Author: Megan Smalley

A study released by ABC News has led to some skepticism around plastic bag recycling programs at retail locations. According to the report, ABC News collaborated with nine ABC-owned TV stations to place 46 trackers on plastic bag bundles that were deposited at Walmart and Target locations for recycling in 10 states. Trackers were super glued and wrapped inside multiple layers of clean plastic bags. ABC News reports its team monitored each tracker’s location multiple times a day for months, and trackers pinged whenever they were near a compatible digital or mobile device.

Author: Valerie Volcovici

May 29 (Reuters) - As talks start this week on a global plastics treaty, debate is emerging between countries wanting to limit the production of more plastics and the petrochemical industry favoring recycling as the solution to plastic waste. Ahead of a meeting starting on Monday, many countries have said a goal of the treaty should be "circularity" – or keeping already-produced plastic items in circulation as long as possible.

Author: Muscat Daily

Muscat – The Environment Authority (EA), in collaboration with Oman Environmental Services Holding Company – be’ah, launched a workshop on Monday aimed at shedding light on transboundary waste movement. The two-day workshop focuses on training environmental inspectors and customs officials in effectively managing hazardous waste at border crossings, thus advancing sound waste management practices. Speaking to Muscat Daily, Dr Mohammad Majid al Kasbi, Director of EA’s Department of Chemical Materials, highlighted the workshop’s objectives. “It seeks to enhance the skills and knowledge of the authority’s employees stationed at border crossings and customs specialists, enabling them to identify hazardous waste, comprehend its impact on health and the environment, and ensure its proper management during transboundary movement.”

Author: Pascal Scherrer

This week in Paris, negotiators from around the world are convening for a United Nations meeting. They will tackle a thorny problem: finding a globally binding solution for plastic pollution. Of the staggering 460 million tonnes of plastic used globally in 2019 alone, much is used only once and thrown away. About 40% of plastic waste comes from packaging. Almost two-thirds of plastic waste comes from items with lifetimes of less than five years.

Author: William Brangham, Lorna Baldwin, Harry Zahn

As plastic waste piles up in the world’s landfills, sewer systems and oceans, the United Nations has set a goal to reduce plastic pollution by 80 percent by the year 2040. Inger Andersen, head of the United Nations Environment Programme, joins William Brangham to discuss the upcoming negotiations over how to realize this goal.

Author: Matt Mace

The Research from EA Environmental Action found that since January 2023, more than 40% of the global population has been living in places unable to manage the amount of plastic waste that is generated and discarded. By July 2023, this figure will reach 60%, with EA Environmental Action warning that a plastics “overshoot day” will continue to move forward unless nations introduce measures to combat plastics waste.

Author: Stacy Liberatore

Companies often promote the use of recycled plastics as a means to save the environment, but the 'eco-friendly' initiative could be harmful to human health. Some plastics contain toxic chemicals, like manmade bisphenol (BPA), and during the blanket recycling process, these hazardous chemicals are transferred into the recycled material used to make new bottles, cartons and other containers. These toxins can cause liver damage, thyroid disease, decreased fertility and cancer.

Author: Joseph Winters

In 1973, a DuPont engineer named Nathaniel Wyeth patented the PET plastic bottle — an innovative and durable alternative to glass. Since then, production has skyrocketed to more than half a trillion bottles per year, driven by beverage companies like Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Nestlé. It’s no secret that most of these PET bottles, named for the polyethylene terephthalate plastic they’re made of, are never recycled. Many end up on beaches or in waterways, where they degrade into unsightly plastic shards and fragments that threaten marine life. But blighted beaches are only the tip of the iceberg. According to a new report co-published by the nonprofit Defend Our Health and Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Beyond Petrochemicals campaign, PET plastic bottles cause hazardous chemical pollution at every stage of their life cycle.

Author: Allyson Chiu

Instead of helping to tackle the world’s staggering plastic waste problem, recycling may be exacerbating a concerning environmental problem: microplastic pollution. A recent peer-reviewed study that focused on a recycling facility in the United Kingdom suggests that anywhere between 6 to 13 percent of the plastic processed could end up being released into water or the air as microplastics — ubiquitous tiny particles smaller than five millimeters that have been found everywhere from Antarctic snow to inside human bodies.

Author: Greenpeace

Paris, France – Over 150 civil society groups and scientists from around the world, including ethologist, anthropologist and United Nations Messenger of Peace Dr. Jane Goodall, have signed on to an open letter urging the UN to act now – to prevent the fossil fuel industry from undermining negotiations to agree to an effective Global Plastics Treaty. The letter comes as delegates prepare for the second round of Global Plastics Treaty negotiations (INC2) happening in Paris, France on May 29 to June 2, 2023.

Authors: Nico Schmidt and Attila Kalman

On a sunny April afternoon, Markus Klatte climbs the ladder to the roof of his chemical recycling factory. At the top, he looks down on the industrial park in the west of Frankfurt, where Höchst AG once drove German plastics production. Today, Klatte wants his plant to deal with its legacy: the vast quantities of plastic that are still burned in incineration plants across Europe. For a few months now, Klatte’s company, Arcus Greencycling, has operated one of the first industrial-sized pyrolysis plants in Germany. The plant converts aluminium plastic into oil which is then sent to BASF Group to produce plastic again.

Author: Peter Dennis

81 NGOs (non-governmental organisations) have signed an open letter calling on the UK government to extend its upcoming consultation on banning UK plastic waste exports to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. The coalition of civil society groups from close to 40 countries has called on the UK government to back a “comprehensive ban” on UK plastic waste exports ahead of an anticipated government consultation.

Author: Emma Gatten

Plastic waste sent for recycling in the UK is being dumped and burned after being shipped to other countries by Dutch middlemen, green charities fear. The Government intends to ban plastic waste exports to poorer countries outside of the OECD, but more than 80 green groups have written to Thérèse Coffey, the environment secretary, warning that only a total ban will be enough to stop this.

Author: Karen McVeigh

Scientists and NGOs have accused the UN’s environment programme (Unep) of locking out those “most needing to be heard” from upcoming negotiations in Paris aimed at halting plastic waste. Last-minute restrictions to the numbers of NGOs attending what the head of Unep described as the “most important multilateral environmental deal” in a decade will exclude people from communities in developing countries harmed by dumping and burning of plastic waste as well as marginalised waste pickers, who are crucial to recycling, from fully participating, they said.