Author: Richard Gower

Thousands of people all over the UK have been taking part in the Big Plastic Count, to help show our leaders the extent of our plastic waste problem. (There’s still time to signup to take part, until 25 March. Count your household plastic waste for one week, and submit the data by 31 March.) All over the world, waste pickers are collecting, sorting and recycling plastic and many other types of rubbish. Here’s why their work is so valuable – and how the Global Plastics Treaty should support them.

Author: Colin Staub

An investigation that placed tracking devices in bundles of Amazon’s plastic packaging and dropped them off in store collection receptacles around the U.S. found a “failing” drop-off collection system, its authors said. Amazon said it can’t control how material is handled once it enters the recycling system. The Amazon-focused report, released March 19 and authored by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group and Environment America, is titled “Truth in Recycling: Does Amazon’s plastic packaging actually get recycled?”

Author: Joseph Winters

Feeling guilty about all those blue-and-white plastic Amazon bags piling up around the house? Fear not — they can be recycled! At least, that’s what the packaging says. For years now, Amazon’s plastic bags, bubble-lined mailers, and air pillows have featured the ubiquitous “chasing arrows” recycling symbol along with the words “store drop-off.” The idea is simple: Since most curbside recycling programs don’t accept this type of plastic — it’s too expensive to process and can clog machines — consumers can instead leave it at retail stores across the country. From there, this plastic, known as “film,” will go to a specialized facility and be turned into new products.

Author: Robert Hodgson

Belgium, current holder of the rotating EU Council presidency, has forged agreement between governments over new rules to tackle the growing problem of discarded packaging materials, overcoming the European Commission's concerns over trade diplomacy. National diplomats have endorsed a new European law on packaging waste, including provisions that would hold overseas producers to EU environmental standards on plastic recycling at the risk of losing market access.

Author: Gloria Dickie

LONDON, March 14 (Reuters) - At least 3,000 more chemicals are in plastics — from food packaging to toys to medical devices — than previously estimated by environmental agencies, a report published on Thursday found, raising questions over pollution and consumer safety. While the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) had previously identified around 13,000 plastic chemicals, the report by a team of European scientists found more than 16,000 chemicals in plastics — a quarter of which are thought to be hazardous to human health and the environment.

Author: Reuters

LONDON, March 14 (Reuters) - France is proposing a European Union ban on exports of used clothes, the environment ministry told Reuters on Thursday, as governments look for new ways to tackle the worsening problem of textile waste. United Nations trade data shows the EU exported 1.4 million metric tons of used textiles in 2022, more than twice as much as in 2000. The clothes can cause pollution in African countries where items that can't be resold end up in dumps, the EU has said.

Author: Nathan Canas

The European Parliament on Wednesday (13 March) backed targets for the prevention and reduction of food and textile waste across the bloc. However, environmental NGOs have criticised the proposal’s lack of ambition. At first reading, the Parliament adopted its position on the proposed revision of the directive on preventing and reducing food and textile waste in the EU. Adopted by 514 votes in favour, the report by Anna Zalewska (ECR, PL) proposes to amend the previous European legislation on waste, focusing on two major waste-producing sectors: textiles and food.

Author: Colin Staub

Although there are no chemical recycling facilities currently operating in the Pine Tree State, any starting up in the future will be considered “chemical plastic processing” operations subject to solid waste facility permitting, and their process will not be considered “recycling,” lawmakers recently voted. First introduced in April 2023, Maine’s Legislative Document 1660 is written as “an act to ensure proper regulation of chemical plastic processing,” which is commonly known as chemical recycling, “advanced” or even “molecular” recycling. All terms refer to a group of technologies that process scrap plastic chemically into its basic components (typically its monomers) rather than mechanically, through shredding, washing and re-pelletizing.

Author: Beatriz Santos

Exports of plastic waste to countries outside the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a group of mostly rich countries, has hit records highs in 2023, according to trade data collected by Plastic Waste Trade Watch. European Union plastic waste exports to Asia increased 45% from 2022. Total EU exports to non-OECD countries rose to 750 million kg in 2023 from 517 million kg in 2022. This is the highest level of plastic waste exports to Asia since China implemented the National Sword in 2018, the association revealed.

Author: Robin Latchem

Secondary plastics prices have increased slightly in February but ‘low prices and high costs are taking their toll’, says BIR. The world recycling organisation notes that freight costs have risen because of the situation in the Red Sea alongside limited demand for raw materials. Henk Alssema, of Vita Plastics in the Netherlands, makes the observations in the latest quarterly BIR Mirror. The chairman of the plastics committee points out that container shipping through the region has decreased by almost a third this year owing to the attacks on commercial vessels.

Author: Beatriz Santos

The European Parliament has voted for tougher rules to export waste from the block to countries outside the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a group of mostly rich countries. Exports of non-hazardous plastic waste to non-OECD countries will be prohibited, whilst those to OECD countries will be subject to stricter conditions. The European Parliament and Council first reached a provisional agreement on the new rules in November 2023. The ban on export of plastics will start two and a half years after the regulation comes into force.

Author: Aaron Ross

NAIROBI, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Waste produced by the public will surge by 2050, causing hundreds of billions of dollars of damage through biodiversity loss, climate change and deadly pollution, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said in a report on Wednesday. The report said unless urgent measures were taken global waste generation would soar, driven largely by fast-growing economies, including in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa where many countries are already struggling to manage current production levels.

Author: Harri Weber

For decades, plastic producers knowingly misled the public about the feasibility of plastic recycling, according to a recent study by the Center for Climate Integrity. The non-profit’s report details how the plastic industry marketed recycling as a solution to plastic waste for decades, all while dismissing it internally as both technically and economically unviable. This may be a tough pill to swallow for those who grew up hearing about the virtues of plastic in ad campaigns (see: “plastics make it possible”). However, statistically, most plastic is either landfilled or burned—just about 9 percent is ever recycled, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, an intergovernmental group. 

Author: Mark Smulian

Increasing imports of recycled plastics into the EU are deterring investment in recycling and threaten serious environmental consequences, trade body Plastics Recyclers Europe (PRE) has warned. Claims about transitioning to a circular economy would then “be empty words”, without action to encourage recycling rather than imports of plastics. It said the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation was intended to improve circularity by harmonising practices across EU member states and creating a market for recycled products. But, instead, the policy direction taken by European institutions was “making the initial optimism fade away”.