Category: Environment EN

There are health risks from each part of the plastic lifecycle. > The extraction of fossil fuels, used as feedstocks in manufacturing plastic, results in air and water pollution and other direct impacts to communities such as increased traffic and pipeline construction (more than 99% of plastic made today is made using fossil fuels). > Refining and producing the plastic resins and...

WASHINGTON (15 June 2023) – More than 500 groups, from 6 continents, sent a letter to President Biden today demanding he stop fossil fuel expansion ahead of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’s Climate Ambition Summit this September. The letter demands the world’s top polluter take urgent action to phase out fossil fuel production and slow global climate catastrophe. The latest climate...

Natural materials, like banana leaves, can be good alternatives to plastic for everyday packaging use.  The leaves are flexible and can be easily folded, making it perfect for packaging. They’re also big enough for wrapping large food items. Banana leaves are waterproof, don't leach any chemicals onto the food and once the customer is done with the packaging, the leaves are compostable,...

Trees are important in our life.  They give us clean air, water and food; store carbon, stabilise soil, bring life to the world's wildlife, and make the earth a beautiful liveable place (The Scientific World). Forests are being destroyed at an alarming rate, and it's up to us to protect them. Our future is in our hands. “We must protect the forests for our children, grandchildren and children...

Plastic bags have a lifespan of mere minutes, yet they may persist in the environment for thousands of years. Plastics often contain additives making them stronger, more flexible, and durable, thus extending their life as litter. Plastic cups and bottles can take up to 450 years to decompose; plastic straws, 200 years; and a common plastic bag, 20 years. Although they can break down in as little...

Lydia Chai today presented a petition to Parliament’s Environment Committee calling on the Government to ban plastic waste exports to developing countries. It has the signatures of more than 11,500 people, she said. Customs data released to the Herald shows Malaysia is the top recipient of New Zealand’s plastic waste, just ahead of Indonesia, receiving tens of thousands of tonnes in the past...

Humanity is facing a plastic pollution crisis. It's said that plastic production has risen exponentially in the last decades, and now amounts to some 400 million tons per year – a figure set to double by 2040. In 2022, UN Member States agreed to start negotiating a historic new global treaty to end #plasticpollution. The framework is now being negotiated throughout a series of meetings across...

Ban Toxic Chemicals in Plastics – IPEN As the Plastics Treaty INC-2 negotiations come to a close, IPEN observes that many delegates’ views are evolving, as the talks have advanced from a focus on plastic as a waste and pollution problem, to the current movement toward a Treaty that addresses the threats to health and biodiversity from chemicals throughout the plastics life cycle. Despite...

Meeting Ends: A Quick Summary The second meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (#INC2) for a global agreement to end plastic pollution concluded at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris with civil society organizations appealing to governments not to allow the use of dilatory tactics and procedural questions to set back progress and lower the ambition of the potential treaty....