Plastic Pollution

As we mark World Environment Day, conservation groups around the globe are renewing calls to end plastic pollution. More than 400 million tonnes of plastic are produced worldwide every year, but just half of this is designed to be used only once, and less than 10 per cent is recycled.…

The current draft of the global plastics treaty suggests that biodegradable plastics have the potential to end plastic pollution (1). This perception, combined with ever-rising consumer demand, has fueled biodegradable plastic production, which reached 2.47 million tonnes in 2024 and is projected to hit 5.73 million tonnes by 2029 (2...Read…

What Businesses Can Learn from Japan’s ‘Sho-Sho-Sei’ to Beat Plastic Pollution By Bella Tobing   Every minute, a garbage truck’s worth of plastic enters our oceans. As we mark World Environment Day 2025 with the rallying cry #BeatPlasticPollution, it’s clear that we need more than corporate pledges – we need…

Egypt’s Minister of Environment, Yasmine Fouad, held a virtual meeting on Saturday with French Minister for Ecological Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, to strengthen cooperation ahead of the United Nations Ocean Conference scheduled for June in Nice, France. The ministers discussed Egypt’s active participation in the conference and explored collaborative measures to…

Microplastic pollution is an emerging but underregulated threat to public health (1–3). Microplastics have the potential to harm human organs and biological systems (4 –6), yet no country has yet established standards to regulate their presence in drinking water. The US state of California has implemented standardized microplastic testing for…

It’s no secret that microplastics have already infiltrated our lives, and nowhere is this more present than in our own homes. Microplastics — and even tinier nanoplastics — stem from daily tasks like cooking and cleaning. Now, research is pointing to the previously unexplored impact of dishwashing on microplastic pollution.…

A coalition of leading European environmental groups has cautiously welcomed a “landmark” agreement by lawmakers in Brussels on new rules aimed at curbing a major source of microplastic pollution in the world’s oceans. The provisional deal, reached last week between the European Council and the European Parliament...Read More

In December 2024, the global community expected the parties at the fifth Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5) meeting in Busan, South Korea, to produce a landmark treaty to address the planet’s plastic pollution crisis. The event was intended to be the final opportunity for more than 170 United Nations (UN) member…

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Éanna Ní Lamhna on the scarlet elf cup, plastic pollution and a Kiwi invader Scarlet elf cup. Photograph supplied by Daphne Cushnahan I saw these eye-catching little cups growing on the forest floor among the leaves and branches. I have walked this path many times but never saw them before.…