Megan: Welcome to Possibly, where take on huge problems like the future of our planet, and break them down into small questions like how do you compost in the winter? I’m Megan Hall. 

Today, we have a question from listener Mikaila Arthur. Mikaila tries to be environmentally conscious, but like probably most of us, she still drives a car.

Mikaila Arthur: I got bad knees, I’m not going to drive my bike to work, so…

Megan: She can’t get rid of her car, so she’s thinking of replacing it with a new hybrid or electric one. 

But then she wondered, would that actually decrease her greenhouse gas emissions? Taking into account all the energy that goes into making a brand new car, is it more energy efficient to keep the gas car you already have, or get a new one that’s hybrid or electric?

Mikaila: And so when this thing got announced I was like, okay, maybe these people will have the answer!

Megan: Good news, Mikaila: we do! I’m here with Molly Magid and Lauren Black from our Possibly Team + they looked into this question. Hi Lauren and Molly.

Megan + Lauren: Hi Megan.

Megan: So Molly, what did you find out?

Molly: To answer Mikaila’s question, the first thing we did was try to figure out how much gas house gas emissions are released when you build a new hybrid or electric car.

Megan: Alright, so Lauren, what happens at the car factory?

Lauren: According to some recent studies, building a brand new midsize fully electric car generates about double the emissions it takes to build a similar gas car.  

Megan: Wow! Why does it take so much more energy to build these electric cars?

Lauren: The main difference is their batteries. Because they run fully on electricity, they have to have much bigger batteries than gas cars, and it takes a lot of energy and emissions to make those.

Megan: And what about hybrid cars?

Molly: Since hybrids run on both gas and electricity, their batteries don’t have to be quite as big, so the emissions to build them are somewhere in between gas cars and fully electric cars.

Megan: But so, are the higher emissions that come with building a hybrid or electric car worth it? Are they clean enough once you start driving them they makes up for the extra emissions you put into making them?

Lauren: Well, these cars do have much lower emissions, especially electric cars. 

Megan: what do you mean lower emissions? I thought they didn’t have any!

Molly: Well, the electricity that powers an electric car has to come from somewhere! In most cases, that’s a power plant that does create emissions. So, while the car itself doesn’t put out greenhouse gases, its power source does. 

Lauren: But that’s still a lot better than driving a gas car, which typically creates three times those emissions! That’s low enough that after you’ve driven an electric car for two or three years, you’ll have made up for the emissions you used to build it.

Megan: Ok so that’s for an electric car, but what about a hybrid? 

Molly: The emissions for hybrids are a little higher than for electric, because they do run partly on gas. But here’s the thing- if you get a plug-in hybrid that you charge at home, you’ll probably produce about the same amount of emissions as an electric car. 

Megan: Why?

Molly: In these plug in hybrids, the gas engine only kicks in once the battery runs out, which is anywhere from 25-90 miles depending on the model. That means that a lot of people could do most of their daily driving without using the gas engine at all.

Megan: Alright so what’s the final verdict for Mikaila? Are the emissions from driving hybrid and electric cars low enough that it makes sense to buy one?

Lauren: We think yes! If Mikaila buys a new car that runs mostly on electricity, it will only take two or three yearsto make up for the emissions that were used to build it. Considering that the average car on the road is 10 years old, Mikaila will get those emissions back and then some! 

Molly: And we’d also recommend getting a plug-in hybrid, because it can run fully on electricity for a good distance, but it can still go farther when you need to drive more.

Megan: Great! Thanks Lauren and Molly.

Outro Megan: That’s it for today. If you have a question about the way you recycle, use energy, or make any other choices that affect the planet, tell us about it at “the public’s radio dot org slash possibly” and we’ll find an answer!

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The answer lies in drag: every time you double the speed you travel in a car, the energy you use quadruples. That’s because you’re fighting against more air resistance. This means your gas mileage is worse when you speed. You can also improve your gas mileage by driving at a constant speed and slowly increasing or decreasing your speed when you have to stop or start.

Reference:  https://learn.eartheasy.com/guides/fuel-efficient-driving/

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The stove and microwave use about the same amount of energy to boil a cup of water, but an electric tea kettle uses about half as much energy as either. Whatever appliance you use to boil water, remember to only boil as much as you need. That way, you won’t waste energy boiling water that you won’t use.

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It depends on what you mean by “better.” For this episode, we looked at greenhouse gas emissions to measure which type of milk is “best.” Using that perspective, if you’re buying milk in Rhode Island, the choice is between soy and oat milk. The emissions from farming and transporting the milk to RI is about equal for both, but emissions are even lower for shelf-stable milk, which doesn’t have to be refrigerated. Our advice is to buy soy or oat milk that isn’t refrigerated.

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Straws, like most plastics, are made using fossil fuels and cannot be recycled. However, they are not the biggest problem when it comes to plastic waste that ends up in landfills or the ocean. If you use straws every day, they might be a significant part of your impact. A good way to reduce waste is to find which disposable, single-use items you use the most and try to cut back on them.

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’re talking about plastic straws.

Megan Hall: You might have noticed that a lot of cafes are replacing plastic straws with paper straws or offering metal or glass straws instead. They’re sort of having a moment right now. But not everybody is excited about this idea.

Isabelle Doyle: They don’t work. You can’t drink liquid through a paper straw.

Megan Hall: That’s Isabelle Doyle, a Brown student, and she was not happy when the university replaced plastic straws with paper straws. So here’s the question: why are so many people talking about banning straws right now and how much of a difference does skipping the straw actually make?

Megan Hall: I have Lauren Black and Molly Magid in the studio today. They’re part of the Possibly team and they looked into the answer.

Megan Hall: Welcome Lauren and Molly.

Molly Magid: Hi Megan.

Lauren Black: Thanks for having us.

Megan Hall: So what did you find out?

Lauren Black: So one problem with plastic straws is that, like most plastics they’re made from fossil fuels and they take a long time to break down. So they can stay in landfills or the ocean for hundreds of years. And this issue of straws ending up in the ocean is what’s really gotten the anti-straw movement going.

Molly Magid: But the thing is that straws are only a small percentage of the trash. Only about four percent of the plastic in the ocean, and ahead of those are plastic bottles and bottle caps, plastic bags and many other items.

Megan Hall: So if plastic straws don’t make up a big percentage of the trash in the ocean, then why is everyone making such a big deal about them?

Lauren Black: So to figure that out we talked to Dave McLoughlin, who’s on the task force to tackle plastics created by Gina Raimondo this past summer. And here’s what he said.

Dave McLoughlin: I would say two things about straws. The first one is the topic of recycling, right?

Lauren Black: So unlike other disposable plastic items, plastic straws can’t be recycled and because of that, if you put them in the recycling by accident, they can actually mess up the whole thing and make it so that the load is too contaminated and everything has to go to the landfill.

Megan Hall: So if you think you’re doing the right thing by recycling a straw, you’re actually making the problem worse?

Lauren Black: Yes.

Megan Hall: Dave said that there were two problems. What was the other one?

Molly Magid: Well, straws are one of the easiest kinds of plastics to get rid of. Some people with disabilities do need straws but for most people it’s totally optional. So if you think about when you’re getting an iced coffee you do need that plastic cup to hold the coffee. But, you don’t need to drink it with a straw.

Lauren Black: And if you just really love straws, or you’re like Isabelle and you hate the paper ones, you can get a reusable one and bring it with you.

Megan Hall: So it sounds like you’re saying that plastic straws aren’t like the biggest problem for trash in the ocean, but it’s not that hard to get rid of them, so why not?

Molly Magid: Yeah, and if you stop using straws that’s great. But as we said there are a lot of other kinds of plastic trash out there, so you should look at your grocery bags and forks and random packaging that you use and try to figure out what you can cut down on.

Lauren Black: Yeah. Everyone has something that they could use less of. Even Dave.

Dave McLoughlin: I will share with you that I use too many paper towels a week, it’s just something I do. Maybe I could say it’s a clean habit to have, but I got to break it.

Lauren Black: So basically you need to look at your own habits and see what you can use less of and if you use plastic straws every day that actually might be one of your biggest things to cut down on. But if you only use like one straw a month but you never bring your own bags to the grocery store, probably focus on getting a reusable bag first.

Megan Hall: Great. Well thank you, Molly and Lauren for looking into this question.

Megan Hall That’s it for today. To ask a question about the way you recycle, use energy or make any other choice that affects the planet, ask on our question page.

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