Can his pavement curb the world’s epidemic of plastic waste?
Consumer plastics are ground up and then mixed with a “secret ingredient” to replace an oil-based component of road pavement – eliminating plastic from landfills while also reducing CO2.
By CBS News
Ninety percent of the plastic we use ends up in landfills, or in the world’s oceans. Now, a Scottish firm has invented a way to recycle that hard-to-use plastic for a role that requires durability: paving roads and highways.
The driveway at Christopher Boyle’s 17th-century English estate looks like regular asphalt and feels like regular asphalt, but it’s not. It’s paved with 21st-century plastic trash.
“It has all the ecological, environmental benefits, but to your ordinary punter, you don’t see any difference at all,” Boyle said.
It used the equivalent of 750,000 plastic bags and bottles ground up along with other hard-to-recycle plastic. The plastic flakes are mixed at a plant in Scotland with what MacRebur co-founder Toby McCartney calls a secret ingredient. It’s then bagged up and shipped to asphalt manufacturers.
That blend replaces some of the black, oil-based bitumen that keeps regular roads together.
“For every ton of bitumen we replace, we save a ton of carbon emissions,” said McCartney, “so for the environment, it’s the way forward.”
A Scottish firm has created a way to recycle plastic trash into asphalt. CBS NEWS
MacRebur, based in Lockerbie, Scotland, is now paving plastic roads across the world – from highways in England to a street in San Diego, where the firm is also opening a new factory.
Correspondent Roxana Saberi asked, “So, is this a long-term solution to the world’s plastic problem?”
“I believe so!” McCartney replied. “It’s the stuff that nobody else can use. It’s destined for landfill or for incineration. We can take all of that plastic and we can recycle it in our roads.”
Environmentalists like Libby Peake are cautiously optimistic.
“They’re potentially lower carbon than conventional roads, so that’s very positive. What we don’t know yet is how much micro-plastics these roads might shed.”
He said, for now, plastic pavement can curb the world’s plastic epidemic, a sentiment shared by Boyle, who says since he laid down his plastic driveway three years ago, it’s held up fine.
He thinks the reason more people haven’t paved roads with plastic is only because they aren’t aware of the new option.
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HEALDSBURG, Calif. — The things that set California apart, for better or worse, were all there last Sunday afternoon: terrifying flames, wine country glamour and a rescue straight out of Hollywood. Captured via smartphone. Of course.
As John Viszlay and Dominic Foppoli watched, horrified, the Kincade fire crested the foothills of the Mayacamas Mountains and headed straight for their adjoining vineyards. Winds gusted. Smoke swirled. At any moment, they realized, everything they’d worked for would be lost.
“We came within a couple hundred yards of the fire hitting and destroying our winery,” said Foppoli, who is also the mayor of nearby Windsor. It would have been a disaster, “if it wasn’t for a perfectly timed Hollywood scene, where the skies parted and a 747 supertanker … shows up out of the sky and blasts the fire.”
Charred hillsides show the path of the Kincade fire adjacaent to vineyards near Healdsburg. (Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times)
A bright pink plume of skillfully placed fire retardant saved Christopher Creek Winery, which was founded in 1972 and acquired by Foppoli’s family 40 years later. It spared Viszlay Vineyards, which has been operated by its eponymous owner and his son for the past decade. Beyond that, good news is in short supply.
Evacuation orders have lifted in Healdsburg, Windsor and most other swaths of Sonoma County. Vineyard owners and winemakers have been returning to their operations for the first time since the vast Kincade fire ignited, to assess the fire’s impact. Some tasting rooms are reopening.
For the most part, vines and wineries survived the flames, and, as of Saturday night, the blaze was 74% contained. But questions loom over how much of the 2019 vintage survived a week of intense heat, smoke and evacuation-caused neglect. How big an economic hit the region’s small, family-owned operations will take.
The Kincade fire destroys Soda Rock winery last Sunday near Healdsburg, Calif. (Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times)
And whether the wine country’s carefully cultivated image can survive year after year of increasingly destructive fires, which are reshaping how the world views this region of rolling hills, orderly beauty, popping corks and clinking glasses.
“We don’t want this to be our new normal,” said Karissa Kruse, president of Sonoma County Winegrowers. “We love people visiting Sonoma County and our fellow wine regions and having a great experience. We don’t want people to worry about coming here. We have some work to do.”
When Sonoma County isn’t reeling from disaster, it is among California’s most scenic and verdant regions. Grapevines march in graceful rows — bright green in spring, lush with fruit in summer, deep red and gold in the autumn chill. The Russian River snakes through the Dry Creek Valley and Russian River Valley grape-growing regions to the ocean. There are stately redwoods, 50 miles of rugged Pacific coastline, more than 425 wineries. It is Napa’s relaxed and welcoming sister.
Trump rips California governor as wildfires ravage the state
KYLE BALLUCK – reports for The Hill11/03/19 09:33 AM EST
President Trump on Sunday ripped Governor California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) as wildfires ravage the Golden State, saying the Democrat has done a “terrible job of forest management” and threatening to withhold federal financial aid.
“I told him from the first day we met that he must ‘clean’ his forest floors regardless of what his bosses, the environmentalists, DEMAND of him. Must also do burns and cut fire stoppers,” Trump said in a tweet.
“Every year, as the fire’s rage & California burns, it is the same thing-and then he comes to the Federal Government for $$$ help. No more. Get your act together Governor. You don’t see close to the level of burn in other states,” he added.
Trump also said that teams are working well to put out the “massive, and many” fires.
“Great firefighters! Also, open up the ridiculously closed water lanes coming down from the North. Don’t pour it out into the Pacific Ocean. Should be done immediately. California desperately needs water, and you can have it now!” he tweeted.
The tweets come as several wildfires burn in Northern and Southern California.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the Kincade fire north of San Francisco is the largest active blaze. It has burned more than 77,000 acres since it began last month and is 74 percent contained.
California wildfires will cost tens of billions
By John Roach, Accuweather.com
The Kincade Fire burns in the hills above Geyserville, Calif. Photo by Peter Dasilva/EPA-EFE/
The beginning of November confirms what Cal Fire Deputy Director Mike Mohler told AccuWeather at the start of the state’s fire season. “We don’t really have a fire season anymore; it’s really a fire year,” Mohler said.
Numerous fires blazed in parts of Northern and Southern California heading into the weekend. Wildfires have ravaged more than 260,000 acres in the state as of Nov. 1, which is much less than the 1.8 million acres burned last year and the 1.3 million burned in 2017. AccuWeather forecasters believe that nearly half a million acres in California could be scorched in total in 2019.
AccuWeather now estimates the total damage and economic loss caused by the California wildfires in 2019 will be $80 billion, according to AccuWeather Founder and CEO Dr. Joel N. Myers, based on an analysis incorporating independent methods to evaluate all direct and indirect impacts of the fires based on a variety of sources.
“This estimate, which includes both insured and uninsured losses and the impact on the U.S. economy, is far less than our estimate for the 2018 wildfire season,” Myers said. “Power outages are more of a factor this year. That will result in a significant cost per customer during the duration of the blackouts throughout the state.”
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Dangerous chemicals tied to cancer, problems in pregnancy and child development issues are found in drinking water across the country (Shutterstock)
PRINCETON, NJ — Most Americans don’t think twice about drinking a glass of water. A report released Wednesday, though, found more than 270 harmful contaminants in local drinking water across the nation, including in Princeton. The substances are linked to cancer, damage to the brain and nervous system, hormonal disruption, problems in pregnancy and other serious health conditions.
The nonprofit Environmental Working Group, collaborating with outside scientists, aggregated and analyzed data from almost 50,000 local water utilities in all 50 states.
The organization found a troubling discrepancy between the current legal limits for contaminants and the most recent authoritative studies of what is safe to consume.
“Legal does not necessarily equal safe,” Sydney Evans, a science analyst at the environmental group, told Patch.
“A lot of these legal limits are outdated and not necessarily the safe level, and the EWG really wants to fill that gap,” Evans said. “The federal government has not been able to, or is not willing to, set those new regulations to protect public health. We’re trying to fill the gap to let people know, based on the latest science, what the safe levels of contaminants in water are.”
In Princeton, the group found 31 contaminants across our water supply between 2012 and 2017.
NJ American Water – Raritan served 615,430 people, according to the environmental group.
The following contaminants were detected above the environmental group’s own recommended health guidelines in Princeton:
1. 1,4-Dioxane
Potential Effect: Cancer
2.2 times the rate of suggested EWG guideline
0.779 parts per billion is the rate this contaminant appears in NJ American Water – Raritan’s utility
The EWG’s health guideline is 0.35 parts per billion
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Fracking at Cuadrilla Resources site in Lancashire in August caused a 2.9 magnitude earth tremor
The government has called a halt to shale gas extraction – or fracking – in England amid fears about earthquakes.
It comes after a report by the Oil and Gas Authority said it was not possible to predict the probability or size of tremors caused by the practice.
Fracking has been suspended since a tremor in Lancashire in August.
Business Secretary Andrea Leadsom said shale gas had “huge potential” but the government was “no longer convinced” it could be extracted safely.
Fracking was suspended after activity by Cuadrilla Resources – the only company licensed to carry out the process – at its Preston New Road site in Lancashire caused a magnitude 2.9 earthquake.
Mrs Leadsom said: “After reviewing the OGA’s report into recent seismic activity at Preston New Road, it is clear that we cannot rule out future unacceptable impacts on the local community.
For this reason, she said, she had concluded the government should put a moratorium on fracking “with immediate effect”.
The government says it will “take a presumption against issuing any further Hydraulic Fracturing Consents” and this will continue unless compelling new evidence is provided.
However, it has stopped short of an outright ban.
Fracking is a process in which liquid is pumped deep underground at high pressure to fracture shale rock and release gas or oil trapped within it.
Assessment by the British Geological Survey in 2013 suggested there were enough resources in the Bowland Shale across northern England to potentially provide up to 50 years of current gas demand.
“There’s also no doubt that in our determination to decarbonize, the continued use of gas will be very important for the next several decades so there’s no doubt that extracting more natural gas in the UK would be very attractive.
“But we’ve always been clear we can only do that if it can be done safely and on the advice from the Oil and Gas Authority we’re no longer convinced that is the case.”
The fracking industry has faced fierce opposition from both communities and environmental groups.
Local communities and environmental groups have protested against fracking
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has in the past supported fracking, writing in the Daily Telegraph that the discovery of shale gas in the UK was “glorious news for humanity”.
A recent report by the National Audit Office found the UK had spent at least £32.7m supporting fracking since 2011.
Labour has promised to stop the technique if elected in the general election on 12 December.
Labour’s shadow business secretary, Rebecca Long Bailey, said: “The next Labour government will ban fracking – whereas the Tories will only call a temporary halt to it.
“You can’t trust a word the prime minister says.”
Both the Liberal Democrats and Green Party also support a ban on fracking.
The Welsh Government has also opposed fracking for several years, with a “moratorium” in place since 2015, while there is a planning presumption against fracking in Northern Ireland.
The suspension in England will put pressure on Cuadrilla Resources which has so far invested £270m in the country’s shale gas industry.
Cuadrilla Resources has 30 full-time workers but also employs a number of contractors.
A spokeswoman for Cuadrilla Resources declined to comment.
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Five million masks are being distributed at schools in India’s capital, Delhi, after pollution made the air so toxic officials were forced to declare a public health emergency.
A Supreme Court-mandated panel imposed several restrictions in the city and two neighboring states, as air quality deteriorated to “severe” levels.
Dangerous particulate levels in the air are about 20 times the WHO maximum.
The city’s schools have also been closed until at least next Tuesday.
All construction has been halted for a week and fireworks have been banned. From Monday, the city will introduce a temporary scheme so that only cars with odd or even-numbered license plates can drive on given days, in a bid to cut traffic pollution.
The masks are being handed out to students and their parents, and Mr. Kejriwal has asked people to use them as much as possible.
The levels of tiny particulate matter (known as PM2.5) that enter deep into the lungs are 533 micrograms per cubic meter in the city. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that the PM2.5 levels should not be more than 25 micrograms per cubic meter on average in 24 hours.
As thick white smog blanketed the city, residents started tweeting pictures of their surroundings.
Photos of German leader Angela Merkel’s official visit showed the obscuring effect of the smog at the presidential palace – though both leaders ignored the declared public health emergency and declined to wear masks.
IThe German and Indian leaders met at India’s presidential palace amid the smog
Some workers were being told to work from home to avoid the pollution.
One account director at market research firm Kantar, which employs several hundred people in the city, told Reuters staff had been told not to come in on Monday.
Many local residents are furious that the situation remains the same year after year. Municipal workers and vulnerable groups have been given thousands of free high-grade N95 masks in recent years.
Two years ago this month, hospital patients in Gurgaon were issued masks amid similar conditions
“I didn’t realize how bad it would get,” one resident said. “Do we really want our kids to grow up in such an environment? No-one really cares, no-one wants to improve the situation.”
The hashtags #DelhiAirQuality and #FightAgainstDelhiPollition are trending on Twitter.
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Firefighters work to control flames from a backfire during the Maria fire in Santa Paula, California on November 1, 2019. (Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images)
Hundreds of firefighters attacked blazes on multiple fronts into the predawn California morning, as meteorologists warned residents to brace for more of the dry winds that have whipped some wildfires into monster infernos.
The Maria Fire ignited in the dry brush in Ventura County early Thursday evening and quickly consumed thousands of acres, illuminating the contours of South Mountain in a smoky orange glow by nightfall.
The Storm Prediction Center warned of another day of “critical fire weather” in parts of Southern California, including Ventura County. The area remains under a “red flag” warning from the National Weather Service, which said a “long duration of single-digit humidities will continue” near the Maria Fire through Friday afternoon.
The Maria Fire’s size had grown to nearly 9,000 acres by early morning, and officials ordered evacuations in an area that covers 7,500 people, officials said, as more than 500 firefighters swarmed the blaze.AD
But the Ventura County Fire Department said it welcomed potentially colder temperatures and weaker winds compared to the past few days to blunt the fire’s rush down the dry slopes of South Mountain.
“Ground and air resources are strategically attacking the perimeter,” the department said.
Helicopter pilots donned night vision equipment to drop their payloads in darkness, but officials once again warned residents that flying drones could impede efforts after one of them briefly halted operations, KGET reported.
Crews try to extinguish smoldering embers after the Easy Fire burned though a ranch on Tierra Rejada Road in Simi Valley. (Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg News)
Ventura County, north of Los Angeles, has been hit hard by wildfires this week.
