Marriott To Phase Out Single Use Plastic Bottles For Soap And Shampoo

Carbon is not the shiniest element, nor the most reactive, nor the rarest. But it is one of the most versatile. Carbon is the backbone of life on earth and the fossil fuels that have resulted from the demise of ancient life. Carbon is the essential ingredient for turning iron into steel, which underlies technologies from medieval swords to skyscrapers and submarines. And strong, lightweight carbon fibers are used in cars, planes and windmills. Even just carbon on its own is extraordinarily adaptable: It is the only ingredient in (among other things) diamonds, buckyballs and graphite (the stuff used to make pencil lead).

Many plastic-based building materials that could be recycled aren’t, because most companies haven’t yet figured out how. The AZEK Company cracked this code, and diverted nearly 300 million pounds of waste from landfills in 2019. Every time an office building or an old home is demolished, all of the broken-down materials have to go somewhere. The US Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 230 million to 530 million tons of construction waste are produced annually — and much of that material ends up in landfills. The bulk of construction and demolition waste is old bricks, masonry, concrete, wood and metal; but it’s not exclusively that. Some plastic-based building materials — such as windows, flooring and decking — that could be recycled aren’t, because companies haven’t yet figured out how to collect and reuse the plastic at the heart of these products.