Take action in your community with this Climate Adaptation Toolkit

World needs to offer trillions, not billions in overseas support, says leading climate economist Avinash Persaud - Guardian article 18 June 2023

Breaking carbon lock-ins through three mitigation pathways

The Gulf Stream system could collapse as soon as 2025, a new study suggests. The shutting down of the vital ocean currents, called the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (Amoc) by scientists, would bring catastrophic climate impacts. Guardian 25 JUly 2023

The school is on stilts, the shore has advanced by 2km – and the mangroves that used to reduce the waves have been lost for shrimp farms. How long can residents stay ahead of rising sea levels? Guardian 1st July 2023

Carbon capture technologies cannot solve the climate crisis

Assessing the effectiveness of diverse climate mitigation approaches

Rather than racing to extract natural gas, those who caused the climate crisis should help Africa harness its wind and sun

Despite risk of disasters like East Palestine, the vinyl lobby has poured millions of dollars over the years into convincing lawmakers that PVC plastic is safe and sustainable.

McDonalds pushes back on reuse to waterdown PPWR

The money behind INEOS and Borealis
by Amadeo Ghiotto May 2022
Posted by Antoinette Vermilye

Useful discussion about PlasticsEurope report on recycling (from 2017 but still relevant)

The plastic pollution crisis is the result of a broken system of overproduction and single-use, linear business models. We think it's about time this changed - and retailers have a big part to play.

False solutions: how the forces of Big Plastic seek to undermine our progress towards a plastic pollution free planet.

Plastic credits can help fund waste cleanup, but they can also justify making more plastic.

There are existing solutions to plastic pollution but some “solutions” cause more harm than good to people and the environment.

On October 31st, 2023 The Ellen MacArthur Foundation released The Global Commitment 2023 Report, determining what progress (if any) the top Fast-Moving Consumer Good brands–or top plastic polluters–are making on plastic packaging.

Ahead of a groundbreaking treaty to reduce plastic pollution, a group of independent scientists fear that the United Nations is legitimizing industry-backed proposals such as chemical recycling. ProPublica 19 Sep 2023

In an historic win for people, nature and the climate, a Belgian court has ruled that INEOS’s€3 billion plastics project in the Port of Antwerp, Belgium, is not legal. The project is now suspended. Client Earth 20 July 2023

Ohio environmentalists and oil companies are teaming up to oppose the disposal of fracking wastewater underground in the state. They worry that the waste could leak and contaminate clean water sources and productive oil wells.

The effect of plastic on the environment

What chemical changes take place in plastic bottles?

Experts say even if it claims to be “microwave-safe.”

Implications for Human Health The results indicated that microwave heating caused the highest release of microplastics and nanoplastics into food

Link for webinar requested

An extensive database and resource library focused on plastic legislation that has been passed around the world.

Delegates from 180 nations set out pathway to binding global agreement on tackling plastic pollution as soon as 2025 - Guardian 6 June 2023

Paris, France – Over 150 civil society groups and scientists from around the world, including ethologist, anthropologist and United Nations Messenger of Peace Dr. Jane Goodall, have signed on to an open letter urging the UN to act now

Second round of Global Plastics Treaty negotiations (INC2) is happening in Paris, France on May 29 to June 2, 2023.

Includes: What’s just happened?
What was achieved?
Notable points for financial institutions
What’s next?
Memorable quotes

The role of international trade in realizing an inclusive circular economy

by Plastic Solutions Fund - Newsweek 22 June 2023

Rethink Plastic position paper on the PPWP. This will form the basis of our advocacy with the Parliament and Council in the crucial weeks coming up.

What might a PET/polyester system look like, if it could combine all circular economy approaches, including reuse, and mechanical and chemical recycling?

The whole thing is a very dangerous manipulation/alienation of the science of plastic

New report calls for at least 75% reduction of plastics by 2050, reveals dire connection between plastic and climate

NGOs call on EU policymakers to develop ambitious phase out strategies for the harmful plastic

Compare the Swiss approach to Plastics with that of the UK

6 demands for a health-first reform of Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH)

Don’t eat meat? Don’t fly? Doesn’t matter. Individual action to curb your carbon footprint barely makes a dent in the struggle against climate change, according to Assaad Razzouk,.

Every stage of the plastics cycle reflects different gender-specific experiences and exposures.

Workout wear made from synthetic fabric is treated with chemicals, which research shows, can absorb through our skin

More than 2.5 million kilograms of trash were picked up and disposed of properly by volunteers in coastal regions around the world in 2021, according to Ocean Conservancy.

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As an expert on microplastics, here's what I do to keep my family safe.

Today’s insatiable fast fashion business model is enabled by cheap synthetic fibres, which are produced from fossil fuels, mostly oil and gas.

What might look like an obvious solution to plastic pollution is not as straightforward as it may seem...

They both release and attract toxic chemicals, and appear everywhere from human placentas to chasms thirty-six thousand feet beneath the sea. Will we ever be rid of them? Elizabeth Kolbert - New Yorker 26 June 2023

Plastic pollution is one of the defining legacies of our modern way of life, but it is now so widespread it is even finding its way into fruit and vegetables as they grow.

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Population exposure to the synthetic chemical Bisphenol A (BPA), which is used in everything from plastic and metal food containers to reusable water bottles and drinking water pipes in Europe is well above acceptable health safety levels, according to updated research data. This poses a potential health risk to millions of people, a European Environment Agency (EEA) briefing published today says.

Policies and management actions intended to mitigate plastic pollution sometimes have the reverse effect.

Without dramatically reducing plastic production, it will be impossible to end plastic pollution and eliminate the health threats from chemicals in plastics.

Ahead of the global plastics treaty negotiations in Paris, Defend Our Health Releases First-Ever Study that Reveals the Hard Truths Behind Plastic Bottles - May 2023

Analyses the implications of micro- and nanoplastics moving through the air and entering the human body via inhalation.

Salt is now one of the many sources through which humans ingest microplastics. They are also found in seafood, air, fruits and vegetables. Globally, India is among the leading countries in salt production.

Natural History Museum scientists say plasticosis, which scars digestive tract, likely to affect other types of bird too

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Microplastics are tiny pieces of plastic less than 5 millimeters in size, and they are a growing environmental problem in the world's oceans.

Understanding the toxicity of plastic and ways to take action

as waste management and recycling fall short, says OECD.
Globally, only 9% of plastic waste is recycled while 22% is mismanaged

The film was recently released and is a rallying point for the movement to convince the US EPA to ban vinyl chloride.

In preparation for the second session of the intergovernmental negotiating committee (INC-2), the Global Plastics Policy Centre, in collaboration with Break Free From Plastic, present this report to aid the negotiations.

Key takeaways

Sabotage' claims over whisky industry lobbying of Scottish Government

Exclusive: Waste firms and councils accused of ‘greenwashing’ with false claims over burning rubbish for energy - Open Democracy Report 17 June 2023

Chemical recycling, also known as advanced or tertiary recycling, is a group of processes that uses heat, pressure, and/or chemical solvents to break plastic waste into its basic building blocks, which can then be remade into new plastic.

In some places, recycling may work; in others, it may not. Plastic must not be exported from places where plastic recycling works better to places where recycling largely does not work.

top findings show reuse beats single-use every time

Research needed to identify decision makers about water bottle sponsorship.

How reducing waste is a climate game changer

Manufacturers will become responsible for the full cost of disposing of the packaging waste they create.

Links from Litternet.org.uk

Reuse is not only about reusable cups and canvas bags, but entire systems that require standards, infrastructure, political will, financing, and promoting behavioural change.

I get it that many environmentalists are instinctively against incineration plants. After all, isn't it very inefficient/wasteful to burn stuff? But what is the alternative?