The momentum arguably started with words and not actions- namely corporate commitments around energy use reductions as part of a broader sustainability and carbon emissions reduction initiative. Then came the more challenging part – meeting those targets: first with energy efficiency improvements at the facility level and then with the purchase of renewable energy, such as solar, wind and biogas. And the volumes have quickly become staggering, with many brand name companies, from outside…
Plastic pollution, including through single-use plastics (SUPs), continues to plague natural environments around the world, including in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). The region produces around 28 million tons of plastic waste every year (12% of total municipal waste), of which around 36% is SUP. It is estimated that about 4 million tons of plastic waste could enter the ocean in 2020 due to inadequate solid waste management in coastal cities, where a significant…
Jonathan Cocker will be giving a guest lecture on Alternative Energy in a course taught by Professor Rudiger Tscherning at the University of Calgary Faculty of Law on Thursday, October 22nd, 2020. His lecture will focus on the topics of Energy from Waste and waste generation issues from alternative energy sources.
With so many countries and regions committing to some (often indeterminate) form of bioplastic alternative to conventional plastic food packaging, scrutiny as to actual environmental and safety performance offered by these materials has become intense. This has ironically created great uncertainty within the commercial food industry at the exact time that many producers have introduced mandates to switch from conventional plastic packaging. So how does this end? An Aging EU Packaging Standard The principal packaging…
NEW FEDERAL DECREE REGULATES THE TAKE-BACK SYSTEM FOR MEDICINES – Trench Rossi Watanabe The Federal Decree No. 10,388/2020, which regulates the take-back system for medicines nationwide, was published last Friday (June 5th, 2020) on an extra edition of the Federal Official Gazette. The regulation will come into force a hundred and eighty (180) days after its publication.The system will cover the structuring, implementation and operationalization of the take-back system for disused or expired household medicines,…
There has certainly been rapid growth in the market for electric vehicles (EV), in part due to their associated (and celebrated) environmental attributes. What receives much less attention, however, is the looming waste-management challenge, particularly for EV lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). The proliferation of post-consumer LIBs has yet to fully materialize given the recent installation of long-life LIBs across multiple vehicle industries, but the environmental price for the switch to EV will soon be paid by…
Jonathan Cocker’s “Canada Chapter” is set to be published in The Environment and Climate Change Law Review’s Third Edition, later in 2019. To learn more about the publication, or to view the current, Second Edition, click HERE. ____ For further information, please contact Jonathan Cocker: [email protected] 416-865-6908
The announcement earlier this year by the British Columbia Ministry of the Environment granting a waste-based ethanol the lowest the carbon intensity value ever issued a transportation fuel in that province properly raises questions as to where energy-from-waste (EfW) now stands in the coming age of resource recovery / lifecycle circularity in North America. The answer isn’t entirely clear. Haven’t the Europeans Already Figured This Out? North Americans will do well to recognize the origins…
If you thought that pest control products can’t be found at your local clothier, you haven’t been reading Canada’s Pest Control Products Act. A pest control product under that Act includes any: “product… that is manufactured, represented, distributed or used as a means for directly or indirectly controlling, destroying, attracting or repelling a pest” Still not following? Micro-organisms that are “injurious, noxious or [have] troublesome effects” are pests under the Act and your gym shirt…
Jonathan Cocker will be speaking at the Annual Spring Meeting of the Society for Chemical Hazard Communication on Managing Hazardous Product Compliance Variances Between the US HCS 2012 and Canada’s HPR. The Annual Meeting is being held in New Orleans March 25-29th. Visit the SCHC’s website for more details.