Despite a recent report from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) that highlighted that 25% of freshwater fish were threatened with extinction, scientists in Turkey have recently come across a rare species sighting that gives some hope to the situation.
Ichthyologists in Turkey recently spotted the leopard barbel (Luciobarbus subquincunciatus), a rare freshwater fish that hasn’t been scientifically documented since 2011.
They observed the fish in the Tigris River, making this the second freshwater fish species on the Search for Lost Fishes program’s list. Search for Lost Fishes is a collaboration between conservation group Re:wild, global freshwater species conservation initiative SHOAL and UK-based charity Synchronicity Earth.
The scientists were tipped off by local fishers, who have suggested the fish could have still been around despite going scientifically undocumented for over a decade. With these insights from the local community, a team consisting of the local fishers, the local fisheries aquaculture department, Cüneyt Kaya, associate professor at Recep Tayyip Erdogan University, and Münevver Oral, assistant professor at Recep Tayyip Erdogan University, set out to find this rare species.
“There is nothing quite like the feeling of finding that a species that has been pushed to the brink of extinction is still hanging on, despite the odds,” Kaya said in a press release. “It is even more thrilling than discovering a new species because it means that we can give a rare species a second chance. With both the Batman River loach and now the leopard barbel, we have an obligation to mobilize conservation efforts to ensure neither becomes lost again.”
Amid a second expedition, local fisher Mehmet Ülkü found a fish with prominent spotted markings in Cizre and suspected this could be the leopard barbel the team was searching for. Ülkü kept the fish safe in a tank with a constant oxygen supply as Kaya and Oral made their way to Cizre. In the meantime, Ülkü found and safely captured a second suspected leopard barbel.
After the team confirmed the species findings, the fish were safely released back into the wild with the help of the fisheries aquaculture department.
“We dropped everything and would have gone to the ends of the Earth to see this fish, this legend, alive in the wild,” Oral said. “I have never seen a fish as beautiful as this. It was the realization not only of our dream to find this lost species, but of the hope that not all is lost — we still have a chance to protect the leopard barbel and all of the other incredible freshwater species it shares its home with.”
Formerly, this freshwater fish species was found widely across the Tigris-Euphrates river system in eastern Turkey, eastern Syria, Iran and Iraq. But according to Re:wild, leopard barbels have faced many threats over the past 30 years that have pushed them toward extinction. Some of the top threats to the species include fishing, pollution and habitat destruction. Today, IUCN Red List lists the species as critically endangered.
But the rediscovery of the species in Turkey gives hope not only for the leopard barbel but other vulnerable freshwater fish species as well. With new and continued efforts, the expedition teams hope to improve protections. These efforts come at a crucial time, as a new dam is under construction in Cizre and could further threaten the leopard barbel species, Re:wild reported.
“We all have a role to play in protecting our incredible natural heritage and I am proud to have used my skills to help rediscover the leopard barbel,” Ülkü said. “Safeguarding this species into the future is going to require educating other fishers and continuing to bring together scientific knowledge and local expertise.”
According to Re:wild, Kaya and Oral plan to host seminars for fishers and educators on the biodiversity of the Tigris River to educate and build pride in local wildlife. They will also continue research on the leopard barbel to estimate how many might still exist and the extent of their remaining range.
Upcycling is the reusing of discarded objects, materials and other waste, for repurposing into something new of higher value and different use.
Upcycling reduces waste in landfills, where products take forever to break down and emit greenhouse gases while they do. Upcycling plastic in particular also reduces pollution from manufacturing and conserves resources, as it reduces the need for new plastic products.
Upcycling is more environmentally friendly than recycling, which uses more energy (which means fossil fuels), water and other resources in its processes of breaking down. Recycling also is now found to release large amounts of microplastics into the environment.
Some things that can be upcycled into other goods are: cardboard, glass, plastic, metal and tin cans, wood, paper, styrofoam and other non-biodegradable packaging, and clothing.
Upcycling food waste is a process being utilized to create new food and beverage products, as well as others that utilize the oils in wastewater from food processing facilities to make fertilizer, cosmetics, feed and energy, which eliminates the need for wastewater treatment facilities.
Indirectly, objects that are upcycled help reduce the energy and water needed to manufacture new materials.
There are companies who are now trying to take care of construction and demolition waste, which amounts to 600 million tons of debris a year with new innovative and functional building design products made with debris.
Many of us are familiar with the phrase, “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” in terms of sustainability, but it’s become apparent that “Reduce, Reuse, and Repurpose” might be a smarter avenue in terms of reducing waste streams.
Right now globally, 2.12 billion tons of waste is dumped annually. Many industries, particularly textiles, contribute not only to microplastic pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, but also poisonous gases in the atmosphere.
Doubling down on not always purchasing new things helps to reduce waste and conserve valuable resources.
Upcycling is the process of using items that might be discarded to create a new use for them, often one with higher value. It’s currently being done in fashion, with household items, plastic waste and other areas with creativity and innovation by households and businesses.
History and Evolution of Upcycling
While the term “upcycle” didn’t make its way onto the scene until the 1990s, the concept could be as ancient as the stone tools that prehistoric humans may have reused for both practical and nostalgic reasons.
During World War II, Britain mandated clothes rationing because many supplies were used to produce war uniforms, and about a quarter of the British population was involved in war efforts. As a response, they created a “Make-Do and Mend” campaign to help citizens creatively figure out ways to make their clothes last longer.
A “Make-Do And Mend” WWII-era poster in the UK. The National Archives / SSPL / Getty Images
Because supplies were so scarce, it became important to repair, recycle and make clothes from scratch. Women couldn’t buy fabric, and often had to resort to using household textiles like curtains and tablecloths. Sometimes parachute silk was used for underwear, nightgowns and wedding dresses.
In the 50s and 60s, upcycling entered the art scene with avant garde artists that will be discussed below.
When the UK faced a major recession in the 80s and 90s, upcycling or “customizing” became popular again, with many youth upcycling second-hand clothes.
The first mention of the term upcycling appears in a 1994 article in the architecture magazine Salvo, where mechanical engineer Reiner Pilz stated, “I call recycling down-cycling. What we need is up-cycling, thanks to which old products are given a higher, not a lower, value.”
Now upcycling is emerging through the lens of climate change, and with concern for how waste impacts the natural environment.
While many are creating an industry around it globally in developed nations, some are introducing it as an industry in developing nations.
Upcycling and the Environment
Upcycling has a number of positive direct and indirect environmental impacts.
First and Foremost, Upcycling Reduces What Ends up in Landfills
The Prima Deshecha landfill in San Juan Capistrano, California on March 10, 2022. Mark Rightmire / MediaNews Group / Orange County Register via Getty Images
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 292 million tons of municipal solid waste was generated in 2018. Of this total only 94 million tons was recycled, 25 million tons was composted, and another 17 million tons of food was managed with other methods.
That still leaves a whopping 152 million tons of waste in the landfills generating greenhouse gases as they slowly break down, and increasing plastic pollution in the environment.
When you upcycle, you reduce the need to extract raw materials like steel, oil, lumber, forest resources, plastic, natural gas, coal and minerals to create something new. It also reduces the need for synthetic materials which are made from petrochemicals and not readily biodegradable.
It also helps you reduce water use. Textiles and garments alone are the second most water-consuming industry, with every process of manufacturing dependent on it from dyes, specialty chemicals and washing and rinsing.
According to the EPA, in 2019 the industry sector produced 23% of carbon emissions in the processing of raw materials into a finished product.
While recycling is better than going to the landfill, and it produces less greenhouse gas emissions than manufacturing of new materials, it still produces carbon emissions.
Upcycling and the Fashion Industry
Fashion, particularly fast fashion, is one of the largest issues of pollution in landfills.
Globally, about 85% of clothes ends up in landfills or burned. Many of these clothes are not recyclable in the first place, since plastic and synthetic fibers like polyester, nylon and acrylics are made from crude oil, which makes them impossible to reuse in other ways.
Discarded clothes in a landfill in the Atacama Desert in Chile on Nov. 25, 2021. Antonio Cossio / picture alliance via Getty Images
An estimated 13 million tons of textile waste a year comes from the manufacturers themselves, as well as retailers with the fashion industry contributing roughly 10% of all global carbon emissions and with plastic fibers in the clothes contributing to microplastic pollution.
In Asia, Cambodian company Tonlé sifts through leftover fabrics from large garment factories, using larger pieces to make new clothes, and smaller pieces for spinning into yarn for new designs. In Hong Kong, the brand Heritage ReFashioned makes luxury handbags with upcycled vintage textiles from China, Japan and Southeast Asia. Their mission is to turn forgotten textiles, like Japanese Kimono silk, into something more valuable.
In New York, Zero Waste Daniel by Daniel Silverstein uses fabric scraps to make custom clothing lines that look like mosaics. Zero Waste Daniel also has a buy back program.
A RE/DONE store in Los Angeles, California on April 23, 2021. Michael Buckner / WWD / Penske Media via Getty Images
Founded by surfer Kelly Slater, the brand Outerknown has a selection of upcycled items that involve upcycled cotton, recycled polyester and other materials. Their other clothing is Blue-sign certified, which means no harmful chemicals are used in its manufacturing process.
There are other more established brands doing upcycled lines.
Denim brands like Levi’s and Madewell allow customers to return old jeans so that the company can give them new life as something different. Denim collected by Madewell is upcycled into insulation for construction. Levi’s also offers instructions on how to repurpose their denim.
Coach also has (Re)Loved, an initiative in which consumers can shop pre-used Coach bags or even trade in their used bags so that they can be remade into a new design.
Upcycling and Art
Mosaic flooring made of beer bottle caps. Michael Paulsen / Houston Chronicle via Getty Images
In the early 1900s, French artist Marcel Duchamps coined the term “found art” or “ready-mades” where he created art from what was considered trash and other discarded items. This was later adopted widely by other artists in the Dada movement, a European avant-garde movement that emerged during World War I and would eventually give way to the Junk Art Movement of the 1950s.
Artist Robert Rauschenberg was a popular artist on that scene and was best known for making hybrid painting-sculptures he called “combines” out of litter from New York’s city streets – lightbulbs, chairs, tires, umbrellas, street signs and cardboard boxes.
Cardboard box collages by Robert Rauschenberg at Gemini G.E.L. art gallery and art publisher in the Chelsea district of New York City on Sept. 23, 2017. Robert Alexander / Getty Images
In the 1960s, Franco-American artist Arman created a series called “Accumulations,” where he aggregated trash in airtight glass boxes to comment on a society in which everything seems disposable after a single use.
Contemporary artists have also employed other methods now to comment on the waste crisis through art, like Brazillian artist Vik Muniz, whose artistic project Waste Land used the trash from the world’s largest landfill in Rio to create pieces of art that featured renderings of the garbage pickers, with the goal to sell and donate all the proceeds back to them.
In the end he was able to raise $250,000 that went to the Association of Recycling Pickers of Jardim Gramacho to build houses and improve infrastructure.
Currently the upcycled art movement seeks to specifically help eliminate waste while creating art. One artist, Wim Delvoye, does an intricate carving of tires.
In Canada, artist Angie Quintilla Coates makes reclaimed art pieces like vases and lamp bases out of old plastic shampoo bottles, laundry detergent containers, mouthwash bottles and other items.
Band members of Fungistanbul play musical instruments made of upcycled waste materials in Istanbul, Turkey, on Oct. 27, 2021. Osman Orsal / Xinhua via Getty Images
Upcycling Food Waste
About 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted annually, with food waste in landfills being one of the leading contributors of greenhouse gases. Upcycling food is one way to help reduce this waste stream.
The Upcycled Food Association (UFA) defines upcycled foods as those that “use ingredients that otherwise would not have gone to human consumption, are procured and produced using verifiable supply chains, and have a positive impact on the environment.”
Many companies use imperfect fruits and vegetables that wouldn’t be sold to market as they are, or to create other products like soups, sauces and chutneys. There are a number of brands now that also utilize it to create new food products like veggie chips and other snack foods in beverages.
Specialty spirit Wheyward Spirit utilizes whey, a liquid byproduct of cheese production.
The Supplant Company is creating sugars from fiber and upcycles the fiber-rich structural plant parts from agricultural side streams, such as straw and stalks, as well as cobs of corn, wheat and rice.
They claim it has the same texture and taste as cane sugar in baked goods and other treats. Since the ingredient is made from fiber, it retains certain beneficial fiber-based qualities: it is lower in calories, has a lower glycemic response and is a prebiotic.
The company Take Two makes upcycled barley milk, which is the first plant milk to utilize spent grain, of which over eight billion pounds is wasted annually from beer brewing processes.
Other companies are also creating new products while addressing socio-economic problems.
Australian company Aqua Botanical is working to create drinking water to combat water scarcity, by extracting, filtering and mineralizing the water used from the production of juice concentrate.
In West Africa, Sweet Benin is a company creating cashew apple juice. Only 10 percent of the nearly 280 million pounds of cashew apples are processed in Benin every year, contributing to massive amounts of food waste. In 2018, the company produced 180,000 bottles of cashew apple juice and is working to help cashew farmers supplement their off-season income.
There are many others.
A 2021 study published in Food and Nutrition Sciences revealed that only 10% of consumers are familiar with upcycled food products, but once educated about them, 80% say that they would seek them out.
Upcycling and Architecture
A home built from reclaimed barn wood in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Richer Images / Construction Photography / Avalon / Getty Images
As many seek to be more sustainable, upcycling has also been making its way into architecture through creativity and innovation.
In Las Rasas, Madrid, eco-fashion pioneer Ecoalf and tech design studio Nagami created their Net Zero, Zero waste boutique by 3-D printing the interior with plastics, repurposing more than 33 tons of it. Every wall, shelf and display table inside the store is also made from recycled plastics.
The Sint Oelbert gymnasium school designed by Grosfeld Bekkers van der Velde Architecten is the first permanent structure that utilizes cladding created by Pretty Plastic. Cladding is used on exteriors of buildings to provide thermal insulation and weather resistance, and to improve the appearance of buildings. Pretty Plastic’s shingles use recycled PVC windows and gutters to create products that are wind and waterproof, fire-resistant and capable of withstanding extreme weather conditions.
Scottish start-up Kenoteq has also created the world’s first sustainable bricks. K-Briq are bricks that look and weigh as much as a typical brick and behave like a clay brick in terms of insulation, but are made of 90% construction and demolition waste and emit less than 10% of the carbon emissions of traditional brick production.
The EcoARK, an exhibition hall in Taiwan, is one of the first buildings made with Polli-bricks made from plastic bottles. The Polli-bricks are translucent and have a honeycomb interlocking structure. The building’s Polli-bricks consist of more than 1.5 million plastic bottles.
In 2018, to align with the opening of the NYCxDesign Festival, Zero Waste Bistro, a food pop-up, was created with materials built from recycled food and beverage cartons made by the Rewall Company, which has since been acquired by Continuous Materials, which specializes in making roof coverboards from plastic and paper waste.
Ecobricks are more of a DIY-structured solution, where households and communities can take empty plastic bottles and fill them with clear and dry used plastic waste. The bottles can later be used and built into cement for garden structures or other uses.
Not everyone agrees that this is useful, particularly those who believe that reducing and stopping the use and purchase of plastic is the better solution.
Ideas for Upcycling at Home
One of the great things about upcycling is it allows you to exercise your creativity when trying to create something new. D-I-Y ideas for upcycling items, particularly for the home, are exhaustive and can involve utilizing old jars, paint cans, wine bottles, clothing, broken dishes, old furniture and other objects to make candles, glasses, pendant lights, planters, wreaths, baskets, different furniture and more.
Check out a curated list of some ideas from EcoWatch here.
A recycling and upcycling in fashion workshop run by Slow Fashion Cafe in Climate Education Centre at Chemistry High School in Krakow, Poland on Oct. 17, 2023. Dominika Zarzycka / NurPhoto
Many things can be done with clothing by either upcycling old clothes into a new outfits by dying, embroidering, turning them into quilts, scrunchies or tote bags, or using them to clean the house.
They could also be turned into more interesting items. Denim, for instance, can be made into coin purses, organizers, jewelry, upholstery and other useful things.
Some people are also using fabric and linens, alongside plastic, to create upcycled zero waste baskets. Here is a tutorial on how to make them.
For the Garden and Yard
Old walking boots used as plant pots outside Borrowdale YHA, The Lake District, Cumbria, UK. Education Images / Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Unique upcycling ideas for the yard include upcycled wood pallet planters, used door sheds and windchimes from utensils.
Here is a link to ideas from Sustain My Craft Habit, which says you don’t always just have to limit yourself to what’s at your house — you can also find items at neighborhood yard sales, Facebook Marketplace, Freecycle and thrift stores.
An old lampshade upcycled as a plant pot for growing rhubarb in a south London back garden. Richard Baker / In Pictures via Getty Images
Upcycling Food at Home
There are many ways to use as much as you can, and extend certain products you buy. You can reuse leftover jar juices as marinades or vinaigrettes, turn stale bread into croutons, regrow foods like romaine and onions, to name a few.
Banana peels are filled with potassium that helps plants grow flowers and fruit. You can apply it by liquifying the banana, or letting the peel decompose on the soil. You can also soak the peels overnight in water, and pour the water into the soil.
Coffee grounds are rich in nitrogen and other minerals plants like. It’s recommended that grounds be spread on alkaline soil or for acid-loving plants. A list of acid-loving plants can be found here.
Egg shells are an excellent source of calcium which can give plants a great boost. Crush them into a powder-like consistency and sprinkle on soil or around trees.
An organization that is working to build a food system where all food is elevated to its best and highest use, has members internationally and offers Upcycled certification for products.
Collaborates with various entities to offer end-market solutions for waste materials such as LDPE bags and wraps, flexible film packaging, glass, bottles, beverage cartons, mixed plastics, paper, coffee and soda cups, hemp, solar panels and food waste.
An organization focused on re-orienting and re-educating African communities towards a greener future through the process of upcycling, where the community can reduce waste accumulation by transforming useless products, materials or energy into something functional.
A nonprofit organization based in NYC that raises funds to support workforce development through the resale of high-end items in our online and Soho Vintage store.
Both Republicans and Democrats in deep-red Louisiana have warmed up to the idea of carbon removal, a practice that involves capturing carbon dioxide from large industrial operations and storing it a mile underground. Federal tax incentives promise to make the burgeoning industry profitable at a time when businesses are looking to slash their carbon emissions. There’s one big hangup: The Environmental Protection Agency has been slow to issue permits for underground wells where the captured carbon is supposed to be stored.
So when the agency announced in the waning days of 2023 that it’s handing over permitting duties, known as “primacy,” to Louisiana regulators, elected officials and industry executives celebrated. Republican Governor-elect Jeff Landry, who previously said that carbon reduction policies are “extremely destructive on the economy,” called the decision a “significant milestone in our state’s economic development.”
Even the local branch of Big Oil’s lobbying arm, the American Petroleum Institute, or API, hailed the move as a boon for growth and sustainability. “Today’s decision will empower the state to continue to be a leader in energy production, community engagement, and environmental progress while boosting the local economy,” Gifford Briggs, API’s Gulf Coast regional director, reportedly told local news outlets.
Environmentalists and many locals are not as enthusiastic. Though it holds the promise of reducing climate-warming emissions from highly polluting facilities, carbon removal is a nascent industry that some scientists warn could pose serious health risks to nearby communities. When a pipeline carrying carbon dioxide ruptured in Mississippi in February 2020, dozens of people were hospitalized after experiencing shortness of breath and passing out. Some residents were initially unable to drive their cars to the hospital because the high levels of carbon dioxide in the air prevented their engines from starting.
And since the gas will be captured from industrial facilities, its transfer and storage will disproportionately occur in places already overburdened by air pollution. In Louisiana, the country’s third-poorest state, those communities are predominantly Black and low-income. Advocates worry that a state with a legacy of lax oversight of oil and gas companies is the wrong place to streamline permitting for more planned carbon removal projects than anywhere else in the country.
The carbon removal industry “just hasn’t been going on that long,” said James Yskamp, a senior attorney at the environmental nonprofit Earthjustice. “So we just think it’s a little bit of a mistake to hand over primacy to a state that there’s this big of a planned build-out for.”
The wells that would store carbon dioxide are regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act, which requires businesses to prevent fluids and waste that they store underground from contaminating public water supplies. While the EPA is the default authority for issuing companies permits to operate these injection wells, the agency can choose to delegate the responsibility to states that prove to have implemented a permitting program of their own. To date, federal regulators have handed off what’s known as “primacy” to just two other states — North Dakota and Wyoming — and Earthjustice says that neither state has any operating wells that store carbon dioxide.
Polly Glover poses for a photograph at the St. James Boat Club launch, along part of the Lake Maurepas watershed. The CO2 captured at the Air Products and Chemicals facility will be stored in sites such as under Lake Maurepas. Gerald Herbert / AP Photo
Louisiana applied for permitting powers in September 2021, but it wasn’t until this past June that the EPA held a hearing on it. Even though the vast majority of the 45,000 comments submitted to the agency during the public comment period were in opposition to the state’s bid, EPA Administrator Michael Reagan signed over the permitting duties to the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources on December 28. It’s a decision with sweeping implications for the carbon removal industry. Louisiana has more applications for carbon dioxide injection wells than any other state, with 22 of the 61 proposals pending with federal regulators. And as state officials have promised to speed up the permitting process for these wells, the Pelican State could become an important testing ground for the new technology.
Regan has said that provisions in its agreement with Louisiana will guarantee that the permitting is done right. “We’re building in monitoring and oversight measures to ensure that the state — regardless of who is in the governor’s office — complies” with federal law, Regan told the Associated Press in late December.
Environmental advocates aren’t so confident. In a 60-page letter submitted to the EPA in June, Earthjustice laid out a litany of problems with Louisiana’s permitting proposal, and argued that state regulators don’t have the expertise needed to approve and regulate carbon dioxide wells. The organization pointed to the EPA’s own research indicating that these wells are more sophisticated than other types of underground storage systems, since they create high-pressure conditions with the ability to crack subsurface rocks and cause dangerous leaks. Modeling exercises are necessary to understand the scope of these risks, but Louisiana’s Department of Natural Resources has “no experience” conducting this type of study, according to Jane Patton, a New Orleans-based campaign manager for the Center for International Environmental Law.
In its letter, Earthjustice wrote that the state of Louisiana’s permitting program absolves businesses of responsibility for their well sites after 50 years, a provision that the organization says conflicts with federal regulations. A lack of scientific research into the long term impacts and efficacy of carbon storage make this half-century benchmark arbitrary, they argued.
Carbon removal “hasn’t been proven to efficiently and effectively capture the carbon emissions, and it hasn’t been proven to permanently store the amount of carbon that we’re proposing to store here safely,” said Yskamp, the Earthjustice attorney. He argues that fossil fuel companies are piloting most of the state’s carbon removal projects as a way of “greenwashing” their pollution.
Louisiana officials say the carbon removal industry will be a boon for the economy. In its latest annual report, the state’s economic development agency projected that the industry will create more than 2,300 new jobs in the state over the next year. But there are questions about how long those jobs will last. Patton told the Louisiana Illuminator, a nonprofit news outlet, that the lion’s share of these positions are temporary construction jobs that won’t benefit state residents in the long term.
Advocates are also concerned that carbon dioxide wells will pose public health risks in places where air pollution is already a problem. The Earthjustice letter pointed to numerous projects that would be built right next to predominantly Black neighborhoods, including Air Products’ proposed ammonium plant in Ascension Parish. The parish sits along the lower Mississippi River in the state’s main industrial corridor, a region known as “Cancer Alley” for the concentration of petrochemical plants there.
Regan has offered reassurances that people living near well sites will be protected, pointing to measures in the EPA’s agreement with Louisiana designed to shield vulnerable communities from the hazards associated with carbon storage. The concern is that the state will not honor these provisions, given its history of coziness with the oil and gas industry, and Landry’s recent lawsuit against the federal government for trying to enforce civil rights law in the state’s most polluted areas.
“Communities across Louisiana are depending on these provisions to protect them from decades of environmental policy that put these very communities at risk from illness, pollution, and death,” wrote Beverly Wright, the founder and director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, in a statement. “Louisiana’s most vulnerable cannot be left exposed to an untested pollution control technology without accountability.”
Editor’s note: Earthjustice is an advertiser with Grist. Advertisers have no role in Grist’s editorial decisions.
In 2014, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency flagged vinyl chloride — a hazardous chemical that’s used to make PVC pipes and other plastic products — for further assessment and potential restrictions under the Toxic Substances Control Act, a federal chemical safety law. But it’s taken nearly a decade for the agency to begin that assessment.
The EPA announced last month that it’s launching a 12-month evaluation period for five hazardous plastic- and petrochemical-related substances, including vinyl chloride. It’s the first step in a potentially yearslong process that could lead to a nationwide ban.
“It’s very welcome news, and something that seems so common-sense,” said Emily Jeffers, a senior attorney for the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity. The move is long overdue, she added — vinyl chloride has been known to be a human carcinogen since 1974. Chronic exposure is linked to liver cancer, and high concentrations may cause lung and kidney irritation and central nervous effects like memory loss.
The vinyl chloride that didn’t spill was burned off by first responders in an effort to avoid an explosive chemical reaction; vinyl chloride is highly flammable. Experts later questioned whether that intentional burning was necessary, and it may have contributed toadverse health effects for East Palestine residents, including headaches, coughs, and skin irritation.
Train cars carrying vinyl chloride and other hazardous materials derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, on February 3, 2023.
NTSB / Handout via Xinhua
Jess Conard, Appalachia director for the nonprofit Beyond Plastics and a resident of East Palestine, said the disaster made her “extremely ill” and affected the rest of her family, too. In the months following the derailment, one of her kids was diagnosed with asthma, and her husband began taking medication for worsening migraines.
“We’ve had no option to test our bodies for chemicals, no place to call to report symptoms that we feel are related to the derailment,” Conard told Grist.
The disaster made international headlines, injecting new urgency into environmental advocates’ call for a phaseout of vinyl chloride and lighting a fire under the EPA. In its aftermath, many groups also called for reduced production of PVC — for things like pipes, construction materials, and vinyl fabrics — noting that more than95 percent of vinyl chloride is produced for these plastic products.
“As long as PVC production continues, the risk of vinyl chloride spills will persist,” wrote three experts in a February 2023 New York Times op-ed.
Banning vinyl chloride would do more than reduce spill risks; it would also address deleterious effects associated with the production, use, and disposal of vinyl chloride and PVC. For example, decades of evidence shows that workers in vinyl chloride and PVC facilities face elevated risks of cancer, although chemical companies have sought to downplay or suppress this evidence. Then, during their lifetime, PVC products — including pipes that convey drinking water to homes — can leach or offgas hazardous chemicals like dioxins and phthalates, as well as vinyl chloride itself. And when PVC is thrown away or incinerated — it’s almost never recycled — it can release hazardous air emissions and toxic ash.
What’s more, people living near vinyl chloride and PVC facilities tend to be disproportionately poor and nonwhite. According to one analysis from the nonprofit Toxic-Free Future, 63 percent of those living within a 3-mile radius of vinyl chloride or PVC production and disposal facilities are people of color. These residents earn an annual income of $23,747 per capita, compared to the national average of about $40,000.
Workers stand in a PVC pipe and construction equipment manufacturing plant.
Issouf Sanogo / AFP via Getty Images
Ned Monroe, president and CEO of an industry trade group called the Vinyl Institute, said in a statement that his organization is “fully prepared to work with the EPA” during its vinyl chloride assessment, expressing confidence that the chemical will continue to be produced. “We believe this risk evaluation will further assure that the production of vinyl chloride and use of PVC products are safe,” he said.
Four major U.S. vinyl chloride producers — AGC Chemicals, Formosa Plastics, Olin Corporation, and Orbia — did not respond to Grist’s request for comment. Two other major producers, Westlake Chemical and Occidental Petroleum Corporation, referred Grist to the Vinyl Institute’s statement.
Despite the EPA’s new efforts, a complicated review process means manufacturers will still have plenty of time before the EPA devises any kind of new regulation. First, the agency will spend the next nine to 12 months deciding whether vinyl chloride should be classified as a “high-priority substance” — meaning that it may pose an “unreasonable risk” to people’s health and the environment. Assuming the chemical meets that threshold — and the EPA expects it will — the agency will initiative a more thorough risk evaluation, gathering input from chemical manufacturers, scientists, and the public. Finally, “as soon as practicable” but no more than three and a half years later, the EPA will publish its final determination in the Federal Register, including a specific date for companies to comply with any new rules.
In the meantime, advocacy groups say there are plenty of alternatives to PVC, the main material vinyl chloride is made for. PVC water pipes, for example, can be replaced with pipes made from copper or stainless steel.
To Conard, with Beyond Plastics, these alternatives should be rolled out immediately, given the known dangers of vinyl chloride. “It’s insane to me to think that … we run this toxic chemical through town after town on a bomb train on a rickety rail line,” she said. “We have sustainable alternatives that would not poison our drinking water. Why don’t we use them?”
The yellowfin tuna that is commonly used to make sashimi and other dishes like poke bowls may become scarce if overexploitation rates don’t improve, particularly in the Indian Ocean, a press release from international research initiative the Sea Around Us said.
A new study by an international team of researchers has found that, since the industrial exploitation that began in 1950, the weight of a yellowfin tuna population in the water has decreased by an average of 54 percent throughout the four tuna populations managed by Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMO).
The biomass of yellowfin tuna in the Indian Ocean has declined by 70 percent in the last 70 years.
“If we look at more recent years, we can see that global yellowfin tuna populations continue to struggle. Biomass continues to decline everywhere except for stabilizing trends in the Western Pacific Ocean, prompted by management interventions,” said Kristina Heidrich, the study’s lead author and a Ph.D. candidate with theUniversity of Western Australia (UWA)’s the Sea Around Us – Indian Ocean, in the press release.
The study, “Multiple lines of evidence highlight the dire straits of yellowfin tuna in the Indian Ocean,” was published in the journal Ocean & Coastal Management.
“In most places, extractions have regularly surpassed the maximum sustainable yield or MSY limit, which is the level that would allow for the highest possible catches to be sustained over time, given that environmental conditions don’t change much,” said Dirk Zeller, one of the study’s co-authors and director of the Sea Around Us – Indian Ocean, in the press release.
The researchers used the results of RFMO’s time series and assessment of yellowfin biomass in order to estimate the yearly changes from 1950 to 2020. They also used the CMSY++ stock assessment method, which mostly uses a time series of catches to gauge the level of fish stocks. They then examined 955 yellowfin tuna records from samplings independent of fisheries using Baited Remote Underwater Video Systems (BRUVS), which record ecological and biological data like biomass and species size and abundance in a certain area.
“The data collected with BRUVS provided a more holistic and fisheries-independent picture of the pelagic community and the status of the populations, which can complement fisheries-dependent data and analyses,” said Jessica Meeuwig, a study co-author and director of the Marine Futures Lab at UWA, in the press release. “These fisheries-independent BRUVS data suggest that, since 2014, yellowfin tuna in the Indian Ocean are the least common, least abundant, have the lowest biomass, and are the smallest yellowfin tuna in the existing dataset.”
The CMSY++ method showed that yellowfin tuna were not currently being subjected to overfishing in the Atlantic and western and eastern Pacific Ocean, despite their exploitation rates slightly exceeding the MSY limit over the past decade.
Overfishing is ongoing in the Indian Ocean.
“Beyond yellowfin tuna fisheries contributing more than US$16 billion to the global economy yearly, the species is an apex predator that plays a critical role in the functioning, productivity and overall health of marine ecosystems,” said Daniel Pauly, study co-author and the principal investigator of the University of British Columbia’s the Sea Around Usinitiative, in the press release. “The risk of population collapse is high if current management does not adapt. Stringent management constraints must be implemented to reduce overall fishing capacity, rebuild overfished populations, and reduce the collateral damage these fisheries cause to other species such as sharks.”
The research team pointed out that management organizations can enhance the transparency, confidence and accuracy of the information they use in decision-making by also employing multiple lines of evidence to cross-validate each other. They also suggested using stricter management measures like implementing effective catch limits, reducing fishing capacity and enforcing the MSY limit.
“In the Indian Ocean in particular, a catch reduction of 30 per cent from 2020 levels is urgent to halt and reverse the decline in yellowfin tuna population,” Heidrich said in the press release.
The sandy beaches of Spain’s northwestern Galicia region have been inundated with millions of plastic pellets, sometimes referred to as “nurdles” or “mermaid tears,” reported Reuters.
The environmental incident elicited a local response.
“People started sending us photos on Instagram of the bags on Espiñeirido beach,” said Madison Hourihan, founder of environmental group Noia Limpa, reported Euro Weekly News.
The group noticed an increase in the sightings around Christmas that indicated the spill happened on December 6.
The representative of Madrid in Galicia said regional coast guards were first informed of the incident by the maritime rescue service on December 20, Reuters reported.
Alfonso Rueda, regional leader of Galicia, said the central government was aware of the pellets for more than two weeks before informing his administration on January 4.
The “inaction two weeks after detecting the spill” was criticized by Ecologistas en Acción, a Spanish grassroots league of ecological groups. Ecologistas en Acción said it would file a complaint against the ship’s Dutch owner Toucan Maritime.
Noia Limpa found about 70 bags along the coastline, weighing approximately 55 pounds each, reported Euro Weekly News. The bags came from Polish company Bedeko Europe — the manufacturer of the pellets — but had broken, scattering the tiny plastic pieces on the beach. The pellets have a diameter of less than five millimeters and are lightweight, making them hard to remove from the fine sand.
On Monday, hundreds of volunteers used shovels and colanders to sift through the sand, Reuters reported.
Eighty percent of all debris found in marine environments — from deep-sea sediments to surface waters — is made up of plastic, which gets ingested by marine species who also frequently become entangled in the plastic waste, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Deputy Prime Minister of Spain Maria Jesus Montero told Televisión Española — Spain’s state-owned public broadcasting company — that the government was concerned about the potential for “serious repercussions,” but wasn’t yet sure of the incident’s impact or if fishing would be affected, reported Reuters.
The beach cleanup was a reminder of the oil spill that brought a halt to fishing in Galicia in 2002.
“Unfortunately, we are all reminded of images from the past that we would like to erase,” Montero said, as Reuters reported.
From heavy rains and flooding along the Eastern Coast to snowfall in western mountainous regions to a potential polar vortex that could affect much of the contiguous U.S., the country is facing many instances of extreme weather over the next week.
To start the week, a winter storm moved across the northeastern U.S. on Sunday, bringing over 1 foot of snow to some areas of Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York, NPR reported. The storms caused power outages for thousands of people in the northeast. The heavy snowfall also led to hundreds of flight cancellations, Bloomberg reported.
Beginning on Monday, parts of the Midwest are expected to see up to 1 foot of snow as well. Heavy snow is possible in the Midwest, Great Plains, Great Lakes and parts of the Northeast this week, CNN reported. The National Weather Service shared on social media that people in much of the eastern U.S. and Gulf Coast area should prepare for power outages.
“The dangerous winter storm is expected to continue through Tuesday night,” said the National Weather Service of the storm passing over Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin this week. “Heavy accumulating snow is expected. Winds will gust up to 40 mph on Tuesday afternoon and night [and] will cause blowing and drifting of snow. The commutes from Tuesday through Wednesday morning will be impacted. A winter storm warning is in effect for this storm.”
In the southern U.S., Gulf states are facing storms, flooding and strong winds, according to AccuWeather’s severe weather map. Northeastern Texas and parts of coastal Louisiana and Mississippi also have the highest risk for tornadoes in the area.
“A piece of robust energy will bring disruptive thunderstorms that can produce damaging winds, hail and tornadoes to the Gulf Coast states. An inflow of moisture along the Gulf of Mexico from eastern Texas and southern Louisiana will aid in the development of thunderstorms across the region,” AccuWeather meteorologist Alexander Duffus said.
Another storm system is expected midweek that will start with chances of rain, flooding and blizzard conditions in the Northwestern U.S., The New York Times reported. Western mountains regions could see even more snowfall over the next two weeks.
Another extreme weather event to watch for: a polar vortex. As Axios reported, a tropospheric polar vortex could reach the contiguous U.S., leading to temperatures around 50 degrees Fahrenheit below average by mid-month.
With extreme weather affecting much of the country, scientists remained concerned over how the climate crisis is impacting the severity and frequency of these types of events. Although research is ongoing, a study by Carbon Brief found that 70% of over 400 analyzed extreme weather events were made more likely or more severe by climate change.
