the world is not black and white,” Espinosa said. “If a certain government does not agree, there is also civil society, there is the private sector, activists. By 2050, plastics could account for 20% of oil consumption and 15% of the carbon dioxide budget, according to the UN General Assembly. Plastics, made from petroleum, are also an increasingly significant cause of the climate crisis. The UN general assembly president, María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, said in an interview with the Guardian that international efforts to curb massive plastic waste must move forward anyway.Ī truckload of plastics flows into the ocean each minute, and tiny particles of plastics are thought to be present in the bodies of most people – with their health effects unknown. And the country was not party to a global agreement seeking to slow the flow of poor-quality plastics to developing nations. The US has been accused of blocking international efforts to limit plastic waste, including banning single-use water bottles and plastic bags. I think what we need to be working towards is almost a zero-material-footprint kind of society.” He added: “We have enough plastic in circulation to really cause disruption of marine food webs, which is already in process. The firm’s senior environmental analyst Niall Smith said: “There’s too much focus on recycling being the kind of silver bullet solution, which it is not.” Humans have made 8.3bn tons of plastic since 1950. Globally, more than 2.1bn metric tons of municipal waste are generated each year – enough to fill 822,000 Olympic-size swimming pools, the report said. But it is one of the highest-risk countries in terms of waste generated. Of the 262m tons, a little over a quarter was recycled, according to EPA.Ĭompared with all countries, the US performs well on the firm’s recycling index. Will Nichols, the firm’s head of environment, said the US had better recycling abilities than much of the world, “but the sheer amount of waste that is being generated is not being dealt with as well”.įor 2015, the US Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA) reported the country generated 262m tons of municipal waste, with more than half of it sent to a landfill.Ībout 13% of the waste was plastic. “The US is the only developed nation whose waste generation outstrips its ability to recycle, underscoring a shortage of political will and investment in infrastructure,” the firm said. This isn't news so much as something I just need to talk about: I was recently at a local grocery store looking for a card when I saw that there are now categories for "woman to woman romance" and "man to man romance.The US represents 4% of the global population but generates 12% of global municipal solid waste I hope he holds a camera while Britney twirls in her living room for as long as they both shall live.
This is, of course, the highest compliment I can give a heterosexual man.īritney Spears is married! See exclusive images of her intimate California wedding. Asghari looks like he could model for the cover of a romance novel about a hardened billionaire businessman with no time for love but softens when he meets the woman of his dreams- an artist trying to make it in the big city -who he then ravages in all sorts of creative and generous ways, but then there's trouble with his corporation because his dangerous and withholding father says he has no time for love, he has to do his duty to the family by carrying on the family business, and he's so torn, because does he want to live a life with power or a life with love, and for a minute she thinks he's choosing power, and she flees to her hometown, where she runs into an old flame, and she thinks maybe she could learn to be with him and have a simpler life, but then the main guy realizes what a fool he's been to let her go, so he goes to the small town, and finds the girl, and proposes in the town square, and they honeymoon on a yacht and have sex all over it. Britney Jean Spears, who married her longtime boyfriend Sam Asghari.