This episode was originally published in April, 2021.

Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall. 

Today, we have a question from a listener:

TODD: My name is Todd Penoyer, I’m from Pawtucket, Rhode Island.

Megan: He owns a business.

TODD: I do maintenance for retail shopping centers in southeastern Massachusetts.

Megan: And he uses a lot of power tools to do his job.

TODD: …drill, grinder, circular saw, hedge trimmer, weed whacker…

Megan: About half of his tools are electric, and the other half are gas-powered. He wonders whether it’s worth replacing the gas ones with electric versions.

Megan: We had Max Kozlov and Fatima Husain from our Possibly Team look into this question. Welcome, Max and Fatima! 

Max: Hi, Megan! 

Fatima: Hello! 

Megan Hall: So, first, what kind of power tools are out there for Todd to choose from?

Max: Todd has three main options: corded, battery-powered, and gas-powered. 

Fatima: Corded tools plug straight into an outlet, while battery-powered tools are cordless and are charged using electricity, just like your cell phone.

Megan: Why would someone want to choose an electric tool over a gas one?

Max: Well, burning fossil fuels releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. 

Fatima: And they’re not just any greenhouse gases:

BULL: The downside of gas-powered tools is that they’re less regulated than automobiles, so the emissions are more problematic.

Max: That’s Christopher Bull, an engineering professor at Brown University. He says that many gas-powered tools use what are called “two-stroke engines.”

Megan: What are those?

Fatima: As opposed to the four-stroke engines that cars use, two-stroke engines slosh together a mixture of gas and oil in the combustion chamber because they don’t have a separate lubrication system.

Max: These engines spew out as much as a third of that fuel unburned, which releases pollutants like carbon monoxide, nitrous oxides, and hydrocarbons into the air.

Megan: How much pollution are we talking about here?

Fatima: A 2020 study by the California Air Resources Board found that engines such as the ones in gas-powered leaf blowers create a lot of smog-forming gases

Max: More than the state’s 14.4 million passenger cars combined!

Megan: But what does that mean for someone who’s just using a leaf blower a few times a year? 

Fatima: Even that can create a lot of pollution. Think about how long someone typically uses a leaf blower. Let’s say an hour or so.

Max: According to the same study, that would release the same amount of smog-forming pollution as driving a twenty-seventeen Toyota Camry for more than a thousand miles.

Megan: Whaaat! Really? So, are electric power tools much better?

Fatima: Yes. Even if your state makes electricity using power plants that burn fossil fuels, those plants have scrubbers to filter out most of those pollutants. That means they’re still cleaner than gas-powered tools.

Megan: What about the noise?

Fatima: Gas-powered tools are much louder. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns that using the average gas-powered leaf blower for two hours can have a harmful impact on your hearing.

Max: Some places like Washington, D.C. and Palo Alto have even banned gas-powered leaf blowers because they’re so loud.

Megan: So what would you recommend for Todd?

Fatima: I’d say, try buying either tools with cords or ones that are battery-powered. Between these, it just depends on how long he’ll need to use them and if he’ll have reliable access to an electrical outlet.

Max: And Todd might be surprised by his options. In the last decade, there’s been a surge in tools that can be powered using electricity — even larger ones like snow blowers or lawn mowers!

Megan Hall: Great! Thanks, Max and Fatima!

That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way you recycle, use energy, or make any other choice that affects the planet, go to the public’s radio dot org slash possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts. 

Possibly is a co-production of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative, and the Public’s Radio.

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Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall. 

Many of us have seen litter on the beach. And of course, there are those sad pictures of sea critters tangled up in plastic! Which made us wonder: what will it take to prevent all of this plastic pollution in the ocean?

We had Max Kozlov and Fatima Husain from our Possibly Team look into this. Welcome, Max and Fatima! 

Max Kozlov: Hi, Megan! 

Fatima Husain: Hello! 

Megan Hall: So, Max, let’s start with plastics in general. How concerned should I be about all the plastics in my life? 

Max Kozlov: Well, the problem is that you can find plastic in just about anything we use today.

Fatima Husain: Like in things you might expect to have plastic, like plastic bags or tupperware containers.

Max Kozlov: And in things you might not.

Chelsea Rochman: It’s in our drinking water, it’s in the food that we eat. It’s in the dust that we breathe.

Fatima Husain: That’s—

Chelsea Rochman: Chelsea Rochman. I’m an aquatic ecologist. I’m a professor at the University of Toronto.

Max Kozlov: Chelsea studies how plastics, chemical contamination, and climate change affect freshwater and marine ecosystems.

Fatima Husain: This wasn’t really a hot research topic back in the day. But from 1950 to 2015, plastics production has increased from around 2 million tons to nearly 380 million tons a year! 

Megan Hall: How much of that can we recycle? 

Max Kozlov: It’s hard to say. It all depends on what your local recycling facility can process.

Fatima Husain: But in the US, only about eight percent of all the plastic that’s used by consumers actually makes it to the recycling plant.

Megan Hall: I get that a lot of plastics are thrown out, but how do they end up in the ocean? I mean, don’t most of them go to the landfill?

Max Kozlov: You’re right: most plastics do go to the dump. But they don’t always stay there. 

Fatima Husain: The US ships a lot of its trash overseas, and once it’s out of the country, some of that waste ultimately ends up in waterways like rivers and oceans. But that’s not the only way: plastics can also end up in the ocean when people litter.

Max Kozlov: Chelsea says all that plastic comes with a heavy toll for aquatic life.

Megan Hall: Like what? 

Fatima Husain: Well, some of the bigger plastic pieces can strangle aquatic creatures or fill their guts. 

Megan Hall: What about tiny pieces of plastic? What happens when that stuff gets into the ocean or swallowed by fish?

Max Kozlov: Yeah, scientists call those microplastics. And they’re everywhere.

Chelsea Rochman: We know it’s in every level of the food chain. So it’s eaten by zooplankton, then goes up the food web to prey fish, to predatory fish, to sharks, whales, to the fish that we eat…It is a ubiquitous contaminant, if you want to call it that.

Fatima Husain: Early studies show that microplastics appear to be harmful to aquatic life, but scientists are still trying to figure out exactly how microplastics might affect their health, let alone our own. 

So for now, we can’t really say how worried you should be about them.

Megan Hall: But, what’s the take-away here? 

Max Kozlov: Well, it’s important to remember that the plastics we create will be around much, much longer than we will because they take a really long time to break down.

Fatima Husain: So the hundreds of millions of tons of plastic we’re creating each year will only continue to accumulate, no matter how quickly we try to clean it all up.

Max Kozlov: Chelsea says that means we need to rethink our relationship with plastic. 

Megan Hall: Bottom line, though, is it really going to make a difference if I’m super careful about the kind of plastic I use?

Fatima Husain: That’s a good point. Chelsea says we need to make bigger changes too. 

Chelsea Rochman: The reality is that we, as citizens, can’t necessarily just do it alone. We kinda need governments to create legislation and policies that give us the foundation to do better.

Max Kozlov: She recommends advocating for policy changes like putting caps on fossil fuels for brand new plastic or rewarding companies for using recycled plastics.

Megan Hall: Got it! Thanks, Max and Fatima! 

That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to the public’s radio dot org slash possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts. 

Possibly is a co-production of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative, and the Public’s Radio.

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Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall. 

Today, we’ll be talking about food waste. Many of us know that guilty feeling that comes with throwing away rotten bananas or stale bread. So, we wondered, what is the impact of all that waste?

We had Max Kozlov and Fatima Husain from our Possibly Team look into this. Welcome, Max and Fatima! 

Max Kozlov: Hi, Megan! 

Fatima Husain: Hello! 

Megan Hall: So, should I be concerned about the amount of food I throw out?

Max Kozlov: Well, let’s put it this way: According to a United Nations report, if food waste were a country, it would rank third in terms of greenhouse gas emissions — after China and the United States.

Megan Hall: That’s bananas! Where are all those greenhouse gases coming from?

Fatima Husain: Well, when food decomposes, it releases a lot of methane, a greenhouse gas at least 28 times more effective at trapping heat than carbon dioxide.

Max Kozlov: And when food rots, it also means that all of that energy that it took to produce the food goes to waste.

Megan Hall: Is all that food waste happening in people’s homes? 

Max Kozlov: No. There’s food waste at every stage of food production- like at the farm, during transportation, at the store….

Fatima Husain: But in the US, nearly half of all wasted food does come from people throwing it out at home.  

Max Kozlov: The average person in the US tosses out about two hundred forty pounds of food a year!

Megan Hall: Wow! Why do we waste so much food?

Fatima Husain: To find out, we talked with:

LUCY: Lucy Antal. I work for a campaigning charitable organization called Feedback Global, and I’m calling in from Liverpool in northwest England.

Max Kozlov: Lucy says there are a few reasons why we waste so much food: there’s spoilage, over-preparing, over-buying, and confusion about date labels.

Megan Hall: You mean like expiration date labels? What’s so confusing about them?

Fatima Husain: Well, there are many types of labels, and they aren’t all expiration dates. It turns out there’s a difference between ‘best before’ and ‘use by’ dates.

LUCY: ‘Best before’ just means it’s at a premium point before this day, but you can still eat it afterward. ‘Use by’ is, “You really should eat it by X point.”

Megan Hall: I had no idea! So what are some of the most commonly wasted foods?

Max Kozlov: In the UK, the list includes salad, potatoes…

LUCY: Chicken, which always shocks me because, you know, it’s a sentient being, if you’re gonna kill it, eat it for God’s sake!

Max Kozlov: …bananas, bread, and milk.

Megan Hall: So, is there anything I can do to waste less food?

Fatima Husain: Absolutely! Lucy says that you can be innovative with your extra food.

Max Kozlov: Overripe bananas, for example, can be turned into banana bread or a tasty vegan ice cream!

Fatima Husain: She also says to remember that, in a pinch, your freezer is your friend.

Max Kozlov: And most of all… 

LUCY: Don’t be too picky. If your apple is a little bit bruised, just cut the bruised bit out but eat the rest of it. Don’t bin the whole thing. You can always do something with it. 

Fatima Husain: Lucy also suggests making a list before you go to the store so you don’t end up accidentally buying too much.

LUCY: It really is about breaking the habit of convenience and maybe having a bit more thought about what’s actually in your cupboards before you shop.

Megan Hall: Great! Thanks, Max and Fatima! 

That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to the public’s radio dot org slash possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts. 

Possibly is a co-production of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative, and the Public’s Radio.

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Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall. 

Today, we have a question from a listener:

Keith Munslow: My name is Keith Munslow, I’m a musician, and I’m from Providence.

Megan Hall: He and his wife drink a lot of seltzer.

Keith Munslow: I’d say we were buying like — for a week — five or six eight-packs of seltzer.

Megan Hall: But that still wasn’t enough for them.

Keith Munslow: We hated it being 10 o’clock at night and running out of seltzer and being like ‘Aw man!’

Megan Hall: But then he had an idea.

Keith Munslow: Wouldn’t it be great to never run out?

Megan Hall: Keith recently switched to making his own seltzer at home with a soda maker — a machine that makes sparkling water — and he wondered if using it was more energy efficient than buying seltzer by the can.

Megan Hall: We had Max Kozlov and Fatima Husain from our Possibly Team look into this question. Welcome, Max and Fatima! 

Max Kozlov: Hi, Megan! 

Fatima Husain: Hello! 

Megan Hall: So, before we talk about which method is better, will you explain in general how seltzer is made? 

Max Kozlov:  All seltzers, and carbonated beverages in general, are made by pumping carbon dioxide gas, or CO2, into a liquid, which makes the fizz.

Megan Hall: Is there a difference between a homemade seltzer and the kind I buy at the store?

Max Kozlov: To make seltzer at home, you fill your bottle with tap water, and then inject CO2 into that water using a special cartridge. 

Fatima Husain: When that cartridge is empty, it can be refilled with CO2 and used again. 

Max Kozlov: For store-bought seltzer, the carbonation is done at a factory, and the seltzer is shipped to stores. Then you might drive there to pick them up.  

Megan Hall: So, is there really a difference in terms of greenhouse gas emissions for soda you make at home versus soda from the store?

Fatima Husain: Well, not in terms of making the actual soda. But remember, seltzer from the store comes in cans and bottles. And a lot of energy goes into not only making them, but also transporting the weight of all that liquid.

Max Kozlov: Which creates a lot of greenhouse gas emissions. 

Fatima Husain: Soda maker machines, on the other hand, just use your tap water at home, a reusable bottle, and a CO2 cartridge.  

Megan Hall: How often do you replace those cartridges?

Max Kozlov: Not as often as you open a new can of soda. Each SodaStream cartridge can carbonate about 60 liters of water, which is equal to about one-hundred-and-seventy 12-ounce cans.

Megan Hall: Wow, that’s a big difference. But you said making soda releases CO2. Should we be worried about that getting into the atmosphere? 

Max Kozlov: Carbon dioxide is a major greenhouse gas, but let’s put it into perspective.

Fatima Husain: One study between the Carbon Trust and Coca Cola UK found that the total carbon emissions for a can of Coke was about a third of a pound of CO2 — most of which came from the packaging, which you’d avoid with a seltzer maker at home.

Max Kozlov: By comparison, the average car releases that much CO2 after driving less than half a mile — Keith probably drives farther than that just to buy his seltzer.

Megan Hall: So what would you tell Keith?

Fatima Husain: Homemade seltzer is responsible for fewer carbon emissions than store-bought seltzer. 

Megan Hall: Does that mean I should rush out and buy a soda maker?

Max Kozlov: Not necessarily. If you drink a LOT of seltzer, like Keith, it might be a good idea. 

Fatima Husain: But, soda isn’t high on the list of the things that lead to climate change.

Max Kozlov: So, if you’re worried about your greenhouse gas emissions, start with taking fewer trips in your car or eating less meat.

Megan Hall: Great! Thanks, Max and Fatima!

That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way you recycle, use energy, or make any other choice that affects the planet, go to the public’s radio dot org slash possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts. 

Possibly is a co-production of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative, and the Public’s Radio.

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There are a lot of options when it comes to how you heat your water at home. But not all of them use energy efficiently, and some methods contribute to a substantial amount of greenhouse gas emissions. In this episode, we break down the differences between water heaters and why you might want to consider a heat pump water heater.

Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall. 

Today, we have a question from a listener:

Tom Chun: I’m Tom Chun, I live in Barrington, Rhode Island, and I’m an emergency physician.

Megan Hall: Recently, Tom’s water heater stopped working…

Tom Chun: And, it’s winter. I felt like I had to make a quick decision.

Megan Hall: Tom didn’t have time to spare, so he just went with the water heater his plumber recommended. But now, he’s wondering if he should have bought something else. Are there more efficient water heaters out there that are worth the price?

Megan Hall: We had Max Kozlov and Fatima Husain from our Possibly Team look into this question. Welcome, Max and Fatima! 

Max Kozlov: Hi, Megan! 

Fatima Husain: Hello! 

Megan Hall: So, before we start talking about Tom’s water heater options, how worried should he be about the amount of energy these appliances use?  

Max Kozlov: Water heaters are actually pretty big energy hogs. In the average US home, they’re second only to home heating when it comes to household energy use. 

Fatima Husain: Right — more than refrigerators, air conditioners, and lights! 

Megan Hall: I didn’t realize water heaters used so much energy. How exactly do they work? 

Max Kozlov: Pretty simply. Most conventional ones heat water by burning fossil fuels — either oil or natural gas — and store that hot water in a tank until you need it. Some use electricity to do the heating.

Fatima Husain: But it takes a lot of energy to keep that water warm all day, every day, especially if that tank isn’t well insulated. And all that energy use means higher greenhouse gas emissions.

Megan Hall: How much?

Max Kozlov: Again, it depends on the water heater and the source of your energy, but the average 50-gallon electric water heater releases nearly forty-five hundred pounds of carbon dioxide each year.

Megan Hall: Is that a lot? 

Fatima Husain: Well, the average car releases around 10,000 pounds of carbon dioxide each year.

Megan Hall: So, the average electric hot water heater makes almost half the emissions of a car?

Max Kozlov: Yep. 

Megan Hall: Does Tom have any other options?

Fatima Husain: Yes! Some of the most popular alternatives are tankless and heat pump water heaters.

Megan Hall: What are those? 

Max Kozlov: As the name suggests, tankless water heaters don’t use energy to keep sitting water warm. Instead, the heater warms that water in real time and only when you need it.  

Megan Hall: Does that save a lot of energy?

Fatima Husain: Well, these heaters are slightly more efficient, but they’re not perfect — quickly heating water requires a lot of energy. So, at the end of the day, they only use about 10% less energy than a conventional heater.  

Megan Hall: Okay, so that’s not great either. What’s Tom’s other option?  

Max Kozlov: He could get what’s called a heat pump water heater. You can think of these appliances as like reverse refrigerators. Instead of creating the heat, they use electricity to capture it from the air.

Megan Hall: How much do they cost?

Max Kozlov: They’re roughly 1,000 dollars more than the cheapest traditional heaters.

Fatima Husain: But they’re much more energy-efficient. According to the US Department of Energy, it would only take you about 3 years to pay back that amount with your electricity savings.

Max Kozlov: Heat pump water heaters also release less than half the emissions of your average conventional water heater.

Fatima Husain: And, once more people are able to get their electricity from renewable sources, those emissions will go down over time! Which can’t happen with any appliance that runs off of gas.

Megan Hall: Ok, but what about people like Tom, who has a conventional water heater? Is there anything he can do to be more efficient?

Fatima Husain: Tom could just try to use less hot water in general. That could mean taking shorter showers, using the dishwasher instead of hand washing, or washing clothes with cold water.

Max Kozlov: But the next time he’s in the market for an energy-efficient water heater, his best bet is going with one that runs on a heat pump.

Megan Hall: Great! Thanks, Max and Fatima!

That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way you recycle, use energy, or make any other choice that affects the planet, go to the public’s radio dot org slash possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts. 

Possibly is a co-production of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative, and the Public’s Radio. 

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Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall. 

Today, we have a question from a listener:

Kevin Curran: I’m Kevin Curran, I’m from Providence, Rhode Island, and I’m an electrician.

Megan Hall: For the past ten years, Kevin has helped transition the state towards using renewable energy, but that’s made him wonder about what happens to wind turbines when they age.

Kevin Curran: Everyone sings the songs of wind and solar, but I wonder if anyone considers what happens to it when it’s done. Its productivity starts going down after a while. What do you do with the material when they’re no good anymore?

Megan Hall: We had Max Kozlov and Fatima Husain from our Possibly Team look into this. Welcome, Max and Fatima! 

Max Kozlov: Hi, Megan! 

Fatima Husain: Hello! 

Megan Hall: So, do wind turbines break down over time? 

Max Kozlov: Yes, they do — the same way any equipment does in coal, natural gas, and nuclear power plants. 

Fatima Husain: But with wind power, being outside takes a toll on turbine parts, especially in cold places, where the windmills freeze and thaw in the winter. 

Megan Hall: How long can these turbines really last?

Fatima Husain: It depends on the climate, but wind energy companies typically replace their turbines after 15 to 25 years.

Max Kozlov: That’s because when blades erode, they can’t catch the wind as efficiently, which means they generate less electricity.

Megan Hall: But those things are huge! What do companies do with them?

Fatima Husain: Well, you can recycle most of the parts of a wind turbine because they’re made of copper, steel, aluminum, or concrete.

Max Kozlov: But the blades are a bit different — they’re made of fiberglass, foam, balsa wood, metal, adhesive, and paint, which makes them a lot trickier to recycle.

Megan Hall: So, what do wind energy companies do with the blades?

Max Kozlov: The cheapest option right now is to bury them in a landfill. One spot in Wyoming received over half-a-million dollars to bury about a thousand blades.

Megan Hall: Whoa! It’s like a graveyard for wind turbines! 

Fatima Husain: Yes, and these blades don’t really break down, so they’ll stay in the ground for a very, very long time.

Max Kozlov: Not to mention, these blades are huge! Some are longer than the length of a football field — which means they take up lots of space in landfills. 

Fatima Husain: With wind energy becoming more popular, one report estimates that there could be as many as 370,000 tons of blade waste each year by 2050. 

Max Kozlov: That’s the weight of nearly 30,000 school busses!

Megan Hall: Is burying these blades our only option? 

Max Kozlov: Well, some wind energy companies burn the blades, but that process doesn’t generate much energy and it also contributes to pollution. 

Fatima Husain: And some scientists are experimenting with other approaches. One of these people is Karl Englund, who’s chief technology officer at Global Fiberglass Solutions. He says he loves challenges like this. 

Karl Englund: I’ve always been more focused on not what you could do with really cool materials, but how you can take materials that are abundant waste stream and then convert them into something good.

Max Kozlov: He says one of the reasons it’s been challenging to reuse fiberglass is because the material’s very cheap, which means the recycled material is even cheaper. But, he’s not giving up.  

Karl Englund: We have to get of that mentality that we can just keep extracting stuff out of the Earth and utilizing a lot of energy and a lot of money to do that when we have these accessible feedstocks right at our fingertips — it’s just a matter of finding the right technologies.

Fatima Husain: So far, he’s experimented with turning the blades into car parts or insulation. He’s also developing a technique that grinds up the blades and presses them into pellets and fiber panels that can be used to make flooring and walls.

Max Kozlov: So, we might not need graveyards for these giant blades much longer. 

Megan Hall: Great! Thanks, Max and Fatima! 

That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way you recycle, use energy, or make any other choice that affects the planet, go to the public’s radio dot org slash possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts. 

Possibly is a co-production of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society and the Public’s Radio. 

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