Climate Good News
It’s easy to get discouraged about the environment when we see
the administration’s cuts in green energy and it’s subsidies
to fossil fuel. But, take comfort from these articles which
tell us progress is being made in other countries.
Green Roofs: A New Way to Reduce Microplastics in Rainwater
Microplastics — small bits of material formed from the breakdown of everyday plastic products — are ubiquitous. They’re found in soil, water, air, and even our bodies, and it’s increasingly clear that they pose risks to the environment, wildlife, and human health.
Most efforts to capture micro-plastics in urban environments have focused on filtering them out of surface runoff in bioremediation ponds, swales, and constructed wetlands.
A new study out of China has discovered that green roofs can capture nearly all the microplastic particles that contaminate rainwater in modern cities, The findings add to the list of benefits of green roofs, which have previously been shown to reduce energy needed for heating and cooling buildings and calm the flow of stormwater.
The researchers created laboratory-scale mockups of green roofs composed of shallow plastic bins half a meter square and 85 millimeters deep. They added a filter to prevent the soil from washing away, a layer of drainage material, and soil, then planted the boxes with Rhodiola rosea or Sedum lineare, two species commonly used on Shanghai green roofs.
The researchers then ground up plastic rubber into a powder of fine fragments, and pulled polyurethane into fibers. They added these microplastic particles to water at a similar concentration to what is found in urban rainwater.
They used a sprinkler-like apparatus to generate “rainfall” over the model green roofs, then measured the amount of microplastics found in the runoff, retained in the soil, and adhered to the plants.
The green roofs captured 97.5 percent of the microplastic particles that fell in a light “rainstorm,” the researchers report in the journal Communication Earth & Environment.
“Our study highlights the powerful potential of urban green roofs to act as passive interceptors of atmospheric microplastics,” according to the study’s leader, Shuiping Cheng, a researcher at Tongji University in Shanghai, China.
In the study, most of the microplastics were captured by the soil rather than on the leaves of the plants. But this also depends on the particulars of the plants: Rhodiola rosea, which has leaves arranged in a rosette-like pattern, was better at capturing microplastics than Sedum lineare, with its thin, spiky leaves.
The green roofs also captured the irregularly-shaped microplastic fragments slightly better than they did the thin, slippery microplastic fibers. “We were surprised to observe that fiber-shaped microplastics captured by the green roof system could become resuspended into the atmosphere under airflow disturbance” — that is, windy conditions, Cheng adds. The findings highlight the difficulty of getting microplastic fibers such as those shed from modern stretch clothing out of the environment.
Green roofs are not likely to be a “set it and forget it” solution to microplastics. For one thing, the soil could become saturated with microplastics over time. Earthworms might be able to be deployed to break down and metabolize the microplastic fragments, the researchers suggest.
“A key next step is to validate these results under real-world conditions on full-scale green roofs,” Cheng says. “We are actively exploring opportunities to carry out such longterm field studies to better understand microplastic retention and release dynamics over time.”
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Anthrpocene Magazine: “An unexpected tree roof benefit: purging urban rainfall of practically all micro plastics” by Sarah DeWeerdt, July 1, 2025: https://www.anthropocenemagazine.org/2025/07/an-unexpected-green-roofbenefit-purging-urban-rainfallof-practically-all-microplastics/
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A Plastic Planet
In France, where one buys their loaf of bread daily and food is considered almost sacred, there has been a new breakthrough — a completely plastic-free grocery store. This is more than a green gimmick — it’s national policy turning into grassroots reality.
The opening of Le Super tout nu (in Toulouse) isn’t happening in a vacuum. France has emerged as a global leader in the fight against plastic waste.
Under the country’s 2020 Anti-Waste Law for a Circular Economy, France has set a legal course to phase out single-use plastics by 2040, with all plastic packaging required to be recyclable or reusable by 2025.
Plastic pollution is one of the most urgent environmental issues of our time. Every year, France alone generates over 4.5 million tonnes of plastic waste. In 2016, an estimated 80,000 tonnes ended up in the Mediterranean Sea — earning it the nickname “the world’s sixth plastic continent.”
Supermarkets are among the worst offenders. But Le Super tout nu flips the script. This isn’t about niche eco-retail. This is a full-scale supermarket proving that zero-waste isn’t a luxury — it’s a viable, scalable model for the future.
What Le Super tout nu represents is more than a milestone — it’s a movement.
Le Super tout nu isn’t just about removing plastic — it’s about strengthening communities. Over 60 percent of its products are sourced from within a 100 km radius, supporting more than 400 local producers.
This drastically cuts carbon emissions from transportation, supports small-scale agriculture, and reconnects consumers with where their food comes from. “It’s not just what we buy,” one shopper told us. “It’s how it gets here, and who we support along the way.”
Similar stores are opening or expanding in other countries: Ekoplaza in the Netherlands, YES FUTURE in Paris, and independent refill shops across the UK, Germany, and Spain.
Will this momentum influence mainstream grocers to reduce their plastic waste now that they can see how it can be done? After all, with every jar refilled, every plastic wrapper avoided, Le Super tout nu shows us that circular living isn’t a dream. It’s a choice. One made visible, viable, and increasingly vital.
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Scarlet Red Magazine: “The Store with Nothing to Hide: France’s First Plastic-Free Supermarket Is Rewriting Retail? June 16. 2025: https://www.scarletredmagazine.com/articles/the-store-withnothing-to-hide-frances-firstplastic-free-supermarketis-rewriting-retail
