Author: Graham Readfearn

New stockpiles of soft plastics from the failed REDcycle recycling scheme have been uncovered as the work to develop an alternative program continues. The program was wound up in November 2022 after it emerged that plastics consumers had returned to supermarkets to be recycled were instead put into storage. In a joint statement, Coles and Woolworths said REDcycle – which has since gone into liquidation – had been “stockpiling soft plastics without our knowledge”.

Author: Haley Rischar

Environmental groups have petitioned for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to require companies to disclose the chemicals discharged from waste incinerators and plants that transform plastic waste into fuel, Reuters reports.   Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) and the Energy Justice Network filed the petition with the agency April 3, claiming that chemical emissions from 400 incineration, gasification and pyrolysis, or advanced recycling, facilities are not required to be reported to the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI).

Author: Kirstin Linnenkoper

Installed capacity for plastic recycling in Europe increased by 17% in 2021 compared to the previous year, according to Plastics Recyclers Europe (PRE). The figure totalled 11.3 million tonnes thanks to more than 730 recycling facilities. A PRE report says processing of flexible PP & PE, PET and rigid PP & PE accounts for the largest proportion of the overall capacity in EU27+3, representing nearly 80%. Individually, the materials account for 28%, 26% and 25%. Germany, Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom, and France have the biggest installed capacities, representing 67% of the market. Meanwhile, notable growth is being witnessed in Poland and the Netherlands. Investment in plastics recycling was estimated at EUR 1.75 billion in 2021.

Authors: Anna Scheld & David Lombeida

On the outskirts of Istanbul, a boy in a mustard yellow jacket is standing in a huge tin garbage can. He rummages, pulls out empty plastic canisters and bottles. Throws them in his cart with the other plastic he has already collected. Can is twelve. His father left the family, his mother is chronically ill. He collects plastic to take to a recycling plant to make some money.

Author: Joseph Winters

Just ahead of this year’s Super Bowl in February, the City of Phoenix, Arizona, published a peculiar press release touting its strategy for waste diversion. Thanks to its relationship with Direct Pack Incorporated, a multinational company that makes and recycles plastic, the city said it would be able to send much of its plastic waste to Mexico for recycling. “[T]he City of Phoenix stands ready to achieve its goal of hosting the greenest Super Bowl events yet,” the announcement from Phoenix’s public works department said.

Author: Megan Quinn

The impact of plastics in the environment took center stage at a Senate subcommittee hearing Thursday where lawmakers clashed over the future of plastics production and recycling. A panel of scientists testified during a Senate meeting of the Subcommittee on Chemical Safety, Waste Management, Environmental Justice, and Regulatory Oversight. It was the first in a series of six meetings Sen. Jeff Merkley, D- Oregon, said are necessary to get lawmakers on the same page about how to handle urgent plastic pollution issues affecting air, water and human health.

Author: Brian Taylor

A Norway-based shipping and freight analysis company says long-term container shipping rates are declining globally, though the level of decline has leveled out in March compared with several prior months. In a recent presentation, Norway-based Xeneta says its global container shipping pricing index (XSI) continued its downward trend in March, though at a slower pace than in previous months, adding that the XSI hit its all-time high as recently as August of last year and has declined 24 percent subsequently. Xeneta says the smaller month-on-month decline in March may be more tied to there having been only a few contracts signed during the month rather than an increase in leverage for shipping lines.

Author: Carolyn Fortuna

Since plastics were invented in 1835, they have played an indispensable role in our society due to their low cost, good formability, strength, durability, and lightweight. The cost effective production and versatility of plastics make them critical materials for numerous applications such as packaging, construction, auto parts, electronics, and school supplies. However, plastics can take anywhere from 20 to 500 years to decompose, depending on the material’s structure and environmental factors such as sunlight exposure.

Author: Nick O’Malley

The report in this newspaper that Australia stands no chance of reaching its goal of recycling 70 per cent of its plastic waste by 2025 is at once depressing and predictable. Most of our single-use plastics cannot be recycled into a useful product at a reasonable cost. As voters and consumers we keep pretending it can, because we like plastic. It is cheap and useful.

Author: Joshua Doherty

A study commissioned by the Office for Product Safety and Standards into the risks of using recycled materials in some products has found there is a “clear and undesirable circular economy of e-waste plastics”. This, according to the report, is occurring when e-waste is exported to countries where “substantial informal recycling industries exist”. Plastics containing restricted chemicals are then “re-entering the UK and being exported around the globe in a diverse range of cheap plastic products, likely those manufactured in those same countries”.

Author: Joseph Winters

High-income countries have long sent their waste abroad to be thrown away or recycled — and an independent team of experts says they’re inundating the developing world with much more plastic than previously estimated. According to a new analysis published last week, United Nations data on the global waste trade fails to account for “hidden” plastics in textiles, contaminated paper bales, and other categories, leading to a dramatic, 1.8-million-metric-ton annual underestimate of the amount of plastic that makes its way from the European Union, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States to poor countries.

Author: Adam Morton

Thousands of tonnes of soft plastic that was collected and dropped off by supermarket customers, and has been stockpiled since the collapse of a domestic recycling program, could be be shipped to the US for processing. The Albanese government has indicated it would grant an exemption to allow Coles, Woolworths and Aldi to send the plastic offshore for recycling despite a national waste export ban announced by the Morrison government in 2019. The supermarkets have announced they hope to start a new pilot program collecting soft plastic at some sites before the end of the year, but it would depend on first clearing more than 12,000 tonnes across sites stockpiled in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.

Author: Bangkok Post Editorial Column

The cabinet's decision last week to announce a ban on the import of plastic waste into the country, effective as of Jan 1, 2025, is good news. Nevertheless, it remains to be seen whether the ban on this type of plastic waste will be implemented.

Author: James Bruggers

The opening plastics treaty proposal from the U.S. delegation to the United Nations sidesteps calls for cuts in production, praises the benefits of plastics and focuses on national priorities versus global mandates. Critics are describing the Biden administration’s opening position in a United Nations effort to reach a global treaty or agreement to end plastic waste as vague and weak, despite its recognition of a need to end plastic pollution by 2040. The proposal, for example, calls for individual national action plans as opposed to strong global mandates. 

Author: Rachel Chan

SINGAPORE: The partners of a Singapore shoe recycling programme, led by government agency Sport Singapore (SportSG) and US petrochemicals giant Dow, have apologised for a "lapse" that resulted in donated footwear being exported overseas for sale. The shoe recycling programme, launched in July 2021, is aimed at transforming used sports shoes into materials that could be used for jogging tracks, fitness corners and playgrounds.