Author: Maysoon Khan

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York state sued PepsiCo on Wednesday in an effort to hold the soda-and-snack food giant partly responsible for litter that winds up in bodies of water supplying the city of Buffalo with drinking water. The lawsuit, filed in state Supreme Court by Attorney General Letitia James, accuses the company and its Frito-Lay subsidiaries of creating a public nuisance by making a huge number of plastic bottles and wrappers, some of which inevitably fall or blow into the Buffalo River when they are discarded.

Author: CIEL

NAIROBI — 143 fossil fuel and chemical industry lobbyists have registered to attend the third session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-3) to advance a global plastics treaty, gaining access to the negotiations at a time when the talks are entering a critical phase. A new analysis from the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), supported by Greenpeace, Beyond Petrochemicals, International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN), and Break Free From Plastic, is based on the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) provisional list of INC-3 participants, shows the magnitude of corporate lobbying influence at the negotiations. It comes after civil society organizations and scientists have petitioned UNEP and the INC Secretariat to safeguard the negotiating process from industry influence and to implement strong Conflict of Interest policies. 

Authors: Michael Copley, Julia Simon

Plastic waste is everywhere. Each year, around 400 million metric tons of it end up in landfills and places like oceans, rivers and shorelines. The trash breaks down into tiny pieces called microplastics that have made their way into every corner of the environment and even into human bodies. The problem is getting worse. So last year the United Nations set out to write a legally binding agreement to deal with the issue. That decision by U.N. member states "will clearly take us towards a future with no plastic pollution," Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi, Japan's then-environment minister, said at the time.

Author: RecyclingMarkets.net Staff

Fall is bringing a rise in recyclables pricing, with curbside fiber and plastics grades experiencing notable increases in November. For fibers, the national average price for corrugated containers (PS 11) increased this month by $4 per ton, from $73 to $77 per ton. This compares with $30 per ton this time last year. OCC prices have been steadily climbing throughout 2023 after they hit a floor of $29 a ton in December 2022.

Author: University of Plymouth

Newswise — An international group of scientists has cautioned against reliance on mechanical cleanup devices as a means of addressing the plastic pollution crisis. The researchers – comprising a number of the world’s foremost experts in plastic pollution – say they appreciate the clear and pressing need to tackle the millions of tonnes of waste that have already accumulated in the ocean and waterways. However, they caution that plastic removal technologies used so far have shown varied efficiency in the amount of waste material they are able to collect, many have not been tested at all.

Author; University of Gothenberg

When scientists examined pellets from recycled plastic collected in 13 countries they found hundreds of toxic chemicals, including pesticides and pharmaceuticals. The results are published in a study led by scientists at the University of Gothenburg. Because of this, the scientists judge recycled plastics unfit for most purposes and a hinder in the attempts to create a circular economy. Delegates, scientists and health and environmental advocates from around the world are traveling to Nairobi, Kenya for next week’s meeting of the third session of the Plastics Treaty Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-3).

Author: Pietro Bertazzi

November 9 - 2023 has the potential to be remembered as the year the world finally woke up to the true scale of the plastic crisis. The prospect of a Global Plastics Treaty signalled a shift among governments, from seeing plastic pollution and waste as a standalone issue to recognising the pervasive risks that plastics pose for people and planet alike. Next week, representatives from nearly 200 nations will meet in Nairobi to resume negotiations for the Treaty. This could well represent our collective chance to build momentum for a Paris Agreement-like global agreement to address the elimination of plastic pollution and waste. This will only be possible if we seize the opportunity through a global policy and political agreement that has accountability at its core. This means that enshrining mandatory corporate disclosure in the final agreement will be critical.

Author: Greenpeace European Unit

Brussels, 9 November 2023 – A Greenpeace analysis found that a trade agreement currently being negotiated between the European Union (EU) and Mercosur (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay) will eliminate tariffs for EU exports of throwaway plastic products.[1] Cutting these tariffs will promote the trade of plastic raw materials, plastic waste, and single-use plastic products, like plastic cutlery.

Greenpeace Germany trade campaigner Lis Cunha said: “This deal is an outrageous example of the EU’s double standards. Some of the products promoted by the free trade deal, like single-use plastic cutlery, are banned within Europe because of their impacts on the environment and human health. Yet the EU is now ready to encourage international trade of the same products with Mercosur partner countries, in total disregard of people’s health and nature beyond the EU’s borders.” 

Author: Josh Templeman

A new study has revealed that approximately one million tonnes of plastic additives leak into the planet’s oceans every year. The report – conducted by EA Earth Action – reveals the scale of pollution caused by these chemicals on an annual basis, with the organisation warning that, without substantial changes to production and waste management, the leakage of plastic additives into oceans and waterways could increase by over 50 per cent by 2040. The study – entitled ‘Adding It Up’ – further highlights that a significant portion of this pollution – approximately 116 kilotonnes – originates from plastic packaging materials alone.

Author: Recycling Magazine, Zero Waste Europe

Touted as a solution, pyrolysis – technology that heats up plastic waste in the absence of oxygen – produces a type of oil that industries argue can be transformed back into ‘virgin-like’ plastic. However, this latest report published by the environmental network Zero Waste Europe underlines the limitations of pyrolysis oil. Incompatibility with different plastic types, low yield, and contamination of pyrolysis oil means it must be diluted by a petroleum-based mixture, in some cases by a ratio of over 40:1.

Author: AFP

An EU push towards bloc-wide rules on recyclable packaging to cut plastic and other waste got initial support in the European Parliament on Tuesday. The nod by the legislature's environment committee paves the way for a parliamentary vote in November to set the lawmakers' negotiating stance with European Union member countries. The goal is to reduce the 190 kilograms (420 pounds) of packaging waste each European throws away annually, on average -- a mountain of plastic, polystyrene, aluminium, paper and cardboard that has grown by more than 30 kilograms per person over a decade, according to EU statistics office Eurostat.

Author: Mia Rabson

The mountains of trash from foreign countries seen piling up around homes and temples in Myanmar are renewing calls for Canada and other wealthy countries to deal with their own plastic garbage at home, instead of exporting waste — and the problem — to the developing world. While there is some local trash in the heaps of plastic waste all over the township of Shwepyithar, in the north of Yangon, there is clear evidence of plastic packaging from foreign brands there too, including from Canada.

Author: Louise Boyle

Packaging from a UK supermarket has been dumped 7,000 miles away in a low-income township in Myanmar - raising troubling questions about how the West’s outsized plastic pollution crisis is being forced upon vulnerable communities with little ability to push back. Labels and plastic wrapping for bottled water and diet lemonade from a Lidl in Lichfield were discovered in the piles of festering garbage which engulf low-income areas of Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city.

Authors: Leonie Cater and Louise Guillot

The EU has vowed to clean up its act and cut back on dumping its waste elsewhere. For communities in low-income countries bearing the brunt of Europe's trash, that can’t come fast enough. A joint investigation by POLITICO, Lighthouse Reports and other global media partners highlights what an uphill climb that effort will be, as legal loopholes and a lack of transparency facilitate the flow of illegal exports to countries like Myanmar, where local communities are confronted with the pollution caused by ever-growing mounds of trash.

Author: Charles Pekow

Pay someone to clean up a ton of plastic fouling the environment in a developing nation and get certified to create another ton. Then call yourself pollution neutral. This system of “plastic credits” is catching on globally, especially among corporations. Several organizations now sponsor a plastic credit certification process in Asia, the Pacific region, Africa and South America. But as of yet, no common standard or regulations govern the accuracy of the data on what is collected or how the collected material gets recycled and reused. In any event, critics note, the system only deals with the downstream issue of plastic already in the environment, and not the issue of the manufacture and use of plastic in the first place.