on the night the ordinance was approved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More recently, Omania’s students helped successfully push the Berkeley Unified School District to include \u003ca href=\"https://www.dailycal.org/2021/11/04/berkeley-school-board-passes-65k-climate-literacy-resolution/\">climate literacy in the K-12 curriculum\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Jacqueline Omania, teacher, Oxford Elementary\"]‘The larger issue is that these youth are growing up in a climate crisis.’[/pullquote]An increasing number of studies draw a connection between the production of plastic and climate change. One \u003ca href=\"https://www.beyondplastics.org/plastics-and-climate\">report\u003c/a> from a Vermont-based environmental group found that “as of 2020, the U.S. plastics industry is responsible for at least 232 million tons of CO2e [carbon dioxide equivalent] gas emissions per year. This amount is equivalent to the average emissions from 116 average-sized [500-megawatt] coal-fired power plants.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>New opportunities\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Entrepreneurs have been tapping into growing public awareness about plastic waste. Dispatch Goods, a San Francisco-based start-up, is partnering with local restaurants, like Zuni Cafe and Mixt, to provide reusable takeout containers made of stainless steel. Customers must pay extra for the service, which includes picking up the used containers from their homes, but many do it willingly because it alleviates “eco-guilt,” said company CEO Lindsey Hoell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s like an “avocado upcharge,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have data showing that we’re driving business to restaurants that are making that shift,” she added. “It’s not just a sustainability decision, but it’s a good business decision.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]At Fillgood’s small storefront in Berkeley, customers can refill their own containers with common household products like dish detergent and shampoo, while LimeLoop, another Bay Area-based start-up, makes reusable packaging for shipping — among the growing number of novel business ventures offering alternatives to plastic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This fall, Californians will get to weigh in directly on just how much the state should regulate and limit plastic production and consumption. The \u003ca href=\"https://ballotpedia.org/California_Plastic_Waste_Reduction_Regulations_Initiative_(2022)\">California Plastic Waste Reduction Regulations Initiative\u003c/a>, which has qualified for the statewide ballot in November, would not only push through some of the efforts legislators failed to pass last year, but also levy a $0.01 fee — which critics call a tax — on all plastic packaging and disposable food service items.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ACC’s Shestek said the ballot measure is “flawed” and hopes instead to work directly with lawmakers “to hash something out that gets to the same objective, but in a fashion that isn’t so punitive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Allen, the state lawmaker, sees the initiative as a good opportunity to advance his SB 54 legislation, banning single-use plastic products that aren’t recyclable or compostable. He’s confident, he said, the business community will work with him to avoid the costly political hurdle of winning a statewide vote. He’s already moved the bill out of the inactive file and back to the Senate floor to be considered during the 2022 legislative session.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The ballot measure polls very well. It’s very popular,” Allen said. “And while it’s true [that] industry could raise a lot of money and try to defeat it, I think there’s also going to be some serious money raised on the environmental side. It could really be a knock-down-drag-out fight at the end of the day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s Crystal Consaul and Kat Shok contributed to this story. Want more? Check out our half-hour documentary on this topic, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bTCCB6wbks\">California’s Plastic Problem\u003c/a>. Are you a teacher? Here’s more about Jacqueline Omania’s \u003ca href=\"https://sites.google.com/bennington.edu/plastic-free-planet/home?authuser=0\">curriculum\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Like much of the rest of the world, California uses and discards far more plastic than it has the capacity to recycle, with about 4.5 million tons ending up in landfills every year. But some state lawmakers and new business ventures are aiming to significantly reduce that amount of waste.",
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"title": "'You Can't Recycle Your Way Out': California's Plastic Problem and What We Can Do About It | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated Nov. 2, 2022: This story was originally published Jan. 24, 2022. Since then, \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB54\">a version of Senate Bill 54\u003c/a>, covered in this article, was signed into law in June. The new law requires most single-use plastic packaging and foodware be reusable, compostable, refillable or recyclable by 2032 — with definitions for what is “recyclable” to be set by state agency CalRecycle. Plastic producers will also be required to pay into a plastic pollution mitigation fund. Because of the passage of SB 54, proponents of a voter initiative addressing very similar goals removed their measure from the November 2022 ballot.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Original Article:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California dumps more than 12,000 tons of plastic into landfills every day — enough to fill 219 Olympic-size swimming pools, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www2.calrecycle.ca.gov/Publications/Details/1666\">CalRecycle\u003c/a>, the state’s recycling and waste management agency. The state boasts one of the highest recycling rates in the country, especially of cans and bottles, but despite decades of investment in infrastructure and machinery, the system remains overwhelmed by plastic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A trip to a recycling processing center helps explain why.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inside one of Republic Services’ massive facilities in Milpitas, an impressive array of high-tech machines sort through tons of material from residents’ recycling bins, separating metal from plastic from paper. Some of the machines use magnets, eddy currents or puffs of air blown through hundreds of nozzles to sort the materials; others identify different kinds of plastic with optical scanners. Whizzing conveyor belts ferry it all from one machine to the next, until the recyclables are sorted, baled, and eventually shipped and sold.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Not all plastic is created equal\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>One of plastic recycling’s success stories is HDPE, or high-density polyethylene, the translucent plastic commonly used in milk jugs, shampoo bottles and cutting boards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In today’s marketplace, this is the most valuable commodity that we produce at this location,” said Pete Keller, the company’s vice president of sustainability. “These materials are non-pigmented, so any downstream consumer of this material could turn it into any color they want to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>HDPE is currently fetching a price of $1 per pound, or over $2,000 per ton, according to Keller. “I wish we had more of it,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That price is partially driven by demand resulting from so-called sustainability commitments major manufacturers have made to use recycled plastic. Naked Juice, for instance, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nakedjuice.com/goodness-outside/\">makes its juice bottles\u003c/a> from 100% post-consumer recycled plastic, while Danone has \u003ca href=\"https://www.danone.com/impact/planet/packaging-positive-circular-economy.html\">pledged\u003c/a> to make all of its evian water bottles from 100% recycled plastic by 2025.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/-bTCCB6wbks'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/-bTCCB6wbks'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>In a push to boost demand for plastic that is recycled, like HDPE, California lawmakers in 2020 passed a “minimum recycled content” bill. \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB793\">Assembly Bill 793\u003c/a>, which went into effect on Jan. 1, mandates that most plastic beverage bottles contain a minimum amount of recycled content. Specifically, all plastic bottles that can be redeemed for $0.05 or $0.10 must contain no less than:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>15% recycled plastic starting Jan. 1, 2022\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>25% recycled plastic starting Jan. 1, 2025\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>50% recycled plastic starting Jan. 1, 2030\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>The law, one of the first of its kind in the nation, is targeted at bottle manufacturers, most of whom still use new plastic — or “virgin resin” — which is typically cheaper than recycled plastic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11901454\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11901454 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS52999_IMG_5331_v2-qut-800x450.jpeg\" alt=\"Workers in green safety jackets and helmets sort trash along a conveyor belt. \" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS52999_IMG_5331_v2-qut-800x450.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS52999_IMG_5331_v2-qut-1020x574.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS52999_IMG_5331_v2-qut-160x90.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS52999_IMG_5331_v2-qut-1536x864.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS52999_IMG_5331_v2-qut.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Workers at Recology’s San Francisco recycling facility pick out plastic that can’t be recycled, including plastic bags, on July 16, 2021. \u003ccite>(Monica Lam/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In addition to HDPE, PET plastic, or polyethylene terephthalate, can be recycled into clamshells — the clear boxes that strawberries are often packed in — or spun into polyester for clothing. Some denser plastics can also be recycled into pipes, plastic lumber, carpets or buckets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But current recycling markets only accept a fraction of the plastic that’s marked with the three-arrow recycling symbol. Until a few years ago, this problem was largely concealed because the U.S. shipped most of its plastic waste to China, where it was ostensibly being recycled. But in 2018, citing its own environmental concerns, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-20741-9#:~:text=In%202017%2C%20China%20announced%20an,are%20enormous%20but%20yet%20unexamined\">China began banning imports of most solid materials\u003c/a>, including most plastics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s forcing domestic recyclers to confront the real challenges of recycling plastic. For one, plastic comes in a myriad of chemical formulations, densities, transparencies and colors. Many products are made of mixed materials: a bottle of hand soap, for example, might contain four different kinds of plastic, plus a metal spring nestled inside the pump.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even if there were markets for all these different kinds of plastic, sorting and separating them would be a gargantuan task.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s just so many types of plastic. We can’t recycle them all. We can’t manage them all,” said Robert Reed, public relations manager for Recology, which handles San Francisco’s waste and recycling. “You can’t recycle your way out of the larger plastic problem.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So most plastic — in fact, almost all of it — ends up in landfills: plastic forks and knives, coffee cups and takeout boxes, used cosmetics, styrofoam trays, and most kinds of plastic bags, from shopping bags to those used for frozen peas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11901455\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11901455 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53000_IMG_5387_edit_v3-qut-800x532.jpeg\" alt=\"Three men talk underneath an open-air canopy in a parking lot. \" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53000_IMG_5387_edit_v3-qut-800x532.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53000_IMG_5387_edit_v3-qut-1020x678.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53000_IMG_5387_edit_v3-qut-160x106.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53000_IMG_5387_edit_v3-qut-1536x1021.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS53000_IMG_5387_edit_v3-qut.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">State Assemblymember Phil Ting visits a prototype for a mobile recycling program that aims to bring recycling collection trucks to various San Francisco neighborhoods, on July 16, 2021. \u003ccite>(Monica Lam/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Legislative efforts bogged down\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>San Francisco Democratic Assemblymember Phil Ting, who introduced AB 793, has tried to expand the law’s reach by proposing a similar bill requiring the recycling of \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB478\">thermoform plastic\u003c/a>, a group of plastics formed using heat. That legislation, however, got bogged down last year over concerns that infrastructure wasn’t yet in place to accommodate an additional plastic recycling mandate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, many of the more ambitious plastic recycling-related bills floated last year didn’t survive, including \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billVotesClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB1371\">AB 1371\u003c/a>, introduced by state Assemblymember Laura Friedman, D-Burbank, which would have banned the use of plastic packaging for online purchases. The bill failed to receive the 41 votes necessary to make it out of the Assembly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Globally, the e-commerce industry uses nearly 2.1 billion, with a ‘B,’ pounds of plastic packaging. … With almost a third of the world’s population now buying online, the amount of plastic packaging generated is estimated to double by 2025,” Friedman told the Assembly Natural Resources Committee last April. “This is low-hanging fruit, members, and something that is really, really a scourge.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘I can’t tell you and point to a particular member of the Legislature who’s been ‘bought,’ but I can tell you, we are deeply outgunned on the environmental front.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Even with our super-duper Democratic majority and consistently two-thirds of Californians saying this is a huge problem that needs to get addressed, we have really struggled to get enough votes,” said Jennifer Fearing, an environmental lobbyist who helped promote AB 1371.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, state Sen. Ben Allen, D-Santa Monica, last year shelved \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB54\">SB 54\u003c/a>, his bill to ban all single-use plastic products that aren’t recyclable or compostable — opting to buy more time to work out details with various stakeholders, in the face of formidable industry opposition.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘Deeply outgunned’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The list of trade groups that weighed in against the bill underscores the depth of plastic’s reach within multiple industries. During an early hearing on SB 54, associations representing farming and agriculture, pet food, personal care, household products and restaurants voiced their opposition — in addition to the Plastics Industry Association, the American Institute for Packaging and the Environment, and the Flexible Packaging Association.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can’t tell you and point to a particular member of the Legislature who’s been ‘bought,’” said Fearing. “But I can tell you, we are deeply outgunned on the environmental front.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>More incremental efforts to reduce plastic waste, however, have proved fruitful, including a \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB343\">“Truth in Labeling” bill\u003c/a>, approved by lawmakers last year, which prohibits manufacturers from calling their products recyclable or using recycling symbols or other suggestions of recyclability unless they meet CalRecycle’s criteria. The agency has until Jan. 1, 2024, to formalize a list of products it deems recyclable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tim Shestek, the American Chemistry Council’s senior director of state affairs, said his organization opposed SB 54 and several other bills last year because they failed to recognize why so many businesses use plastic over other materials in the first place: its durability and value.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Does it go too far? Does it provide opportunities for the business community to comply in a reasonable fashion?” Shestek said. “In our view, it didn’t take into account some of the other trade-offs that we like to discuss: lightweighting, fuel efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions associated with potential alternatives.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, Shestek acknowledged that more can be done to cut down on plastic waste. His group, for example, has \u003ca href=\"https://www.americanchemistry.com/chemistry-in-america/chemistry-sustainability/circularity\">set goals\u003c/a> for its members to produce 100% recyclable plastic packaging containing at least 30% recycled plastic by 2030.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our focus is trying to get that circular loop completely closed and to be part of the solution,” he said. “I think we recognize that we have a role to play.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11901452\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11901452 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS52997_DSC_1513_edit-qut-800x450.jpeg\" alt=\"Two women standing near the bay pour water samples.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS52997_DSC_1513_edit-qut-800x450.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS52997_DSC_1513_edit-qut-1020x574.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS52997_DSC_1513_edit-qut-160x90.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS52997_DSC_1513_edit-qut-1536x864.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS52997_DSC_1513_edit-qut.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rebecca Sutton, left, and Alicia Gilbreath of the San Francisco Estuary Institute strain water collected from the San Francisco Bay through two sieves to sample for microplastics. \u003ccite>(Monica Lam/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch3>Microplastics and human health\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Since plastic was first invented in the mid-1800s, worldwide production has grown to an estimated 400 million tons annually. In the U.S., \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/plastics-material-specific-data\">less than 9%\u003c/a> of plastic gets recycled, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates. Meanwhile, the production of plastic, which is made from petroleum and natural gas, is projected to increase as the fossil-fuel industry faces competition from alternative energy sources. Dozens of plastic plants are currently being built or planned, most of them on the Gulf Coast and in the Ohio River Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While a fair bit of attention has been paid to the impact of plastic pollution on marine animals, who often ingest it, research on human health has only recently started to ramp up. In 2018, California legislators directed the State Water Resources Control Board to \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB1422\">start studying levels of microplastics\u003c/a> — plastic particles smaller than 5 millimeters — detected in municipal drinking water supplies. Some microplastics, like those used in adhesives or paints, are manufactured at a small size, while some are generated when larger pieces of plastic degrade over time. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘I think a better question would be, where have microplastics not been found? We’ve found them from Mount Everest to the Mariana Trench. … I’m not sure that there exists a place that is not impacted by plastic pollution.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“One of the reasons that plastic in drinking water has received recent attention, especially by California’s legislators, is that we know that the amount is increasing,” said Scott Coffin, a senior scientist with the state water board. “Additionally, plastic never goes away. So these two factors, they necessitate some concern.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Coffin’s team is tasked with eventually establishing safety thresholds for the level of microplastics in the state’s water supply. He estimates that there are more than \u003ca href=\"https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.1c00976\">2,400 chemicals\u003c/a> commonly added to plastic that are potentially dangerous for human health, including known toxins like bisphenol A (commonly known as BPA), phthalates, and a class of flame retardants called \u003ca href=\"https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/pbde.html\">PBDEs\u003c/a>, or polybrominated diphenyl ethers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can think of plastic as a carrier for other chemicals, and in many ways, it’s like a sponge,” Coffin said. “Once it’s in the environment, it can pick up all of the other pollutants that are already there.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some microplastics are even small enough to enter into our cells, he noted. \u003ca href=\"https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4923/13/7/921\">One German study\u003c/a> found microplastics in the placentas of pregnant women — on both the maternal and fetal side.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The smaller the particle, the deeper it’s going to make it into our bodies, and the more likely it is to interact with our cells, causing toxicity,” Coffin said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One major \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfei.org/projects/microplastics\">study \u003c/a>published in 2019 by the San Francisco Estuary Institute found microplastics throughout the San Francisco Bay — in the water, the mud, and both stormwater runoff and treated wastewater. The study’s authors concluded that the bay likely has higher levels of microplastic pollution than most major water bodies in the United States because it’s surrounded by dense, urban areas and has a relatively restricted water flow. The two most common particles found were fibers from clothing and bits from tires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We found microplastics in just about every sample we collected,” said Rebecca Sutton, who led the three-year study. “This is pretty consistent with what you see all around the world. Pretty much everywhere you look for it, you are going to find microplastics.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Coffin echoed that sentiment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think a better question would be, where have microplastics not been found?” he said. “We’ve found them from Mount Everest to the Mariana Trench. Every organism that we’ve ever looked at, we’ve found some levels, and at this point, I’m not sure that there exists a place that is not impacted by plastic pollution.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The climate change impact\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>With that grim assessment in mind, the students in Jacqueline Omania’s fifth grade class at Oxford Elementary in Berkeley have set themselves an ambitious goal: to make so little trash over the course of the school year that the entire class’s garbage fits into a tiny little container about the size of a jam jar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The larger issue is that these youth are growing up in a climate crisis,” said Omania.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The main type of trash that ends up in the class’s container is plastic, so for starters, every student brings a reusable cutlery kit to school to use while eating lunch. Inside the classroom, they use unpainted pencils so that the shavings can be composted. Birthday parties feature home-baked treats instead of anything that comes in a plastic wrapper.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Omania’s students were part of a successful campaign to pass a citywide ordinance in 2019 \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyside.org/2019/01/23/berkeley-says-good-riddance-mostly-to-disposable-plastic-foodware\">limiting single-use plastics in Berkeley restaurants\u003c/a>. Her students even showed city councilmembers the tiny container they were using as a garbage can.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11901451\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11901451 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS52996_Copy-of-beach-cleanup-2_edit-qut-800x450.jpeg\" alt=\"Three young people stand on a rock pile. One hands an orange bucket to another.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS52996_Copy-of-beach-cleanup-2_edit-qut-800x450.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS52996_Copy-of-beach-cleanup-2_edit-qut-1020x574.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS52996_Copy-of-beach-cleanup-2_edit-qut-160x90.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS52996_Copy-of-beach-cleanup-2_edit-qut-1536x864.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/01/RS52996_Copy-of-beach-cleanup-2_edit-qut.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students Sam (left), Alina and Sasha pick up trash off the beach at the Berkeley Marina, Oct. 7, 2021. \u003ccite>(Rick Santangelo/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I believe the adults need to step up so we don’t make the environmental waste in the first place,” Oxford student Jae Marie Howard told a crowded council meeting on the night the ordinance was approved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More recently, Omania’s students helped successfully push the Berkeley Unified School District to include \u003ca href=\"https://www.dailycal.org/2021/11/04/berkeley-school-board-passes-65k-climate-literacy-resolution/\">climate literacy in the K-12 curriculum\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘The larger issue is that these youth are growing up in a climate crisis.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>An increasing number of studies draw a connection between the production of plastic and climate change. One \u003ca href=\"https://www.beyondplastics.org/plastics-and-climate\">report\u003c/a> from a Vermont-based environmental group found that “as of 2020, the U.S. plastics industry is responsible for at least 232 million tons of CO2e [carbon dioxide equivalent] gas emissions per year. This amount is equivalent to the average emissions from 116 average-sized [500-megawatt] coal-fired power plants.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>New opportunities\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Entrepreneurs have been tapping into growing public awareness about plastic waste. Dispatch Goods, a San Francisco-based start-up, is partnering with local restaurants, like Zuni Cafe and Mixt, to provide reusable takeout containers made of stainless steel. Customers must pay extra for the service, which includes picking up the used containers from their homes, but many do it willingly because it alleviates “eco-guilt,” said company CEO Lindsey Hoell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s like an “avocado upcharge,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have data showing that we’re driving business to restaurants that are making that shift,” she added. “It’s not just a sustainability decision, but it’s a good business decision.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>At Fillgood’s small storefront in Berkeley, customers can refill their own containers with common household products like dish detergent and shampoo, while LimeLoop, another Bay Area-based start-up, makes reusable packaging for shipping — among the growing number of novel business ventures offering alternatives to plastic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This fall, Californians will get to weigh in directly on just how much the state should regulate and limit plastic production and consumption. The \u003ca href=\"https://ballotpedia.org/California_Plastic_Waste_Reduction_Regulations_Initiative_(2022)\">California Plastic Waste Reduction Regulations Initiative\u003c/a>, which has qualified for the statewide ballot in November, would not only push through some of the efforts legislators failed to pass last year, but also levy a $0.01 fee — which critics call a tax — on all plastic packaging and disposable food service items.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ACC’s Shestek said the ballot measure is “flawed” and hopes instead to work directly with lawmakers “to hash something out that gets to the same objective, but in a fashion that isn’t so punitive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Allen, the state lawmaker, sees the initiative as a good opportunity to advance his SB 54 legislation, banning single-use plastic products that aren’t recyclable or compostable. He’s confident, he said, the business community will work with him to avoid the costly political hurdle of winning a statewide vote. He’s already moved the bill out of the inactive file and back to the Senate floor to be considered during the 2022 legislative session.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The ballot measure polls very well. It’s very popular,” Allen said. “And while it’s true [that] industry could raise a lot of money and try to defeat it, I think there’s also going to be some serious money raised on the environmental side. It could really be a knock-down-drag-out fight at the end of the day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s Crystal Consaul and Kat Shok contributed to this story. Want more? Check out our half-hour documentary on this topic, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bTCCB6wbks\">California’s Plastic Problem\u003c/a>. Are you a teacher? Here’s more about Jacqueline Omania’s \u003ca href=\"https://sites.google.com/bennington.edu/plastic-free-planet/home?authuser=0\">curriculum\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updated at 10:41 p.m. ET \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Accusing the country's largest oil and gas companies of \"a half-century campaign of deception,\" California's attorney general opened an investigation Thursday into the possible role the companies played promoting the idea that plastics could be recycled, in an effort to manipulate the public to buy more of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attorney General Rob Bonta said the fossil fuel industry benefited financially from the industry's misleading statements which he said go back decades. Bonta has so far subpoenaed ExxonMobil seeking information and documents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"For more than half a century, the plastics industry has engaged in an aggressive campaign to deceive the public, perpetuating a myth that recycling can solve the plastics crisis,\" Bonta said. \"The truth is: The vast majority of plastic cannot be recycled.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The announcement cited NPR and the PBS series Frontline's \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/09/11/897692090/how-big-oil-misled-the-public-into-believing-plastic-would-be-recycled\">2020 investigation\u003c/a> into the oil and gas industry which uncovered documents showing top officials knew that recycling plastic was unlikely to work but spent tens of millions of dollars telling the public the opposite. Starting in the 1980s, the industry launched dozens of ads, nonprofits, and campaigns touting the benefits of recycling plastic – and placing the responsibility on consumers – even as their own documents warned that recycling was \"infeasible\" and that there was \"serious doubt\" that plastic recycling \"can ever be made viable on an economic basis,\" the investigation found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Graham Forbes, plastics global campaign lead at Greenpeace USA, said California's investigation is welcome news.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"For too long, ExxonMobil and other corporate polluters have been allowed to mislead the public and harm people and the planet,\" Forbes said. \"It is encouraging to see the state of California stand up to the fossil fuel industry. Hopefully, this is a sign that policymakers are ready to start holding corporations accountable.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, ExxonMobil said it rejects the allegations made by the California attorney general, and highlighted that it is the first company to use what it referred to as an \"advanced recycling technology\" to recycle used plastic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We are focused on solutions and meritless allegations like these distract from the important collaborative work that is underway to enhance waste management and improve circularity,\" the statement said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The industry group, the American Chemistry Council, said in a statement it is committed to keeping plastic out of the environment and has \"proposed comprehensive and bold actions at the state, federal, and international levels.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Industry officials have told NPR in the past that the industry has never misled the public and believes it can make plastic recycling work, though they were not able to specify how. In 40 years, no more than \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/national-overview-facts-and-figures-materials#Trends1960-Today\">10 percent\u003c/a> of all plastic has ever been recycled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a press conference, Bonta said his office's preliminary findings have provided them with enough information to proceed with an investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We are not prejudging this, but there is information, significant amounts of it, that is compelling and in the public sphere that has led us to a good faith belief that we should be subpoenaing ExxonMobil to get more information,\" Bonta said. \"There is a broad belief that plastics are recyclable. That has been the result of the misinformation campaign, of the deception, that consumers have been manipulated to believe that plastic is recyclable. It was a strategy as far as we can tell.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials say the investigation also hopes to determine whether any deception is still ongoing. Critics of the oil industry have raised \u003ca href=\"https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/news/reuters-story-exposes-big-oils-alliance-to-end-plastic-waste-scam/\">concerns\u003c/a> about the industry's current $1.5 billion effort, which launched in 2019 under the banner \"\u003ca href=\"https://endplasticwaste.org/\">The Alliance to End Plastic Waste\u003c/a>\" and is made up of the country's largest oil and plastic producers. Through glossy ads and small demonstration projects, the group promotes plastic recycling and clean up efforts rather than using less plastic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bonta said his office is eager to move quickly with the investigation and get hold of the documents they are looking for.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=California+is+investigating+Big+Oil+for+allegedly+misleading+the+public+on+recycling&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updated at 10:41 p.m. ET \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Accusing the country's largest oil and gas companies of \"a half-century campaign of deception,\" California's attorney general opened an investigation Thursday into the possible role the companies played promoting the idea that plastics could be recycled, in an effort to manipulate the public to buy more of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attorney General Rob Bonta said the fossil fuel industry benefited financially from the industry's misleading statements which he said go back decades. Bonta has so far subpoenaed ExxonMobil seeking information and documents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"For more than half a century, the plastics industry has engaged in an aggressive campaign to deceive the public, perpetuating a myth that recycling can solve the plastics crisis,\" Bonta said. \"The truth is: The vast majority of plastic cannot be recycled.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The announcement cited NPR and the PBS series Frontline's \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/09/11/897692090/how-big-oil-misled-the-public-into-believing-plastic-would-be-recycled\">2020 investigation\u003c/a> into the oil and gas industry which uncovered documents showing top officials knew that recycling plastic was unlikely to work but spent tens of millions of dollars telling the public the opposite. Starting in the 1980s, the industry launched dozens of ads, nonprofits, and campaigns touting the benefits of recycling plastic – and placing the responsibility on consumers – even as their own documents warned that recycling was \"infeasible\" and that there was \"serious doubt\" that plastic recycling \"can ever be made viable on an economic basis,\" the investigation found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Graham Forbes, plastics global campaign lead at Greenpeace USA, said California's investigation is welcome news.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"For too long, ExxonMobil and other corporate polluters have been allowed to mislead the public and harm people and the planet,\" Forbes said. \"It is encouraging to see the state of California stand up to the fossil fuel industry. Hopefully, this is a sign that policymakers are ready to start holding corporations accountable.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, ExxonMobil said it rejects the allegations made by the California attorney general, and highlighted that it is the first company to use what it referred to as an \"advanced recycling technology\" to recycle used plastic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We are focused on solutions and meritless allegations like these distract from the important collaborative work that is underway to enhance waste management and improve circularity,\" the statement said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The industry group, the American Chemistry Council, said in a statement it is committed to keeping plastic out of the environment and has \"proposed comprehensive and bold actions at the state, federal, and international levels.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Industry officials have told NPR in the past that the industry has never misled the public and believes it can make plastic recycling work, though they were not able to specify how. In 40 years, no more than \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/national-overview-facts-and-figures-materials#Trends1960-Today\">10 percent\u003c/a> of all plastic has ever been recycled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a press conference, Bonta said his office's preliminary findings have provided them with enough information to proceed with an investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We are not prejudging this, but there is information, significant amounts of it, that is compelling and in the public sphere that has led us to a good faith belief that we should be subpoenaing ExxonMobil to get more information,\" Bonta said. \"There is a broad belief that plastics are recyclable. That has been the result of the misinformation campaign, of the deception, that consumers have been manipulated to believe that plastic is recyclable. It was a strategy as far as we can tell.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials say the investigation also hopes to determine whether any deception is still ongoing. Critics of the oil industry have raised \u003ca href=\"https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/news/reuters-story-exposes-big-oils-alliance-to-end-plastic-waste-scam/\">concerns\u003c/a> about the industry's current $1.5 billion effort, which launched in 2019 under the banner \"\u003ca href=\"https://endplasticwaste.org/\">The Alliance to End Plastic Waste\u003c/a>\" and is made up of the country's largest oil and plastic producers. Through glossy ads and small demonstration projects, the group promotes plastic recycling and clean up efforts rather than using less plastic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bonta said his office is eager to move quickly with the investigation and get hold of the documents they are looking for.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=California+is+investigating+Big+Oil+for+allegedly+misleading+the+public+on+recycling&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Every morning, when state Sen. Ben Allen would grab the newspaper from outside his Santa Monica home, he’d pull off the plastic sleeve bearing the triangular recycling symbol and throw it where he thought it belonged: in a blue recycling bin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Allen soon learned that he was \"wishcycling\" — carefully sorting items with the recycling symbol, only to discover they weren’t getting recycled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It is \u003cem>technically\u003c/em> recyclable under the best of conditions at 1,000 degrees in some lab in San Marino. But ... they’re not recycled in the real world,\" the Democrat said at an Assembly Natural Resources Committee hearing in June.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This scenario isn’t unique. Despite the best intentions of Californians who diligently try to recycle yogurt cups, berry containers and other packaging, it turns out that \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/202120220SB343_Senate-Floor-Analyses.pdf\">at least 85% of single-use plastics\u003c/a> in the state do not actually get recycled. Instead, they wind up in the landfill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Americans find recycling ... more confusing than building IKEA furniture, doing their taxes, playing the stock market or understanding their spouse,\" Allen said, citing a study by the Consumer Brands Association. This confusion inspired Allen to pen a bill that buckles down on \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB343\">what kinds of plastic packaging can tout the triangular symbol known as “chasing arrows.”\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"If you’re not allowed to call an item recyclable because of our truth in environmental advertising laws, then you shouldn’t be able to put the ‘chasing arrows’ symbol on your product,\" Allen said in an interview.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Allen’s legislation is part of \u003ca href=\"https://sd26.senate.ca.gov/news/2021-03-09-ca-lawmakers-propose-package-new-laws-tackling-plastic-waste-reduction\">a bigger 12-bill package targeted at reducing plastics and waste\u003c/a> that lawmakers are considering this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supporters believe it will make what is — and isn’t — commonly recyclable more understandable to Californians. Opponents in the plastic industry believe the bill could pile waste in the landfill and raise packaging costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"https://e.infogram.com/_/tftuxXCFKAtX17bLlC8x?src=embed\" title=\"plastic recycling codes\" width=\"800\" height=\"1400\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:none;\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far, the bill has advanced smoothly with support from the Legislature’s majority Democrats. But many other \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2020/09/california-legislature-plastics/\">plastic reduction bills have failed in recent years in the face of industry opposition\u003c/a>. Allen’s past attempts at sweeping legislation that would ban non-recyclable plastic packaging died, even as environmentalists — and \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/search?lang=en&q=SB%2054%20(from%3Akellyslater)&src=typed_query\">a superstar surfer\u003c/a> — urged its passage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Amid these repeated legislative failures at the Capitol, environmentalists have pushed a \u003ca href=\"https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/ballot-measures/initiative-and-referendum-status/eligible-statewide-initiative-measures\">plastic recycling initiative that is eligible for the November 2022 statewide ballot\u003c/a>. It would \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/newsletters/whatmatters/2021/07/prohibited-gun-owners/\">levy a new 1-cent tax on producers of single-use plastic\u003c/a>, and require single-use plastic packaging, containers, and utensils to be reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2030. The tax money would buoy recycling and environmental programs. The logic is: If you produce plastic items, you need to give back to the environment somehow, too, due to the damage plastic causes — from bags floating in oceans to \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2021/03/california-microplastics-drinking-water/\">microplastics lurking in food and water\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Allen’s bill now moving through the Legislature is a much narrower, less ambitious way to tackle the recycling dilemma. Instead of \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/projects/california-recycling-plastic-packaging-product-waste-policy/\">a massive economic overhaul\u003c/a>, it sets up boundaries on what “recyclable” means — starting with the labels consumers see on everyday items.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size='medium' align='right' citation=\"State Sen. Ben Allen, D-Santa Monica \"]'Americans find recycling ... more confusing than building IKEA furniture, doing their taxes, playing the stock market or understanding their spouse.'[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It targets the number framed within the triangular arrows symbol — the resin identification code that ranges from 1 to 7 depending on the type of plastic. Only those with a 1 or 2 (plastic bottles and jugs) are widely recycled in the U.S. Whether items coded 3 through 7 actually get recycled depends on local waste management practices. Though some cities, including Sacramento and San Francisco, do recycle items coded 3 to 7, the bill would at first let only products with codes 1 and 2 (such as soda bottles and milk jugs) bear the chasing arrows symbol. It would be eliminated from yogurt cups, take-out containers and lots of other plastics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s a problem for the plastic industry because it would make packaging in California different from what’s required in many other states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It \"would force companies to be out of compliance with other state laws ... mandating there be California-only packaging products,\" said Lauren Aguilar, who represents the Flexible Packaging Association of industry manufacturers and suppliers and AMERIPEN, which includes companies such as Campbell’s, McDonald’s and Kellogg’s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Related Stories\" tag=\"plastics\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the hearing in June, Assemblymember Kelly Seyarto pointed out that if California moves forward with a different policy than other states, it would come at a price. California-specific packaging could be expensive, exacerbating the Golden State’s already high cost of living.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"That cost is borne especially by communities that are predominantly poor, and therefore don’t really have the resources to keep spending more and more and more on their food supplies,\" the Republican from Murrieta said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But communities are already paying the price, environmentalists argue. Local garbage collection rates are escalating because non-recyclables and recyclables are mixed together in the blue bins, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/projects/california-recycling-plastics-trash-waste-crisis/\">requiring more sifting and sorting at recycling plants\u003c/a> and slowing down the process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Allen learned his newspaper sleeve with the triangular symbol was causing the same problem. \"I thought, oh, this is recyclable — but actually I was making the situation worse while trying to do the right thing,\" he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response to complaints from the plastic industry, Allen changed the bill to give companies an additional 15 months to comply and lobby other states to follow California’s approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That delay, however, isn’t enough to get the plastic industry’s support.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size='medium' align='right' citation=\"Shannon Crawford, Plastics Industry Association\"]'Although unintended, (the bill) will result in less recycling and more materials going to landfill.'[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Although unintended, (the bill) will result in less recycling and more materials going to landfill,\" Plastics Industry Association lobbyist Shannon Crawford said in her testimony.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Democratic Assemblymember Cristina Garcia of Bell Gardens rebutted the argument, saying \"most of this stuff is already being landfilled or being burned or being shipped out, and we’re pretending we’re recycling out there.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill lets CalRecycle decide which materials are \"recyclable\" and can carry the triangular symbol. It allows plastic producers to try to prove their materials are recyclable so they can get added to the approved list.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"What is recyclable is not static,” said Nick Lapis, a lobbyist for environmental advocacy group Californians Against Waste.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another option — not included in the bill, but on one environmentalist’s wish list: Put a label that says \"trash can\" on everything that’s not really recycled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"That would be very clear to the public, and they wouldn’t put it in the recycling bin,\" said Heidi Sanborn, executive director at the National Stewardship Action Council.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill will face its final votes when lawmakers reconvene after their summer break on Aug. 16.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Every morning, when state Sen. Ben Allen would grab the newspaper from outside his Santa Monica home, he’d pull off the plastic sleeve bearing the triangular recycling symbol and throw it where he thought it belonged: in a blue recycling bin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Allen soon learned that he was \"wishcycling\" — carefully sorting items with the recycling symbol, only to discover they weren’t getting recycled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It is \u003cem>technically\u003c/em> recyclable under the best of conditions at 1,000 degrees in some lab in San Marino. But ... they’re not recycled in the real world,\" the Democrat said at an Assembly Natural Resources Committee hearing in June.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This scenario isn’t unique. Despite the best intentions of Californians who diligently try to recycle yogurt cups, berry containers and other packaging, it turns out that \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/202120220SB343_Senate-Floor-Analyses.pdf\">at least 85% of single-use plastics\u003c/a> in the state do not actually get recycled. Instead, they wind up in the landfill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Americans find recycling ... more confusing than building IKEA furniture, doing their taxes, playing the stock market or understanding their spouse,\" Allen said, citing a study by the Consumer Brands Association. This confusion inspired Allen to pen a bill that buckles down on \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB343\">what kinds of plastic packaging can tout the triangular symbol known as “chasing arrows.”\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"If you’re not allowed to call an item recyclable because of our truth in environmental advertising laws, then you shouldn’t be able to put the ‘chasing arrows’ symbol on your product,\" Allen said in an interview.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Allen’s legislation is part of \u003ca href=\"https://sd26.senate.ca.gov/news/2021-03-09-ca-lawmakers-propose-package-new-laws-tackling-plastic-waste-reduction\">a bigger 12-bill package targeted at reducing plastics and waste\u003c/a> that lawmakers are considering this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supporters believe it will make what is — and isn’t — commonly recyclable more understandable to Californians. Opponents in the plastic industry believe the bill could pile waste in the landfill and raise packaging costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe src=\"https://e.infogram.com/_/tftuxXCFKAtX17bLlC8x?src=embed\" title=\"plastic recycling codes\" width=\"800\" height=\"1400\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:none;\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far, the bill has advanced smoothly with support from the Legislature’s majority Democrats. But many other \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2020/09/california-legislature-plastics/\">plastic reduction bills have failed in recent years in the face of industry opposition\u003c/a>. Allen’s past attempts at sweeping legislation that would ban non-recyclable plastic packaging died, even as environmentalists — and \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/search?lang=en&q=SB%2054%20(from%3Akellyslater)&src=typed_query\">a superstar surfer\u003c/a> — urged its passage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Amid these repeated legislative failures at the Capitol, environmentalists have pushed a \u003ca href=\"https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/ballot-measures/initiative-and-referendum-status/eligible-statewide-initiative-measures\">plastic recycling initiative that is eligible for the November 2022 statewide ballot\u003c/a>. It would \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/newsletters/whatmatters/2021/07/prohibited-gun-owners/\">levy a new 1-cent tax on producers of single-use plastic\u003c/a>, and require single-use plastic packaging, containers, and utensils to be reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2030. The tax money would buoy recycling and environmental programs. The logic is: If you produce plastic items, you need to give back to the environment somehow, too, due to the damage plastic causes — from bags floating in oceans to \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2021/03/california-microplastics-drinking-water/\">microplastics lurking in food and water\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Allen’s bill now moving through the Legislature is a much narrower, less ambitious way to tackle the recycling dilemma. Instead of \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/projects/california-recycling-plastic-packaging-product-waste-policy/\">a massive economic overhaul\u003c/a>, it sets up boundaries on what “recyclable” means — starting with the labels consumers see on everyday items.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the hearing in June, Assemblymember Kelly Seyarto pointed out that if California moves forward with a different policy than other states, it would come at a price. California-specific packaging could be expensive, exacerbating the Golden State’s already high cost of living.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"That cost is borne especially by communities that are predominantly poor, and therefore don’t really have the resources to keep spending more and more and more on their food supplies,\" the Republican from Murrieta said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But communities are already paying the price, environmentalists argue. Local garbage collection rates are escalating because non-recyclables and recyclables are mixed together in the blue bins, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/projects/california-recycling-plastics-trash-waste-crisis/\">requiring more sifting and sorting at recycling plants\u003c/a> and slowing down the process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Allen learned his newspaper sleeve with the triangular symbol was causing the same problem. \"I thought, oh, this is recyclable — but actually I was making the situation worse while trying to do the right thing,\" he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response to complaints from the plastic industry, Allen changed the bill to give companies an additional 15 months to comply and lobby other states to follow California’s approach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That delay, however, isn’t enough to get the plastic industry’s support.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Although unintended, (the bill) will result in less recycling and more materials going to landfill,\" Plastics Industry Association lobbyist Shannon Crawford said in her testimony.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Democratic Assemblymember Cristina Garcia of Bell Gardens rebutted the argument, saying \"most of this stuff is already being landfilled or being burned or being shipped out, and we’re pretending we’re recycling out there.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill lets CalRecycle decide which materials are \"recyclable\" and can carry the triangular symbol. It allows plastic producers to try to prove their materials are recyclable so they can get added to the approved list.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"What is recyclable is not static,” said Nick Lapis, a lobbyist for environmental advocacy group Californians Against Waste.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another option — not included in the bill, but on one environmentalist’s wish list: Put a label that says \"trash can\" on everything that’s not really recycled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"That would be very clear to the public, and they wouldn’t put it in the recycling bin,\" said Heidi Sanborn, executive director at the National Stewardship Action Council.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill will face its final votes when lawmakers reconvene after their summer break on Aug. 16.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>You may be eating, drinking or breathing \u003ca href=\"http://bit.ly/fioremicroplastic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">74,000 to 121,000 particles of plastic every year\u003c/a>, according to researchers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We all know about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and the spread of microplastic across the globe, including massive amounts \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1943007/the-new-pollution-monterey-bay-is-swimming-in-microplastic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">deep in the oceans\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now scientists are pointing out just how much plastic is in us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even in our beer!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If environmental destruction wasn't enough to get people to limit their use of plastics, let's hope contaminated beer will spur them to change their ways ... and help save the planet in the process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Microplastic is not just for fish anymore. You may be eating, drinking or breathing 74,000 to 121,000 particles of plastic every year, according to researchers.",
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"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"live-from-here-highlights": {
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"title": "Live from Here Highlights",
"info": "Chris Thile steps to the mic as the host of Live from Here (formerly A Prairie Home Companion), a live public radio variety show. Download Chris’s Song of the Week plus other highlights from the broadcast. Produced by American Public Media.",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/a-prairie-home-companion-highlights/rss/rss"
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"marketplace": {
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"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"order": 13
},
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"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"order": 12
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"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm-3pm, MON 12am-1am",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/onTheMedia.png",
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"our-body-politic": {
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"title": "Our Body Politic",
"info": "Presented by KQED, KCRW and KPCC, and created and hosted by award-winning journalist Farai Chideya, Our Body Politic is unapologetically centered on reporting on not just how women of color experience the major political events of today, but how they’re impacting those very issues.",
"airtime": "SAT 6pm-7pm, SUN 1am-2am",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/our-body-politic",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9feGFQaHMxcw",
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"order": 15
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"planet-money": {
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"title": "Planet Money",
"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
"airtime": "SUN 3pm-4pm",
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"politicalbreakdown": {
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"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
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