This week we talk about California's new law for fashion retailers, dead fish in a Bangalore lake and a new report that shows the worlds land carbon sinks could be at the risk of collapse.
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1. California set to pass new law to tackle fashion waste
What are we talking about?
- California is set to table a law that puts the onus of recycling clothes on clothing producers.
- In a first for the US the bill, known as the Responsible Textile Recovery Act, requires producers of apparel, towels, bedding and upholstery to implement and fund a statewide reuse, repair and recycling program for their products.
- Californians will be able to bring unwanted and even damaged apparel and household textiles to collection sites for sorting and recycling.
- The US consumes an excessive amount of apparel. An average American buys 52 pieces of clothing a year. I.e. 1 garment/ week!
- This has consequently resulted in an increasing amount of clothing waste. Since 1960, the amount of textile waste generated in the US has increased nearly 10X exceeding more than 17m tonnes in 2018.
- A shocking 85% of all textiles end up in landfills where they emit methane gas and leach chemicals and dyes into our soil and groundwater.
- There is also a large amount of waste that gets exported and ends up in landfills of other countries!
- Supporters of the bill believe it would incentivize manufacturers to adopt less wasteful practices and create greener designs with a longer life. Also it shifts the onus of recycling and increasing life of products from consumers to retailers.
- Well, no. The law only requires clothing manufacturers to set up collection points but does not specify exactly what they need to do for recycling or the amount of clothes that need to get recycled. A lot more details on the implementation would be needed, but this is a good starting point.
Sources for further reading
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2. Thousands of fish dead in Bangalore lake. Again!
- Thousand of fish died in Chikkanagamangala lake near Electronic City.
- This is similar to what happened last year and is most likely due to contaminated water from a nearby solid waste management plant run by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) being released into the lake.
- This lake has been rejuvenated by Biocon. Its founder Kiran Majumdar Shaw also called out the government for being irresponsible and not closing the outlet of the waste management plant into the lake.
- The Chikkanagamangala waste-processing plant, located about 300 metres from the lake, handles approximately 100 metric tonnes of garbage daily and discharges ‘treated’ water into the lake.
- Locals have consistently opposed the facility, citing unscientific waste management. A recent National Green Tribunal (NGT) joint committee inspection found that the plant lacked adequate leachate-treatment facilities.
- The fish dying is just an indication of the toxicity of the waters being released into the lake which will have an adverse impact on the biodiversity of the lake as well as ground water in the region.
Sources for further reading
3. Land carbon sinks may be breaking; Land and trees absorbed almost no carbon in 2023.
- In 2023, the land, forests, and plants absorbed almost no carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
- This was unexpected, as models predicted that the land sink would decrease over time, but not at the rate observed.
- Together, the planet’s oceans, forests, soils and other natural carbon sinks absorb about half of all human emissions.
- But as the Earth heats up, those crucial processes are breaking down.
- In 2023, the hottest year ever recorded, preliminary findings by an international team of researchers show the amount of carbon absorbed by land has temporarily collapsed.
- The final result was that forest, plants and soil – as a net category – absorbed almost no carbon.
- This may be a temporary, but it demonstrates the fragility of the ecosystem.
- Reaching net zero is impossible without nature. In the absence of technology that can remove atmospheric carbon on a large scale, the Earth’s vast forests, grasslands, peat bogs and oceans are the only option for absorbing human carbon pollution.
- The kind of rapid land sink collapse seen in 2023 has not been factored into most climate models. If it continues, it raises the prospect of rapid global heating beyond what those models have predicted.
Sources for further reading
