Plastic Pollution

During the fifth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-5), the global community came together to recognize the plastic pollution crisis as an environmental priority, and unanimously agreed to develop a new international legally binding agreement on plastic pollution. An Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) has been established to develop…

Researchers blame 'lack of recycling, a flood of toxic products and packaging' There are an estimated 170 trillion pieces of plastic in the world's oceans today, according to new research published this week. (Photo: AFP) PARIS: Plastic pollution in the world's oceans has reached "unprecedented levels" over the past 15…

Environment Global data on ocean surface level pollution suggests there are now 2.3 million tonnes of microplastic pollution floating in the world’s seas, with concentrations surging since 2005 By Madeleine Cuff 8 March 2023 A handful of plastic washed ashore at Kamilo Beach, Hawaii The 5 Gyres Institute, CC-BY 4.0…

A global dataset of ocean plastic pollution between 1979 and 2019 reveals a rapid and unprecedented increase in ocean plastics since 2005, according to a study published March 8, 2023 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Marcus Eriksen from The 5 Gyres Institute, USA, and colleagues. Understanding plastic accumulation…

Chairman of the Nippon Foundation, Yohei Sasakawa says the report is a "timely call for urgent, ambitious solutions" to the plastic crisis, and recognises that global effort and coordination are needed to handle the crisis Naja Bertolt Jensen/Unsplash A new report warns that plastic consumption and waste are rising rapidly,…

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain In the last decade, growing numbers of researchers have studied plastic pollution, one of the world's most pressing environmental hazards. They have made progress but still face challenges, such as the comparability of results, especially with regard to microplastic particles. There is no standard sample collection…

Updated 6 days ago · Published on 16 Feb 2023 3:40PM · Tonnes of donated clothing is sent to Kenya every year, but an estimated 30% of it ends up in landfills, says a news report. – AFP pic, February 16, 2023. ONE third of all second-hand clothing shipped to…

A sperm whale that washed ashore in Hawaii over the weekend probably died in part because it ate large volumes of fishing traps, fishing nets, plastic bags and other marine debris, scientists said on Thursday, highlighting the threat to wildlife from the millions of tons of plastic that ends up…

Developers at Flinders University and the German biotech company one • five have created a seaweed-based coating designed to replace plastics used in fast food packaging.Many food containers and wrappers contain harmful plastics derived from fossil fuels that do not biodegrade and break into tiny microplastics that pollute the environment…

LONDON, Jan 14 (Reuters) - England will ban a range of single-use plastic items such as cutlery, plates and bowls from October in an effort to limit soaring plastic pollution, Britain's environment department said on Saturday. The decision follows a public consultation by the government in which 95% of respondents…