Category: Environment EN

Batteries are the most expensive component of an electric vehicle. If the battery pack is damaged, defective or simply old, this can lead to the vehicle being written off prematurely. Increasingly scarce and valuable resources, such as lithium and water, are needed to make these batteries. Despite this, they are often not designed for ease of repair, reuse or recycling. This has significant...

Tune into a new episode of the Africa For Zero Waste Podcast. In this episode, Semia Gharbi (Chairperson of Tunisia’s Association of Environmental Education for Future Generations and coordinator of IPEN in the MENA region) and Mageswari Sangaralingam of the Consumers Association Penang - CAP and Sahabat Alam Malaysia - SAM talk to host Sureshnie Rieder about waste colonialism in the global...

SAM is extremely concerned by media reports today that revealed the discovery by the Negeri Sembilan and Melaka authorities of illegal rare earth mining activities in Kuala Pilah, following a complaint that was lodged with the Kuala Pilah Land and District Office on May 16. While we applaud the swift response and openness of all the state and federal agencies involved, we feel it is important...

A new Greenpeace report "Forever Toxic" shows that plastics pose health threats throughout the recycling stream. Recycling is not a fix for the plastics problem – we need to dramatically reduce plastic production. (IPEN) Some excerpts from the Greenpeace report: "Many consumer goods companies, including Nestlé, Unilever, and Coca-Cola, tout the use of recycled plastic in their packaging as an...

FALSE SOLUTIONS AHEAD OF GLOBAL PLASTICS TREATY Greenwashing tactics and false solutions to the plastic waste crisis continue to be spewed out that ignore the health and environmental effects of plastic pollution, ahead of the global Plastics Treaty. On 16 May 2023 the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) released a controversial report (meant to help national governments negotiate a new,...

It has been announced that Malaysia will be meeting with its ASEAN neighbours in Singapore in early June 2023 to discuss the transboundary haze issue and develop a new roadmap for the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution (AATHP) 2002. While this meeting and the roadmap development are positive steps, the question remains whether the criticisms and weaknesses of the AATHP will be...

Civil society organizations, academics, and frontline groups are expressing their concern over UNEP's newly released Spotlight report promoting burning plastic waste in cement kilns as a key strategy in the design and implementation of the Global Plastics Treaty. “Burning plastic waste in cement kilns is a ‘get out of jail free card’ for the plastic industry to keep ramping up plastic...

We refer to the media statement by Gamuda issued on 16 May, 2023. Gamuda’s defence of its Penang South Reclamation (PSR) project is self-serving and unsustainable. It has a vested interest in the mega reclamation project, expecting to make millions, perhaps billions, of profit. Therefore, its claims of the project benefitting the public must be taken with a pinch of salt. The Penang state...

Urgent Global Action Needed: UNEP Report Reduce plastic production and  address chemicals in plastics globally to protect human health and the environment, recommends a new UN report released last week. Chemicals released throughout the life cycle of plastics pose serious health and environmental threats, says “Chemicals in Plastics: A Technical Report”. About 22 million tonnes of...