McDonald’s lobbies against new packaging waste reduction laws in UK & more environmental news.

[View this email in your browser]( Wednesday, May 10, 2023 "There is no such thing as ‘away’. When we throw anything away, it must go somewhere." — Annie Leonard McDonald’s Lobbies Against New Packaging Waste Reduction Laws in UK Following recent laws [proposed by the European Commision]( in November 2022, fast food company McDonald’s is lobbying strongly against the legislation, which targets reductions in packaging waste. In an [open letter]( published in April, McDonald’s — along with other companies and trade associations, including Baskin-Robbins, Dunkin’ and Yum! — addressed the EU, asking for a halt to the proposed packaging and packaging waste regulation. [Read More]( Related: [Zero Waste 101: Everything You Need to Know]( How Urban Planners Disenfranchised Black Communities in West Oakland In keeping with mid-20th century segregationist federal guidance, West Oakland, California officials in the 1940s deliberately put the most polluting industries and biggest highways in Black neighborhoods – saddling them with cancer, asthma, and other health impacts. In white neighborhoods, diesel-powered trucks were banned from operating, as planners chose to divide Black communities with highways instead. [Read More]( Related: [Why Does White East Palestine, Ohio Get Apologies, But None for Black Cancer Alley?]( UK Solar Customers Face ‘Unacceptable’ 15-Year Delays for Installations Members of Parliament (MPs) on the Environment Audit Committee (EAC) in the UK have found that customers are having to wait as long as 15 years for [solar]( installations. According to the EAC, the long wait times are due to a lack of sufficient investment in grid infrastructure like cables and transformers, deficient management of grid connection applications, “[regulatory failure]( on the part of the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem) and “unresponsive” operators in the distribution network, reported Business Green. [Read More]( Related: [A Solar Farm Connects Directly to the UK Grid for the First Time]( ‘Bad News’: Unexpected Melting of Greenland Glacier Could Double Sea-Level Rise Projections A glacier in the north of Greenland is melting faster and in a different way than scientists previously thought, and this has troubling implications for the future speed of global sea-level rise. The new discovery was [published]( in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Monday. The scientists found that warming ocean water had melted a cavity in the bottom of Petermann Glacier taller than the Washington Monument, as The Associated Press [reported](. If other glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica behave the same way, it could double predictions for how quickly the burning of fossil fuels will melt ice and raise sea levels. [Read More]( Related: [Greenland Ice Melt Will Raise Global Sea Levels at Least 10 Inches, Scientists Conclude]( Microplastics 101: Everything You Need to Know We use a lot of [plastic](. Since the 1950s, more than [8.3 billion tons of plastic has been produced by humans](. All in all, [only 9% of these plastics have actually been recycled]( and the rest has either been incinerated or landed up in landfills — and, in many cases, in the natural environment, especially waterways and oceans. At our current rate of plastic production and disposal, our oceans are on track to contain more plastic than fish as soon as 2050. [Read More]( Related: [Algae Growing Under Arctic Sea Ice Found Contaminated by Microplastics]( Do you get this newsletter daily? If not, [sign up here]( or forward to a friend. [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Website]( [Instagram]( Copyright © 2023 EcoWatch, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you signed up for EcoWatch Top News of The Day Our mailing address is: EcoWatch 1122 Oberlin RoadRaleigh, NC 27605 [Add us to your address book]( Want to change how you receive these emails? You can [update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe from this list](. [Mailchimp Email Marketing](