A Seattle-based NGO specialising in tracking toxic waste urged Albania on Tuesday to lead a transparent probe into hundreds of tons of possibly hazardous material expected to be shipped there next weekend.

In early July, 102 containers loaded, according to customs documents, with iron oxide, sailed from Albania's port of Durres for Thailand.

But according to information provided to the Basel Action Network (BAN) by a whistle-blower, they were also carrying electric furnace dust (EAFD).

A new study on global plastic pollution published by the University of Leeds in the Nature Journal is facing criticism for failing to account for the impacts of ‘waste colonialism’—the practice of high-income countries exporting plastic waste to lower-income nations.

The study, published on 04 September, claims that more than two-thirds of the annual 57 million tons of plastic pollution originate from countries in the Global South. It identifies India, Nigeria, and Indonesia as emerging plastic pollution hotspots and predicts that Sub-Saharan Africa could become the world’s largest source of plastic pollution in the coming decades.