World Wildlife Fund Sustainability Works

A couple of years ago, if you drank a bottle of iced tea in Ocean County, New Jersey, it would have been the rare polypropylene item that even had a chance of being recycled. That's because the system was relying on one of the few workers at the county's recycling center to easily recognize and capture polypropylene packaging by hand. The rest—yogurt tubs, takeout containers, and other polypropylene packaging—often ended up at the landfill.

While that scenario is one of a number facilities face, sortation at a facility is only one part of a much larger opportunity for polypropylene recycling. The US generates about two billion pounds of polypropylene waste annually and currently only recycles 8%. Capturing this material requires building out stronger domestic supply chains supported by increased collection and sortation capabilities, and ensuring end markets can repurpose the post-consumer material for use in new products.

At The Recycling Partnership (TRP), we are working to establish and expand such supply chains. The investment needed to do that is large, but so are the prospective returns: Over five years, $17 billion applied to proven recycling solutions would deliver an estimated $30.8 billion in economic benefits that extend over a decade.

While beef production is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and has the greatest average global emissions intensity per kilogram of meats, there are also opportunities for the beef system, including beef and feed producers, to improve their carbon footprint. Improving our ability to know where and how beef is produced and who along the value chain – from farm to retail -- is playing a part in incentivizing and implementing carbon footprint improvements can help better recognize and financially reward those making climate benefits happen. A new project is working to make this transparency and accountability happen.

World Wildlife Fund, in collaboration with FAI Farms and Standard Soil, have been awarded a two-year USDA Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG) titled Traceable Beef for Climate and Conservation. In July, USDA announced it would invest $90 million in 53 CIG projects. 

This two-year USDA CIG will develop and test an innovative framework that measures, tracks and allocates verified carbon outcomes across full beef value chains and validate the methodology through targeted implementation with producers. The primary scope includes Iowa and Oklahoma, but we are open to considering other producers if they meet the criteria.

Understanding the Scale of Plastic Pollution

By now, most people are aware that plastic pollution has become a crisis, devastating ecosystems and communities around the globe. That’s because the evidence is all around us in plain view – littering roadsides, overflowing from trash cans, and washing up on beaches. However, while we may know that plastic pollution is pervasive, it is hard to fully comprehend the monumental scale of the problem when so much more of it is out of our sight, from the plastic waste we export to developing countries to the plastic floating in remote parts of the ocean or breaking down into microplastics.

If you don’t understand the scale of a problem, how can you effectively take steps to address it? How can you know what is working and what is not? That’s where data collection comes in.

And more specifically, the need to make sure that the data we are using to understand plastic pollution are harmonized across companies, industries, and even countries – otherwise we will never fully comprehend what we are up against or what solutions are most impactful.

When it comes to adapting to climate change, the private sector seems to be spinning its wheels. They remain focused solely on hardening their business to climate impacts, when they should be addressing the root causes of climate vulnerability, such as social inequality and nature loss. Too many companies still operate as they did 30 years ago, with a myopic view of what risk entails and a singular focus on achieving short-term profit. If they can muster a broader, longer-term vision, companies could benefit from greater investment in a more holistic and nature-friendly approach to business.

It was meant to be the breakthrough moment in the global fight against plastic pollution. After two years of negotiation and countless hours of work from hundreds of people around the world, the UN process to adopt a global treaty against plastic pollution would finally conclude last week. But after a roller coaster of a week, we left disappointed.

How can wood furniture help ensure forests remain standing? Using wood from responsibly managed forests actually can help keep forests healthy for generations to come. Forests managed under rigorous environmental and social criteria can generate income while allowing forests to regenerate naturally, so they continue to provide goods and services that benefit people, wildlife, and climate. This market incentive helps keep forests from being degraded or cleared for agriculture or other uses. So, companies that offer wood products in the marketplace have a crucial role to play in addressing the dual crises of climate change and biodiversity loss through their responsible sourcing decisions.

Without fanfare, the global food system has reached peak land. Since 2000, the amount of land used for food production — both arable land for crops and pasture for livestock — has declined. While that seems to be good news for the environment, we are also still expanding food production into some areas at the expense of forests, grasslands, and wetlands.

Remarkably, since the amount of land that we farm began to decline, we have produced significantly more food. In fact, it is because we can meet global food needs using less land that we are able to decouple agricultural land use from food production. This trend can go much further and faster. Recognizing that today is Food, Agriculture, and Water Day at COP29, here is a way to make that happen.

I can’t help but think about the world my daughter Skye and her generation will inherit. From the moment I first held her in my arms, I instantly knew two things to be true: I will never be able to fully shield her from the world, but heck if I’m not going to try anyway. As a mother, and as a conservationist who has spent the last 18 years dedicated to ending plastic pollution’s chokehold on our planet, I fear for my daughter’s future as never before. And yet, at the same time, I have never been more hopeful.

For as long as I can remember, my heart has been intertwined with the natural world. Growing up, I was that kid who would rescue stranded worms after a rainstorm or spend hours marveling at the intricate patterns of leaves and flowers. This deep-seated love for nature and all its creatures has shaped my life and career in profound ways.