Plastic waste
Can Bioplastics Be Composted? UCLA Clinic Investigates
See how bioplastic packaging interacts with California’s waste system as UCLA’s Environmental Legislation Clinic tours facilities across the state.
A student team from UCLA’s California Environmental Legislation and Policy Clinic has been conducting research for a project on bioplastics through field visits at waste management sites up and down the state, from Sun Valley to Northern California. These clinic field trips have been really fascinating and a little smelly. Clinic student Maddie Lincoln describes …
Continue reading “Can Bioplastics Be Composted? UCLA Clinic Investigates”
CONTINUE READINGWe are Drowning in Plastic. Will a New Law Save Us?
The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.
My family recently spent a warm November morning ankle-deep in mucky, brackish water, fishing out used condoms and syringes near Venice Beach. It stands out as one of the best days I’ve had all year. We were volunteering with Ballona Creek Renaissance, a local nonprofit that alongside Friends of the Ballona Wetlands organizes creek cleanups …
Continue reading “We are Drowning in Plastic. Will a New Law Save Us?”
CONTINUE READINGGarbage In, Garbage Out, Garbage Everywhere
The collapse of international plastics negotiations demands a new, non-UN framework
Given all the garbage that we have to deal with nowadays, you might have missed the prospect of actual, non-metaphorical garbage this week: to virtually no one’s surprise, UN negotiations over an international plastics treaty collapsed this week. It’s easy to make jokes referencing The Graduate – and in fact I will – but this …
Continue reading “Garbage In, Garbage Out, Garbage Everywhere”
CONTINUE READINGThe Energy Secretary Pushes Pseudoscience
The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.
Remember alternative facts? That catch phrase from Season 1, Episode 1 where Trump officials lied about the size of his inauguration crowd has now metastasized into a governing philosophy for how federal agencies plan to ignore, and ultimately exacerbate, the climate crisis. Trump 2.0 is pushing alternative science. Late last month, Energy Secretary Chris Wright …
Continue reading “The Energy Secretary Pushes Pseudoscience”
CONTINUE READINGFrom Sacramento to Geneva: Two Arenas Tackle Plastic Pollution
California considers adding microplastics to its Candidate Chemical List as delegates negotiate a Global Binding Treaty on Plastics in Switzerland
Last Monday, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) closed its public comment period on a proposal to add microplastics to its Candidate Chemicals List. Adding microplastics to this list would allow the State’s Safer Consumer Product Program to evaluate potential Priority Products that may contain or release microplastics. The Program works to make …
Continue reading “From Sacramento to Geneva: Two Arenas Tackle Plastic Pollution”
CONTINUE READINGHow to Grow a Victory Garden out of Trash
Private recycling subscription services are helping my family divert our waste, though I wish we didn’t need them.
While unelected billionaires and sycophant cabinet members are pretending to get rid of waste in Washington, I’ve declared war on waste, fraud, and abuse in my own Los Angeles home. My family is fighting food and plastic waste using a pair of recycling subscription services. Yes, I realize it’s just a small ripple in the …
Continue reading “How to Grow a Victory Garden out of Trash”
CONTINUE READINGWhy You Should Read CA’s ExxonMobil Plastic Lawsuit
California’s lawsuit against ExxonMobil for lying about plastic recycling is the latest example of the state using old-fashioned legal tools to address more modern harms.
The media have moved on (understandably) from California’s recent lawsuit against Exxon over plastic recycling to other environmental stories like Hurricane Helene’s catastrophic damage and Hurricane Milton’s terrifying, rapid intensification. But anyone interested in the problem of plastic pollution—which should, frankly, be everyone—will appreciate digging deeper than the Day One headlines to read California’s 147-page …
Continue reading “Why You Should Read CA’s ExxonMobil Plastic Lawsuit”
CONTINUE READINGThe Ins and Outs of Kennedy’s Environmental Positions
His campaign website is a mashup of very different perspectives, from “back to the earth” to tech bro.
Working through his website seemed to reveal a broad effort to combine distrust of government and big business), belief in free markets, and valuing nature and the land for their own sakes. Kennedy offers an unusual blend of Sixties “back to the land” environmentalism with Tech Bro libertarianism.
CONTINUE READINGEverywhere and Forever All at Once: PFAS and the Failures of Chemicals Regulation
Environmental law helped create a world awash in toxic chemicals. It’s time to think about how regulation can operate as a form of green industrial policy for chemicals.
This post was originally published on the Law & Political Economy Blog as “How Environmental Law Created a World Awash in Toxic Chemicals.” Earlier this spring, the Biden administration finalized two important rules targeting a small subset of so-called forever chemicals: one establishing drinking water standards for six such chemicals and the other designating two …
Continue reading “Everywhere and Forever All at Once: PFAS and the Failures of Chemicals Regulation”
CONTINUE READINGHappy 50th Anniversary, Federal Clean Water Act
One of America’s Foundational Environmental Laws Has Proven Transformational, But Requires Updating a Half-Century Later
The Clean Water Act (CWA), one of the nation’s most important environmental laws, is 50 years old today. It’s proven to be one of the most successful of America’s bedrock federal environmental statutes. But the CWA is far from perfect, needs some important updating, and will probably never fully achieve the aspirational goals Congress proclaimed …
Continue reading “Happy 50th Anniversary, Federal Clean Water Act”
CONTINUE READINGJoin Our Mailing List
Climate policy is changing rapidly. Stay in the loop with expert analysis via email Monday - Friday.
