Category: Environment EN

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....

We Need a Clear Definition of Plastic Pollution  Here’s what took place on Day 4 of the Global #PlasticsTreaty.  

A Recap of Day 3 Talks On the 3rd day of the INC2 #PlasticsTreaty, negotiations finally moved to Contact Groups – after 2 days of delay focused solely on the draft Rules of Procedure. The INC heard calls from NGOs, Indigenous Peoples, Women, impacted communities, trade unions, workers, scientists, and other rights-holders and civil society members for: dramatic reductions of plastics...

Stop Unnecessary Plastic Production To stop plastic pollution, unnecessary plastic production must stop. For the Global #PlasticsTreaty to be effective, the treaty must include significant, progressive, and mandatory targets to cap and dramatically reduce virgin plastic production.    

A Recap of Day 2 Talks Check out the recap of the 2nd day of the #INC2 negotiations of the #PlasticsTreaty.