A blanket ‘bring or buy’ reusable scheme has been introduced in the town, which was getting through 23,000 cups a week
Killarney used to accept it as a price of being a tourist town: ubiquitous disposable coffee cups spilling from bins, littering roads and blighting the area’s national park.
The County Kerry town went through about 23,000 cups a week – more than a million a year – adding up to 18.5 tonnes of waste.
Continue reading...Celebrities reportedly fuelling glitter hysteria with one Big Brother ex-contestant buying 82 packets
German reality TV personalities and influencers are reportedly driving a surge in sales of glitter and everything made with it, from nails to makeup, before an EU ban on loose glitter that is aimed at tackling pollution from microplastics.
Many products containing glitter are to be banned from shops in the bloc from the end of this week, creating an unprecedented demand for them.
Continue reading...Plastics consumed nationally in 2019-20 created 16m tonnes of greenhouse gases, report says
The plastics consumed yearly by Australians have a greenhouse emissions impact equivalent to 5.7m cars – more than a third of the cars on Australia’s roads, new analysis suggests.
A report commissioned by the Australian Marine Conservation Society and WWF Australia has found that the plastics consumed nationally in the 2019-20 financial year created 16m tonnes of greenhouse gases.
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Continue reading...Inquiry launched by Environment Agency into huge pile of medical aprons found in Calmore, Hampshire
The “dumping” of hundreds of thousands of pieces of unused personal protective equipment near a nature reserve on the edge of the New Forest has mystified and angered local people.
But the council has revealed the giant pile of boxes containing medical aprons in Calmore, Hampshire, will be recycled into plastic bags.
Continue reading...New rules agreed at meeting of environment ministers welcomed as breakthrough by conservationists
Industry will be forced to do more to cut waste and boost recycling after Australia’s federal and state governments agreed for the first time to impose mandatory packaging rules on manufacturers and retailers.
The agreement, at a meeting of environment ministers in Sydney on Friday, was welcomed by conservationists as a major breakthrough after years of voluntary industry action has failed to reduce waste.
Continue reading...Limits on numbers at Paris summit mean some of those ‘most needing to be heard’ will not be in attendance
Scientists and NGOs have accused the UN’s environment programme (Unep) of locking out those “most needing to be heard” from upcoming negotiations in Paris aimed at halting plastic waste.
Last-minute restrictions to the numbers of NGOs attending what the head of Unep described as the “most important multilateral environmental deal” in a decade will exclude people from communities in developing countries harmed by dumping and burning of plastic waste as well as marginalised waste pickers, who are crucial to recycling, from fully participating, they said.
Continue reading...As consumers turn to renewable and recyclable products, protests over industry’s use of misleading terms have proliferated
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is taking aim at greenwashing by big business with an update to its “Green Guides”, which would give the agency stronger legal cases against polluters by clarifying when companies’ deceptive marketing around sustainability and environmental responsibility violates federal law.
The move follows years of formal complaints filed with the FTC about often highly questionable claims made by fossil fuel companies, big agriculture, major food producers and other polluting industries.
Continue reading...The environmental law charity ClientEarth and 13 other groups headed into a Flemish court this week in an effort to stop Ineos building a petrochemical plant that would be the biggest project of its kind in Europe for 30 years. Madeleine Finlay hears from correspondent Sandra Laville about how plastics are made, the environmental and health impacts of the process and what needs to be done to get a handle on plastic pollution
Clips: CBS, PBS
Read Sandra Laville’s reporting on this story here
Continue reading...Dozens of storage sites found across Australia but estimated amount of plastic reportedly falls from 12,350 tonnes to 11,000
New stockpiles of soft plastics from the failed REDcycle recycling scheme have been uncovered as the work to develop an alternative program continues.
The program was wound up in November 2022 after it emerged that plastics consumers had returned to supermarkets to be recycled were instead put into storage.
Continue reading...New UN report finds the average Australian spent $580 buying 504L of bottled water in 2021
Australia has the most expensive bottled water on the planet but that hasn’t curbed consumer thirst for something people can basically get for free.
On average, Australians each spent about $580 buying 504 litres of bottled water in 2021, a new UN report shows.
Continue reading...Almost half of products cleared so far under a new US federal ‘biofuels’ program are not, in fact, biofuels
The Environmental Protection Agency recently gave a Chevron refinery the green light to create fuel from discarded plastics as part of a climate-friendly initiative to boost alternatives to petroleum. But, according to agency records obtained by ProPublica and the Guardian, the production of one of the fuels could emit air pollution that is so toxic, one out of four people exposed to it over a lifetime could get cancer.
“That kind of risk is obscene,” said Linda Birnbaum, former head of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. “You can’t let that get out.”
This story was updated on 23 February 2023 to correct how much plastic ends up in the oceans each year. It is millions of tons, not hundreds of millions of tons.
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Where the parties stand
So the Greens are pushing hard against new coal and gas but have not indicated they are willing to kill off the legislation.
We’re willing to negotiate on everything that we consider will be in keeping with our government’s approach and our election mandate. Nothing more, nothing less. We went to the people seeking a mandate. That’s what we will implement.
Continue reading...Environmentalist alliance says plastic waste from failed supermarket-backed recycling scheme can be safely warehoused until it can be recycled
Environment groups are urging federal and state governments to ensure thousands of tonnes of soft plastic that could end up in landfill are safely warehoused by supermarket chains until recycling facilities become available, even if that takes years.
The Boomerang Alliance – a coalition of 55 conservation groups – has accused the packaging industry of using a failed scheme run by REDcycle which led to more than 12,000 tonnes of plastic collected by the public being stockpiled since 2018 as a marketing ploy to mask how little is being done to improve recycling rates.
Continue reading...Large volumes of traps, nets and marine debris in sperm whale’s intestinal tract highlight plastic pollution’s threat to wildlife
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 in oceans every year.
The body of the 56ft (17-meter) long, 120,000-pound (54,000kg) animal was first noticed on a reef off Kauai on Friday. High tide brought it ashore on Saturday.
Continue reading...Sale by retailers and food outlets in England of single-use plastic tableware to be banned but not ‘shelf-ready pre-packaged food’ containers
Single-use plastic plates, cutlery and a range of other items will be banned in England from October, to curb their “devastating” impact on the environment, the government has confirmed.
The Department for the Environment said the ban will also cover single-use plastic bowls, trays and certain types of polystyrene cups and food containers.
Continue reading...Draft regulations would ban mini-shampoo bottles and throwaway cups, with push towards reuse over recycling
The EU executive wants to ban mini-shampoo bottles in hotels and the use of throwaway cups in cafes and restaurants, as part of sweeping legal proposals to curb Europe’s mountains of waste.
A draft EU regulation published on Wednesday also proposes mandatory deposit and return schemes for single-use plastic drinks bottles and metal cans, as well as an end to e-commerce firms wrapping small items in huge boxes.
Continue reading...Americans discarded 51m tons of plastic in 2021 – of which almost 95% ended up in landfills, oceans or scattered in the atmosphere
Only 5% of the mountains of plastic waste generated by US households last year was recycled, according to new research by Greenpeace.
Americans discarded 51m tons of wrappers, bottles and bags in 2021 – about 309lb of plastic per person – of which almost 95% ended up in landfills, oceans or scattered in the atmosphere in tiny toxic particles.
Continue reading...Its enzymes degrade polyethylene within hours at room temperature and could ‘revolutionise’ recycling
Enzymes that rapidly break down plastic bags have been discovered in the saliva of wax worms, which are moth larvae that infest beehives.
The enzymes are the first reported to break down polyethylene within hours at room temperature and could lead to cost-effective ways of recycling the plastic.
Continue reading...Human Rights Watch says failure to enforce laws worsens health impact at centres, amid steep rise in EU and UK waste exports
Children as young as nine are working in plastic waste recycling centres in Turkey, putting them at risk of serious and lifelong health conditions, according to Human Rights Watch.
Workers including children, and people living in homes located “dangerously close” to the centres, told researchers they were suffering from respiratory problems, severe headaches and skin ailments.
Continue reading...Ban on manufacture and import of six popular types of items will begin in December 2022, and sales a year later
Canada laid out its final regulations on Monday spelling out how it intends to apply a ban on plastic bags, straws, takeout containers and other single-use plastics.
“Only 8% of the plastic we throw away gets recycled,” said federal health minister Jean-Yves Duclos in French, adding that 43,000 tonnes of single-use plastics a year find their way into the environment, most notably in waterways.
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