Items
topic_interest is exactly
waste
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2022-07-12
Email to project coordinator of SMhopes
I hope Santa Monica will use its resources to clean up the streets from urine and feces instead of covering it up with art. A good power wash plus a lawsuit against LA county for wasting our tax money that was supposed to go to affordable housing would make me much happier than beautiful art in a smelly street. COVID made this worse. Art won't make it better. Please do something. Anything. -
2022-05-06
Plastic bag ban stalls in Chihuahua, a casualty of the pandemic
This is a news story from El Paso Matters. This story is about Mexico's environmental issues that have risen due to COVID. In August 2019, Chihuahua became the latest state to ban single-use plastic bags. This changed with COVID, when household and medical waste rose to 80,000 tons per day. Fines for violating Chihuahua’s plastic bag ban range from 2,000 Mexican pesos ($97) to 250,000 pesos ($12,200). But authorities have refrained from enforcing it, noting that single-use items were necessary to meet coronavirus safety requirements. The pandemic’s negative impact on the economy and available workforce also presented obstacles, says Gilberto Wenglas Lara, director of ecology at the Ministry of Urban Development and Ecology. -
2022-04-07
Mask Pollution
This is an Instagram post by discarded_face_masks_uk. This is an account that shows people that have left their face masks on the ground, thus making it worse for the environment. Hashtags like #coveryourface do imply that they still want you to wear a mask, but are against people accidentally leaving them on the ground. This helps speak of a larger issue where with mask mandates in places in some areas, it leaves more opportunity for people to litter with their face masks, as people will take them off at times when doing certain tasks or if they think they don't need one in some specific area. -
2020-03-07
HIST30060 Environmental impact of the pandemic
This photo shows a large amount of waste in the form of face masks that were found washed up on a beach in Hong Kong. While the pandemic has been argued to have brought some environmental benefits, namely from the reduced pollution that comes with fewer cars on the road, this photo shows that our efforts to protect ourselves are harming our oceans. Discarding of our disposable face masks responsibly is something we should all keep in mind in the course of the pandemic. -
2020-09-17
Environmental effects of COVID-19 pandemic and potential strategies of sustainability
The article discusses the positive and negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the environment and climate and proposes possible strategies for global environmental sustainability going forward. The open-access article is posted on the U.S. National Institutes of Health website. -
2021-03-10
What are we going to do with all these masks?
In looking through my "mask basket", I see I have about 23 masks. What am I going to do with all these when the pandemic is over? What are you going to do? I know a lot of people want to have a "burning party", but I don't think it's a great idea to set fire to all of our masks, collectively. Will we throw them away, contributing new tonnage to the landfills? Or save them just in case we find ourselves in another terrible situation where we need them? Can we create a collective where we send them in and they are cleaned and stockpiled for a day in the future that they are called upon again? Something to thing about... -
2021-01-24
Home Food Delivery: What a Treat!
One of the most basic survival needs is food, so when the pandemic hit many individuals were struggling to meet this need with the changed food landscape. Restaurants were closing, grocery stores had restricted supplies, going grocery shopping could be dangerous in terms of exposure to the virus and exposure to people fighting over items, and many people weren’t in the habit of cooking at home every day. So this most basic of needs underwent significant shifts due to the pandemic. I dislike shopping, cooking, looking up a recipe, cleaning up the kitchen, and even eating. So I tend to eat out quite a bit. I pivoted during the pandemic to getting home food delivery and that change has been one of the few positive effects of the pandemic. It saves me time, reduces stress, and improves my health because of the healthy food choices.