Sustainability Weekly
Fridays are for…
City of Water Day, Floating Solar Panels, U.S. Plastic Recycling, and more!
by Alli DiGiacomo
Happy Monday! We are switching things up for the Summer (thanks to our Summer Fridays) and the weekly will be coming out on Mondays now! I hope everyone had a fun 4th of July and first week of July! We are officially more than half way through the year, and officially closer to 2050 than 2000. Yikes!
Coming up this weekend on July 12th is City of Water Day. It is a region-wide day of events on or near the water to champion a climate-resilient New York and New Jersey harbor. Explore the Events Map here. Most of these events and opportunities only happen once a year so be sure to take advantage of it!
Keep reading for sustainability news…
T H I S W E E K ’ S T O P S T O R I E S
THE LARGEST FLOATING SOLAR FARM STARTED OPERATIONS IN EUROPE
Europe’s biggest floating solar power plant just launched in France in June. The site is built on six former gravel pit reservoirs and hosts more than 135,000 floating solar panels, generating enough electricity to power 37,000 people a year and prevent 18,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually. The project was led by Q Energy and Velto Renewables, who saw the old industrial site as a great opportunity with barely any land use conflicts. The panels float on water, which helps increase the performance of the panels and reduce the water evaporation of the pond, all without disturbing the aquatic ecosystem. It’s a win for clean energy and smart land reuse. Since floating solar is more expensive to build, private investment had to make this project happen, and more public-private partnerships will be key to growing similar projects. France currently gets about 24% of its electricity from renewables, and continues to encourage projects like this that will help reach France’s net-zero by 2050 goal.
NEW ‘BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL’ WILL ADD AN EXTRA 7 BILLION TONS OF EMISSIONS BY 2030
In a “self-inflicted tragedy”, Trump’s new “big beautiful bill” is a major rollback of U.S. climate policies, and it’s expected to add a massive 7 billion extra tonnes of emissions by 2030. This is basically wiping out progress the U.S. would’ve made under the Paris Agreement (which he signed an executive order to withdrawal from in January). According to research from Princeton’s REPEAT Project, instead of cutting emissions by 40% by 2030, U.S. emissions will only drop about 3% from current levels, which is basically flat. The bill gets rid of key tax credits for renewables, electric vehicles, and clean manufacturing, which means fewer solar and wind projects, slower EV adoption, and less investment in clean tech. That also means energy prices are likely to go up by about $165/household by 2030, and job losses are expected too. The U.S. will fall 2 billion tonnes short of its climate goals, and the global damage from those extra emissions is predicted to be over $1.6 trillion. Some nuclear and geothermal support remains, although it’s not enough to fill the gap, and the country’s climate progress is now seriously off track.
MALAYSIA WILL STOP ACCEPTING U.S. PLASTIC WASTE IMPORTS
Malaysia has just banned plastic waste imports from the U.S. starting July 1, 2025, because the U.S. never ratified the Basel Convention. The Basel Convention is a global treaty meant to control the export of hazardous waste. The US signed the pact in 1990 but never ratified it. Last year, the U.S. sent over 8- million pounds of plastic to Malaysia. This is a big deal for California, which sent 864 shipping containers with over 10 million pounds of that plastic waste there in 2024. The ban is already causing chaos in the recycling market, with ports backed up and shipments frozen. Malaysia says it will still accept plastic from countries that did sign the treaty, but even those will need pre-inspections. Critics of the U.S. recycling system say it’s often a sham, claiming most of the plastic sent abroad doesn’t actually get recycled and ends up burned into toxic pollution or dumped in the ocean. US recycling rates remain below 10% largely due to contamination and mixed materials that make the process costly. Malaysia wants to stop being a dumping ground for richer countries, which many U.S. cities and waste companies are criticized for. Thailand and Indonesia, which also saw a rise in imports after China’s ban, announced similar bans on plastic waste earlier this year. California has a new law meant to reduce plastic pollution and hold manufacturers accountable, but for now, the U.S. has increasingly growing pressure to clean up its own plastic mess at home.
MORE IN SUSTAINABILITY NEWS
NYC's Elizabeth Street Garden will be saved in a deal that includes 620 affordable housing units.
What Plympton, Massachusetts learned by charging residents for every bag of trash.
Dutch engineers have developed “living bricks” that naturally grow moss, transforming buildings into vertical ecosystems.
Disaster 101: Your guide to extreme weather preparation, relief, and recovery.
Center for Architecture in NYC partners with Helen Frankenthaler Foundation on Climate Initiative. The $26,500 fund will be used to support climate-focused improvements to the Center for Architecture building at 536 LaGuardia Place.
Firefighting foams contain toxic PFAS. Could soybeans be the answer?
Researchers turn plastic into the world’s most commonly used painkiller, acetaminophen, also called paracetamol, using an engineered E. coli that can metabolize plastic waste. This method uses almost zero carbon emissions, contrasting the conventional pharmaceutical manufacturing process that is 55% more intensive than the automotive industry.
How a 1.3-mile stretch of street became a much-needed park space in Queens, New York.
How shrinking the EPA could make wildfire smoke even more dangerous by leaving communities more vulnerable.
A guide to in-season produce in New York in July, including the main month for cherries!
The European Commission proposed its 2040 climate target on Wednesday, which, for the first time, would allow some countries to use carbon credits to meet their emissions goals.
The Marriott hotel chain chooses the small city of Winooski, Vermont, as the site for its first all-electric, net-zero hotel.
Atlanta is embracing a cool roof ordinance to beat the heat. Unlike New York, it is on all new roofs (not just flat ones).