Category: Event

Health, Environment & Climate need a Plastics Detox instead

Tucson residents should reduce and refuse single-use plastic, rather than tucking it in an orange bag, said a Tucson nonprofit dedicated to sustainability.  In a report released today, Sustainable Tucson criticized the Hefty ReNew program for maintaining continued reliance on fossil fuels to produce plastics and for posing serious health and environmental risks by activities like burning plastics in cement kilns and in other high-heat processing.

August 20, 2024

Sustainable Tucson maintained that the corporations behind Hefty ReNew, Dow Chemical and Reynolds Consumer Products, “have a vested interest in fostering demand for single-use disposable plastic, not curtailing it.” The group called on Tucsonans to “shift their focus to reducing and refusing single-use plastic and other disposables instead of spending money buying even more disposable plastic to collect material that was designed to be used once and then thrown away.” 

Sustainable Tucson called on Mayor Romero and the City Council to adopt “front-end strategies that prevent the generation of plastic waste in the first place over approaches that seek to manage it after the fact.”  The report outlines six measures the City could take to “actively promote alternatives to single-use plastic and incentivize new ways to bring products to consumers in refillable and reusable packaging.”

 The report details six key findings:

• The Hefty ReNew program perpetuates wasteful throwaway systems and single-use habits.
• Hefty ReNew underscores the fossil fuel industry’s pivot to plastic production as its next major growth market.
• The program fails to address plastic’s widespread threats to the environment and human health. 
• Repurposing plastic waste into alternative building and construction materials is not circular. 
• Turning plastic waste into burnable fuels and/or small amounts of chemicals through pyrolysis and other high heat waste facilities is inefficient and dirty. 
• Sending plastic waste to cement kilns to create energy is also highly polluting.

Kevin Greene, Chair of Sustainable Tucson’s Zero Waste Committee, is available for interviews.  He may be reached at kevin@sustainabletucson.org, 520-639-8253.

Sustainable Tucson is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit whose mission is to build an equitable and resilient community that will thrive long into the future in harmony with our natural desert environment.

Download the full report here.

October 10, 2023 • 6:00pm

Tucson is increasingly becoming known as a major “food city.” What many may not realize is the long history of local agriculture and distinctive food traditions in our region. Join us on October 10 for our next monthly meeting for an exploration of that history and some of the ways in which regional traditions and uniquely desert-adapted foods are still important and will play a significant role in shaping a sustainable food future.
 
We are pleased to present two speakers who will share their deep familiarity with the deep roots and current practices of local desert agriculture and the distinctive food culture it produces. Sterling Johnson is Co-Executive Director and DeAnndra Porter is Outreach Coordinator of Ajo Center for Sustainable Agriculture (Ajo CSA), a Native American-governed non-profit organization in Ajo, Arizona. Ajo CSA provides agricultural education, reduces barriers to healthy and culturally appropriate foods, preserves and revitalizes agricultural traditions, fosters local, food-based economic development, and establishes valuable partnerships. Their mission is to support the development of a sustainable and just local food system in Ajo, Arizona and the Tohono O’odham Nation.
 
Johnson and Porter will share insights from their organization’s programming, which includes educating youths and adults on traditional foods, the Adopt-A-Sonoran-Desert-Crop Program, and Climate Smart Agriculture or traditional agricultural practices. With the impacts of climate change, farmers, growers, and ranchers continue to adapt. Traditional Tohono O’odham agriculture is climate smart agriculture. It includes practices such as ak-chin farming, an ancient but efficient system based on rainwater harvesting.

Celebration of Water in the Desert and Short Film Showcase

Saturday, 16 September 2023!

Celebrate water in the desert with fun family activities like build your own rain basin and a Living Lab tour at Watershed Management Group.

Then head to the Loft for a short film showcase featuring music by Ted Ramirez and short documentaries about everyday heroes working to keep our rivers flowing and securing water for generations to come. Followed by a filmmaker and water expert Q & A.

Find more details here.

Tuesday, September 12, at 6:00 pm,

^{Jaguar photo courtesy University of Arizona and USFWS}

As we see all too often in the news, the world’s biodiversity faces many challenges and threats, even including risks of multiple extinctions across the globe. In the US, concerns about biodiversity seem to be highlighted by this year’s 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act, and globally we begin to see an awakening to the need for action, for example, the recent launch of the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund.
 
Closer to home, we’re fortunate to live in one of the world’s most biodiverse regions. Yet here too, the flora and fauna in the Sky Islands and the Sonoran Desert face many threats challenging their survival.
 
Join us for our next monthly meeting, Tuesday, September 12, at 6:00 pm, for an overview of key issues impacting biodiversity in our region. Our speaker is Laiken Jordahl,Southwest Conservation Advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity, based here in Tucson. Laiken will give a brief overview of regional biodiversity and then share work being done to protect biodiversity in the borderlands in the face of myriad threats, including border walls and militarization, industrial-scale mining, and rampant and illegal cattle grazing of our vanishing wetlands – all of which are contributing significantly to biodiversity loss in the region. Following his presentation there will be ample time for Q & A.
 
Laiken works to protect wildlife, ecosystems, and public lands throughout the desert Southwest and U.S-Mexico borderlands. Before joining the Center, he worked with the National Park Service studying threats to wilderness character at five different national parks and monuments and with the Bureau of Land Management on recreation planning for the San Juan River. He has also worked as a natural resource legislative fellow in the U.S. House of Representatives. For four years Laiken worked as the Center’s Borderlands campaigner, fighting wall construction in Arizona and across the southwest, before recently transitioning into his current, more general role as a Southwest Conservation Advocate.

6:00 p.m. Tuesday, July 11
https://youtu.be/ZkTSL3XJ4Wo

As temperatures rise, broader segments of Tucsonans are helping clean up our energy emissions and enjoying financial benefits from doing so.
 
Local initiatives are making solar affordable to more households and smoothing the transition to electric transportation. Existing state and federal support to electrify and clean up household and workplace energy use are undergoing a massive restructuring that includes replacing fossil infrastructure with heat pumps to efficiently cool and heat our living and work spaces and our water.
 
Hear stories of people who two years ago would not have been able to afford greening their energy use and find out what new options may be within your reach.
 
Among those sharing will be Flor Sandoval, Program Director of the Sonoran Environmental Research Institute, who oversees the Solar Empowerment Program; Ben Nead, a member of the Tucson Climate Coalition and a volunteer advisor to the City of Tucson on electric vehicle charging for multifamily housing; and Solar Lawyer Bruce Plenk and solar installer Duane Ediger, both members of Sustainable Tucson’s Energy Transformation Working Group.