Author: Mitra Nazar
Bags full of finely chopped plastic lie on the side of a provincial road just outside Adana, Turkey. Farmer Izzettin Akman sees it being dumped regularly, often at night. He cut open bags to see what's inside.
Read MoreWaste crime ‘being decriminalised’ say MPs→
/Author: Mark Smulian
A parliamentary committee has condemned the Government's efforts to tackle rising waste crime, describing them as slow, aimless and ineffective. Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chair, Labour’s Dame Meg Hillier, said: “Currently [Defra’s] approach to large parts of waste crime is closer to decriminalisation."
Read MoreToxic Aircraft Carrier “São Paolo” Rejected by Turkey Returning to Brazil→
/Brussels, Belgium. September 28, 2022. The toxic waste-laden aircraft carrier SÃO PAULO is on its way back to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. IBAMA, the Brazilian Agency that had approved the export, was forced to recall the ship after Turkey barred its entrance on August 26, 2022, pending a proper and credible accounting of the volumes of hazardous wastes on board, including asbestos, PCBs, toxic paints, and radioactive wastes.
Read MoreTurkish Authorities Ban the Entrance of Toxic Aircraft Carrier “SÃO PAULO”→
/Aliağa, Turkey. September 2, 2022. Turkey has finally banned the toxic aircraft carrier SÃO PAULO from entering its national waters. For weeks, local environmental and labour rights groups, supported by international NGOs, have been protesting the voyage of the vessel from Brazil to Aliağa, demanding compliance with the Basel and Barcelona Conventions.
Read MoreTurkey Demands New Survey of Massive Toxic Warship Before Import→
/Ankara, Turkey. August 23, 2022. The Brazilian government and Sok Denizcilik Tic.Ve Ltd.Sti (SOK) of Aliaga, Turkey, the buyer of the Aircraft Carrier SÃO PAULO, were sent scrambling on August 9, when Turkish authority Eyüp Karahan General Director of Environmental Management, on behalf of Minister Çevre Yönetimi Genel Müdürü, sent a letter to the Brazilian agency IBAMA, Competent Authority for the Basel Convention, requiring a new Inventory of Hazardous Materials (IHM) to be conducted prior the export:
Read MoreBrazil Silent as Renegade Aircraft Carrier Moves in Defiance of Injunction and International Law→
/Brussels, Belgium. August 17, 2022. Environmental, human rights, and labor organisations from around the world are sounding the alarm over the former Brazilian aircraft carrier SÃO PAULO, now being towed across the Atlantic towards Turkey in defiance of international and Brazilian law.
Read MoreToxic Warship "Clemenceau II": Starts Voyage from Brazil to the Mediterranean Sea→
/Rio de Janeiro, Brussels, Izmir. 4 August 2022. Reports from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil confirm that the sister ship of the infamous aircraft carrier CLEMENCEAU, formerly known as French warship FOCH, and most recently named the SÃO PAULO, has now been placed under tow on a 6000-mile journey to Aliaga, Turkey, where it is to be scrapped. Environmental groups around the world are denouncing Brazil’s export and disposal plans in Turkey as illegal and unsafe.
Read MoreDelegates and Environmentalists Celebrate New Global Restrictions on e-Waste Trade→
/Geneva, Switzerland (June 17, 2022) – After eight days of detailed and stressful negotiations this week and last, the Parties to the Basel Convention at their 15th meeting (COP15) held in Geneva agreed by consensus to the "Swiss-Ghana Amendments." These amendments establish new definitions of hazardous and non-hazardous electronic waste, and ensure that these two categories of e-waste will either be banned from trade or at a minimum require notification by the exporting country and consent by the importing country prior to export.
Read MoreEnvironmental Groups Claim that New Rules Restricting Plastic Trade are being Ignored→
/Geneva, Switzerland (June 14, 2022) – At the ongoing meeting of the Basel Convention, the Basel Action Network (BAN) and member organizations of the Break Free from Plastic movement (BFFP) in a side event, presented evidence of continued plastic waste trade, that is exported primarily from the rich developed countries to weaker economies, and charged these exporting countries with failing to uphold the agreements to control plastic waste exports made at the Basel Convention in 2019, which came into force on January 1, 2021.
Read MoreTerraCycle accused of recycling failures and consumer misinformation in BBC Panorama revelations→
/Author: Louis Gore-Langton
The ongoing saga of corruption allegations against TerraCycle’s UK operations was brought to a head last night in BBC Panorama’s investigation Recycling: Where Does My Rubbish Go? Company CEO Tom Szaky was confronted with evidence that his UK waste handler is a sanctioned criminal, that his business system’s collection and recycling rates are extremely low, and that the scheme is likely misleading consumers.
Read MoreNew Report Reveals that U.S. Plastics Recycling Rate Has Fallen to 5%-6%→
/Author: Beyond Plastics
On the heels of California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s April 29, 2022 announcement of a major investigation of the recycling claims made by the petrochemical and fossil fuel industries, plastics policy and engineering experts are out with new numbers that document the low rate of plastics recycling in the United States.
Read MoreEPA to weigh regulating common plastic as hazardous waste→
/Author: E.A. Crunden
EPA may finally classify a commonly used plastic as hazardous waste, following a long legal struggle with advocates. The Center for Biological Diversity said this afternoon that it has reached a deal with EPA over polyvinyl chloride, more well known as PVC or vinyl, following a decade of back-and-forth.
Read MoreNone of Sainsbury’s flexible plastic recycled in the UK→
/Author: Conor McGlone
None of the flexible plastic waste that Sainsbury’s collects from its customers as part of a controversial nationwide initiative is currently recycled in the UK, the supermarket has admitted. Meanwhile, the UK’s largest supermarket chain, Tesco, has announced it is carrying out an audit of the waste exporter employed by both supermarkets to recycle this plastic waste - following an E&T investigation.
Read MoreLead Pipes Removed in the U.S. May Result in Poisoning Abroad→
/Efforts to replace lead pipes may end up causing lead poisoning in Mexico, India and other countries if steps are not taken to recycle these materials in the U.S.
Read MoreRich countries are illegally exporting plastic trash to poor countries, data suggests→
/Author: Joseph WInters
At the beginning of last year, 187 countries took steps to limit the export of plastic trash from wealthy to developing countries. It’s not working as well as they hoped. According to an analysis of global trade data by the nonprofit Basel Action Network, or BAN, violations of a U.N. agreement regulating the international plastic waste trade have been “rampant” over the past year.
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