Author: Guia Baggi, Laura Carrer, Rahma Behi, Virginia Kirst

In 2020, 282 containers full of mixed waste bales sailed from Salerno, Italy, to Sousse, Tunisia, in four shipments. Italian customs did not raise any flags. Customs classified them as CA, or automated control (controllo automatizzato in the local language), simply meaning no control. Back then, the COVID-19 pandemic was kicking, and officials relaxed scrutiny of goods between countries. But even outside global emergencies, only a tiny portion of outbound containers undergo some control. In Italy, it’s roughly 2%.

Author: Deanna Toto

American Circular Textiles (ACT), a New York City-based coalition of organizations working to drive circularity in the U.S. fashion sector, submitted a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) July 31, urging the agency to include textiles in its efforts to prevent plastic pollution. The letter, submitted by Rachel Kibbe, executive director of ACT, during the comment period for EPA’s draft National Strategy to Prevent Plastic Pollution, outlines the pressing challenges of textile waste and proposes solutions to combat the environmental and social impacts caused by the industry.

Author: Recycling Product News Staff

The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) has submitted comments in response to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) request for public comment on its Draft National Strategy to Prevent Plastic Pollution. "Plastics are an extremely diverse, resourceful group of materials used in our daily lives," says ISRI President Robin Wiener. "Given the complexity of the recycling system and plastics in particular, there simply is no one single answer to the challenges facing plastics materials management in the United States. We applaud EPA for a proposed strategy that recognizes there are many solutions that, taken together, can make a significant difference in keeping plastic out of the environment and instead, circulate these valuable material resources into the manufacturing supply chain. We welcome the opportunity to further collaborate with the Agency and others to advance this proposed strategy."

Author: Clark Mindock

Aug 1 (Reuters) - A group of 14 attorneys general have urged the Biden administration to adopt a more comprehensive strategy to reduce plastic pollution, which they say should include reducing new plastic production and addressing fast-fashion waste. In a letter submitted on Monday to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the attorneys general of California, New York, the District Columbia and others called the plastic pollution crisis “one of the most pervasive challenges of our time.”

Author: Sarah DeWeerdt

“Reduce, Reuse, Recycle,” goes the familiar sustainability slogan. But a new study suggests that people don’t really know what the slogan means or why it goes that way. In an online survey, nearly half of 473 participants were unable to put the 3Rs in the correct order from the most to least sustainable action. Members of the public tend to prioritize recycling, the study reveals, to the detriment of reducing and reusing.

Author: Celia Ford

At the start of his third year of graduate school, Kazi Albab Hussain became a father. As a new dad and a PhD student studying environmental nanotechnology, plastic was on his mind. The year before, scientists had discovered that plastic baby bottles shed millions of particles into formula, which infants end up swallowing (while also sucking on plastic bottle nipples). “At that time,” Hussain says, “I was purchasing many baby foods, and I was seeing that, even in baby foods, there are a lot of plastics.”

Author: Emily Chan

You might not know it, but you’re probably wearing some form of plastic right now. In fact, nearly two-thirds of our garments are made from synthetics such as polyester, nylon, acrylic and elastane – all materials that are derived from fossil fuels, release microplastics into the environment, and don’t biodegrade, taking hundreds of years to break down. Given that so many of us have made a concerted effort to cut back on single-use plastic, it may come as a surprise that there’s so much plastic in our wardrobes. Consider the fact that over 100 billion garments are created every year, and that 70 per cent of our clothes currently end up in landfill, and it’s clear that it’s a huge problem that needs to be addressed.

Author: Karen Wirsig

You’ve arrived at the final stop in the story of plastic in Canada.  It’s the part that we’re most used to hearing about: waste and litter. Last week, we checked out the aisles of the country’s grocery stores to confirm just how much single-use plastic is on the shelves. It’s a lot, and almost all of it ends up as garbage after a brief use. Plastic never really dies, but today let’s take a look at its final resting place. 

Author: ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability

In early 2022, during the resumed Fifth United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA5.2), nation states agreed to establish a binding global plastics treaty by 2024, which should work towards ending plastic pollution. The process to arrive at such a treaty would be led by the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) which will convene several times, starting with the first round of negotiations in Uruguay in December 2022. INC-2 took place from 29 May to 2 June 2023, at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, France.

Author: Jamie Hailstone

The world has reached the annual point in the year when authorities and people can no longer properly manage the plastic waste produced annually, according to a new study. The report by Swiss-based research consultancy Earth Action warns today (28 July) is the point in the year where the amount of short-life plastic waste being produced annually exceeds the global capacity to manage it effectively. According to Earth Action, more than 68.5 million tonnes of short-life plastic will be mismanaged around the world and pollute the environment this year.

Author: Annita Elissaiou

For the first time, campaigners have proclaimed Friday 28 July 2023 as the date when the amount of plastic produced globally exceeds the capacity of waste management systems to absorb it, a move aimed at raising awareness about the issue. Plastic Overshoot Day, announced by the environmental action network, Earth Action, is meant to raise awareness of the urgent need to tackle the plastic waste crisis. According to their recently published report, combined international efforts to handle plastic waste will no longer be effective, leading to increased water and land pollution.

Author: Mohamed Dabo

IPA, a provider of compostable packaging solutions for food and fashion, has released the findings of a recent survey that sheds light on consumer perceptions regarding alternative packaging. The survey, which involved 1,500 American consumers across three locations – California, New York and Washington – highlighted the growing concern about plastic waste generated from packaging, with a significant difference in consumer attitudes between the West Coast and the East Coast.

Author: Marek Strzelecki and Pawel Florkiewicz; editing by John Stonestreet

Warsaw is filing a complaint to the European Commission against Berlin for allegedly failing to remove waste illegally transported from Germany to Poland and stored there, Climate Minister Anna Moskwa said on Wednesday.

Some 35,000 tonnes of waste was illegally moved to Poland by German companies and stored at seven sites and has not been removed despite several formal requests, she said, without specifying the sites' locations or when the waste was stored.

Author: Laurelle Stelle

For years, the American Chemistry Council’s Wrap Recycling Action Program (WRAP) has encouraged shoppers to drop off their used plastic bags at Walmarts, Targets, and other public locations to be recycled. However, an investigation by ABC News recently revealed that few bags ever make it that far. What happened? ABC News placed 46 electronic trackers inside bundles of plastic bags which it dropped off at WRAP collection sites across the country, according to its report. It then traced where the bags went.

Authors: Michaela Barnett, Leidy Klotz, Patrick I. Hancock, Shahzeen Attari

You’ve just finished a cup of coffee at your favorite cafe. Now you’re facing a trash bin, a recycling bin and a compost bin. What’s the most planet-friendly thing to do with your cup? Many of us would opt for the recycling bin – but that’s often the wrong choice. In order to hold liquids, most paper coffee cups are made with a thin plastic lining, which makes separating these materials and recycling them difficult. In fact, the most sustainable option isn’t available at the trash bin. It happens earlier, before you’re handed a disposable cup in the first place.