Welcome to Higginson Strategy’s weekly round-up of international news relating to plastic pollution.
This week, research from the University of Rome found microplastics in human ovary follicular fluidfor the first time, with likely implications for fertility, hormonal balance and overall reproductive health. During the general election campaign, the Conservative Party, which is second in the polls in Canada, promised to do away with the country’s single-use plastics ban. The US Plastics Pact cited the cost disparity between virgin and PCR plastic as the main barrier for the 80-strong coalition failing to progress on PCR packaging targets. A study by Chile’s Universidad Católica del Norte ranks Costa Rica amongst Latin America’s most affected countries for plastic bottle pollution on its beaches. Finally, Mondelēz International, the packaged foods company behind big brands like Oreo, Ritz and Clif, in 2024 saw virgin plastic reduction efforts falter, according to its latest report.
Microplastics found in human ovary follicular fluid
The peer-reviewed research from the University of Rome checked for microplastics in the follicular fluid of 18 women undergoing assisted reproductive treatment at a fertility clinic in Salerno, Italy, and detected them in 14. Follicular fluid provides essential nutrients and biochemical signals for developing eggs.
Contaminating that process with bits of plastic quite likely has implications for fertility, hormonal balance and overall reproductive health, the authors wrote. The findings represent a major step toward figuring out how and why microplastics impact women’s reproductive health, but are also “very alarming”, Luigi Montano, a researcher said.
Read more here.
Canda’s Conservative Party promises to bring back single-use plastic bags, cutlery
As Canada’s election draws near, the opposition party closing on the Liberals, the Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has promised to do away with Canada’s single-use plastics ban – a contentious policy he said was less about saving the planet and more about saving a ‘buck’.
Poilievre also vowed an end to plans to establish federal standards for plastic packaging – a move meant to improve ease of recycling but a plan Poilievre described as a tax on plastic food packaging. Under the Liberal policy, grocery stores would be required to eliminate 95 per cent of their plastic food packaging by 2028. US President Donald Trump did away with a similar ban south of the border with an executive order signed shortly after taking office.
US Plastic Pact reports PCR use still dogged by pricing challenges
The US Plastics Pact, comprising 80 companies including Coca-Cola, Nestlé and Danone, named the cost disparity between virgin and postconsumer recycled plastics as a key factor preventing more PCR use in plastic packaging in 2025, in a report the group released with strategies for upping PCR use in the United States.
The report reinforces the Pact’s growing calls for policy, such as recycled content mandates and EPR, as a solution for increasing PCR use, comparing the need for this type of governmental support for plastics recycling to the renewable energy industry’s growth over the last 20 years due to state and federal targets and subsidies.
Read more here.
Costa Rica among Latin America’s worst hit by plastic bottle pollution
Costa Rica ranks among Latin America’s most affected countries for plastic bottle pollution on its beaches, according to a study by Chile’s Universidad Católica del Norte. The report conducted across ten Latin American countries with over 1,000 volunteers, found that Central America’s continental Pacific beaches have the highest plastic waste levels in the region, averaging 1.4 items per person per minute.
The report also highlighted marine currents and illegal maritime activities, such as foreign fishing fleets, transport plastic waste from countries like China, North America, and Europe to Costa Rican shores, with up to 40 per cent of debris in some regions originating from maritime sources and recommended a bottle return scheme to help tackle the waste.
Read more here.
Mondelēz reports challenges in lowering virgin plastic
Mondelēz International, the packaged foods company behind big brands like Oreo, Ritz, Clif and more, in 2024 saw its rate of packaging that is recyclable stagnate, and virgin plastic reduction efforts falter, according to its latest report.
Packaging was linked to five per cent of the company’s overall greenhouse gas emissions were linked to packaging. Mondelēz did not comment on the backwards trajectory of its virgin plastics reduction efforts, which resulted in over a four per cent increase over 2020 levels, citing challenges including a “landscape of disconnected national and sub-national policies.”
Read more here.