Kickstart: Save Our Seas 2.0 no longer just a bill on Capitol Hill

The last few days of December often see us trying to complete a few more things on our "to-do" list. It can get kind of hectic.

So here's an update on something that did get wrapped up: The Save Our Seas 2.0 Act.

President Donald Trump signed the bill, along with three other items, on Dec. 18. The bipartisan bill, which updates the original 2018 Save Our Seas, first passed the Senate in January and the U.S. House of Representatives in October.

"The current SOS bill in Congress includes language calling for the U.S. to take a stronger role in global agreements around plastic waste, a measure that was hailed by some House Democrats as some countries push for the U.N. Environment Assembly to begin talks on a global treaty on plastics next year," Steve Toloken wrote about SOS 2.0 in October.

Domestically, the bill calls for spending at least $55 million a year for five years on grants to boost domestic recycling and on various studies, including on using plastic waste in infrastructure, health concerns over microplastics, eliminating barriers needed to improve recycling and other items. You can find more, including talk about future updates, here.

Wind turbines are already a sustainable option for power generation. A new recycling effort is now giving them another use once they're replaced.

GE Renewable Energy and Veolia North America are recycling the thermoset blades by using them as a raw material in cement production.

"On average, nearly 90 percent of the blade material, by weight, will be reused as a repurposed engineered material for cement production," the companies said. "More than 65 percent of the blade weight replaces raw materials that would otherwise be added to the kiln to create the cement, and about 28 percent of the blade weight provides energy for the chemical reaction in the kiln."

Minneapolis' metro transit system has picked plastic to improve the cleanliness of its light-rail passenger cars and help stop the spread of COVID-19.

"By spring, Metro Transit will replace the 6,000 cloth seats on all of its 91 light-rail train cars with plastic seats," the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports.

"The plastic seats, which have been tested out on a limited number of light-rail trains, have proven easier to clean and maintain, a special boon during the pandemic."

The board that oversees Metro Transit approved a $1.8 million contract for the design and production of plastic seats in early 2020. It estimates that the lower maintenance on the plastic seats vs. cloth could lead to $200,000 in savings.