Just under a year after California began contending with a spread of invasive fruit flies not seen before in such large quantities, state and federal environmental officials announced that the pests had been eradicated statewide. 

Invasive species of wild fruit flies from other parts of the world were detected in unusually high quantities in 2023 across California, a state where agriculture is a vital industry. Because these types of flies can damage or destroy hundreds of varieties of crops, officials took comprehensive action to stop them from multiplying rapidly and causing massive damage. The United States Department of Agriculture said it coordinated with the California Department of Food and Agriculture to address the outbreak, and together they successfully addressed infestations that touched various counties and involved five different species of fruit fly. 

The insects – Oriental, Tau, Queensland, Mexican, and Mediterranean – originated in a range of places around the globe, including countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, as well as some native to Hawaii. The most common route for them from their origin sites to California would be through contaminated produce brought back illegally to the U.S. by travelers, or homegrown produce that germinated elsewhere and was sent to California, CBS San Francisco reported last year. 

“Invasive fruit flies are among the most destructive and costly pests globally, threatening more than 400 species of fruits and vegetables, including many of California’s most valuable crops such as oranges, grapes, mangoes, blueberries and tomatoes,” said Jenny Moffitt, the undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs at the USDA, in a statement. 

Officials instituted quarantine zones for agricultural areas across California when the non-native insects were first spotted in the state in 2023. Those quarantines — which had been active in Contra Costa, Los Angeles, Orange, Sacramento, San Bernardino, Santa Clara, San Diego, Riverside and Ventura Counties — were finally lifted with the eradication announcement. That means thousands of acres worth of commercial agricultural land will no longer operate under restrictions brought in response to the fruit fly outbreak, they said. 

Properties within former quarantine zones had to comply with safety requirements set out by the state to ensure the pests did not multiply. Some of the rules that the state prescribed were prohibiting farmers from packing crops that could “host” any of the invasive fruit flies, and outlining specific instructions for properly processing and disposing of crops that could be hosts.

The USDA described last year’s outbreak as “unprecedented,” and called it the worst infestation of invasive fruit flies that California had seen in at least a century. The quarantines ordered due to the Tau flies and Queensland fruit flies discovered in parts of California were the first of their kind in the Western Hemisphere, according to the USDA.

Citing the California agricultural department, CBS Los Angeles reported that Mediterranean fruit flies could potentially target more than 250 kinds of fruits and vegetables. They typically damage fruits by laying eggs that become maggots and tunnel through the produce, which spoils it. 

Millions of sterile Mediterranean and Mexican fruit flies were released into California environments that faced infestations, in hopes of interrupting the reproduction processes of the others. Meanwhile, hundreds of employees with the USDA’s animal and plant health inspection service joined California environmental officers to trap and remove the invasive flies from agricultural lands, while also surveying the species for the year to confirm those efforts were working.

In October, officials bombarded quarantined parts of Los Angeles and Culver City with more than 2 million sterilized fruit flies after officials identified two wild Mediterranean fruit flies in that area, CBS Los Angeles reported. Back then, the quarantine area covered almost 70 square miles and included growers, wholesalers and retailers of susceptible fruit within those boundaries, in addition to private residents who tended to at-home gardens.

“The eradication of these pests marks a major victory for California’s agricultural economy,” said Moffitt.

LEGO announced plans Wednesday to scale up its use of renewable plastics in the production of its signature bricks, marking a shift away from its reliance on fossil fuels. LEGO has set 2032 as its target date to reach a goal of using entirely renewable and recycled materials.

All LEGO bricks are made from resin, which includes a mix of virgin plastics made from fossil feedstocks, as well as renewable materials. The company says it is working to increase the percentage of certified renewable or recycled materials, which means less oil would go into the bricks that are used to create everything from Titanic replicas to Hogwarts Castle.

LEGO says it has tested over 600 different materials over the last eight years in an effort to make the bricks more sustainable – with varying levels of success. The company uses a production method to manufacture its bricks known as “mass balance,” which involves mixing virgin fossil fuels with renewable materials, like cooking or plant oils. 

In the first half of 2024, an average of 22% of the materials used for its products came from “renewable and recycled sources,” up from 12% in 2023, LEGO says. 

The transition to greener materials will come at a cost, however. According to Reuters, LEGO is paying 70% more for the renewable resin. But the Danish company says it won’t affect the prices customers see at the toy store.

“The costs of these materials will not be passed on to the consumers – it will be absorbed by the LEGO Group on our bottom line,” the company said in a statement emailed to CBS News.

The announcement was released as part of the company’s earnings report for the first half of 2024. LEGO’s revenue increased by 13%, and consumer sales also grew 14%, according to a release provided to CBS News.

“We delivered double-digit growth on the top- and bottom-line and made significant progress on increasing the amount of sustainable materials used in our products,” said CEO Niels B. Christiansen in a statement.

Over 300 million metric tons of plastic are produced each year globally, but only a small fraction of that is recycled, according to the Department of Energy. And of the 48 million tons of plastic generated in the U.S., only 5% to 6% gets recycled. Plastic is notoriously difficult to recyle because it comes in different varieties that can’t be mixed together. It’s also more expensive to recycle plastic than it is to create virgin plastic. 

Oil and gas companies that produce plastic say they are making strides towards a renewable future. ExxonMobil, for example, has paired up with cities like Houston to perform “advanced recycling”. However, as CBS News’ senior national and environmental correspondent Ben Tracy points out, the project has been slow to get off the ground and has received pushback from critics who say the method isn’t a viable solution to the plastics problem. 

The industry has been called out in the past for misleading recycling claims. 

Melissa Valliant, communications director for Beyond Plastics, said LEGO should look for other materials to make its bricks, or ditch the material altogether given the negative health and environmental hazards associated with them.

“Recycled plastic can be even less safe than traditional plastic when it comes to health risks,” she said in an email to CBS News, pointing to findings from a United Nations report. “Replacing the virgin plastic in LEGO bricks with bioplastic is unlikely to be safer and more environmentally friendly,” she said.

The famous plastic LEGO bricks have been around for 75 years. Originally called “Automatic Binding Bricks,” the company’s trademark toy was invented in 1949, after the company got its first plastic injection-molding machine.

LEGO was founded in 1932 in Denmark by Ole Kirk Kristiansen. The name is an abbreviation of the Danish words “leg godt” which is Danish for “play well.”

A new glimpse into how middle-class people in the U.S. think about retirement is revealing some startling views about how long they expect to live and to work.

About half of middle-income Americans who are currently employed say they expect to work past age 65, according to a study from the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies and the Transamerica Institute. While many say that is their preference, roughly 8 in 10 also cite financial pressures, including a shortfall in savings as well as worries that Social Security won’t provide enough financial support. 

Transamerica defines “middle class” — a broad sociological term rather than a strict financial measure of income — as people earning $50,000 to $200,000 annually, which accounts for roughly 55% of U.S. adults. 

“Many are saving for retirement, but the question is whether they are saving enough,” Catherine Collinson, the CEO of Transamerica Institute, told CBS MoneyWatch. 

The perils of living longer  

Middle-class households have saved a median of $66,000 in their retirement accounts, she noted, citing the survey data. But, as it grows, that nest egg might not prove to be enough to fund a retirement based on a person’s current age and lifestyle. It’s also a far cry from the $1.5 million that the typical worker said they’d need to fund a comfortable retirement, according to a Northwestern Mutual study published earlier this year. 

To be sure, the number of 401(k) millionaires — people with at least $1 million in their retirement accounts — has recently surged to a new record, thanks to gains in the stock market, according to new Fidelity data. But that reflects only about 500,000 accounts, a fraction of the roughly 160 million people in the U.S. labor force.

Meanwhile, many middle-class workers are envisioning retirements that could stretch to 25 years or more, given their expectation of living to a median age of 90. A longer retirement requires socking more money away to fund more years out of the workforce.

“Longer human lifespans are prompting people to reconsider their life course including their time spent in the workforce relative to retirement,” Collinson added. “Many envision working longer and retiring at an older age which affords them more time to earn income and save, while others may be planning to fund longer retirements.”

“Not really a retirement”

Working past 65 is increasingly common in the U.S., with about one in five people over that age — approximately 11 million Americans — still holding down a job, according to the Pew Research Center. 

Some, like Larry and Joyce Gesick, who are 77 and 66, respectively, recently told CBS News they continue to work because of tight finances. “It’s not really a retirement,” Joyce told CBS News. “It’s working every day.”

Only about 10% of Americans between 62 and 70 are both retired and financially stable, according to noted retirement expert Teresa Ghilarducci, whose book “Work, Retire, Repeat: The Uncertainty of Retirement in the New Economy” explores the financial pressures facing more Americans in retirement.

The reason, Ghilarducci says, is partly due to the current retirement system, which places the onus on workers to manage their own savings decisions through their 401(k)s and similar plans. 

In an ideal world, these plans can work well for retirement planning. But, as Ghilarducci told CBS MoneyWatch earlier this year, it’s common for workers to experience job losses or financial stressors, disrupting their best intentions to put money away for retirement.

Even middle-class workers with access to 401(k)s aren’t always participating, with the Transamerica study finding that about 1 in 7 aren’t using their employer-sponsored plans. 

And once workers have a 401(k), many are using the savings as a pre-retirement financial cushion, the analysis found. About one-third said they’d tapped their 401(k) or other retirement plan for a loan, early withdrawal or a hardship withdrawal, a share that Transamerica described as “concerning.” The top reasons for doing so were financial emergencies or paying off debt, the firm found. 

Such withdrawals can sap the ability to save for a well-funded retirement and increases the risk of running short of money in old age. 

Despite these challenges, about 7 in 10 middle-class Americans told Transamerica they’re confident they’ll be able to retire with a comfortable lifestyle. Many envision traveling, volunteering or taking care of grandkids once they’ve stepped back from work. 

“The middle class has an upbeat vision about retirement as a time in life which brings opportunities for travel, spending time with family and friends, pursuing hobbies and more,” Collinson noted. “However, as a departure from long-standing notions, the middle class does not see retirement and work as being mutually exclusive.”