Consumer

"The Biden administration announced final rules on Thursday that impose updated energy efficiency requirements for residential clothes washers and dryers, the latest in a series of appliance standards required by a legal settlement."

"EPA should figure out the risks of pesticide-laced pet collars linked to thousands of injuries, according to an Office of Inspector General report released Thursday."

"Grease-proof food wrappers being sold in the U.S. will no longer contain toxic “forever chemicals” the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on Wednesday."

"Waste produced by the public will surge by 2050, causing hundreds of billions of dollars of damage through biodiversity loss, climate change and deadly pollution, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said in a report on Wednesday."

"Drought and last winter’s hard freeze have caused a massive shortage, driving up prices by 500 percent or more."

"While sales of both heat pumps and gas furnaces were down in 2023, heat pumps are proving more popular than ever."

"Plastic producers have known for more than 30 years that recycling is not an economically or technically feasible plastic waste management solution. That has not stopped them from promoting it, according to a new report."

"Wearing a lab coat, Eve Vitale asked a chemistry class at Warren Mott High School if anyone had heard anything bad about plastics. Hands shot up. It doesn’t degrade, said one student. It hurts the environment, said another. But “that’s not really the plastic’s fault,” said Vitale, chief executive of the Society of Plastics Engineers Foundation, a group of industry professionals. “That’s the fault of humanity.”"