This week, the Trump administration announced that it will drop some limits on “forever chemicals” in drinking water that officials had determined can cause cancer and other serious health problems. Europe’s circular plastics transition has “ground to a halt,” according to a new industry report. Researchers from Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research found invisible plastic particles from car tires comprise up 4 percent of city air pollution. Soft drinks bosses are calling for an official probe to be launched after the Welsh government was accused of “burying” a consultation on the nations deposit return scheme. Finally, research from the Environmental Investigation Agency shows we can cut plastic pollution without needing global consensus.
EPA to End Some Limits on ‘Forever Chemicals’ in Drinking Water
The Trump administration announced Monday that it will drop some limits on “forever chemicals” in drinking water that officials had determined can cause cancer and other serious health problems — angering some key activists who had supported President Trump’s campaign.
The Environmental Protection Agency said it would unravel the nation’s first federal drinking water limits for the compounds, perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.
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Europe’s circular plastics transition “ground to a halt,” warns industry report
A recent report by Plastics Europe has revealed that the transition to a circular plastic economy decreased “dramatically” in 2024. It outlines that, amid increasing global competition and weak investment opportunities, 15.8% of Europe’s total plastics production was circular.
The report, titled The Circular Economy for Plastics: A European Analysis, identifies that Europe’s annual growth in circular production declined from 13.6% in 2022 to 1.2% in 2024, with circular output dropping to 8.7 metric tonnes.
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Invisible plastic particles from car tires comprise up 4 percent of city air pollution
A team in Germany spent 2 weeks measuring exactly what floats through city air in Leipzig. They found invisible plastic, derived not from combustion but from the tires of cars and trucks travelling the asphalt.
Researchers from Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research parked two high-volume air samplers on Torgauer Street, a busy arterial road in Leipzig, eastern Germany, and ran them through the first 2 weeks of September 2022, trapping every airborne particle under 10 micrometers. About 4 percent of the particulate matter captured on those filters turned out to be plastic. And this was not just a trace contaminant. It was a measurable, repeatable factor in the air itself.
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Calls for probe into ‘missing’ Wales DRS consultation
Soft drinks bosses are calling for an official probe to be launched after the Welsh government was accused of “burying” a consultation over its plans for a breakaway deposit return scheme (DRS), according to The Grocer.
It’s understood a raft of trade bodies are demanding to know why a response to the consultation, which ran from August to November last year, was never published. This was despite the promise of a response within 12 weeks from the former Welsh Labour administration, which said it would form an “important part” of shaping a world-leading DRS.
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Research shows we can cut plastic pollution without needing global consensus
After several rounds of talks beginning in 2022, progress by the UN’s Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) stalled in Geneva last year despite a large majority of countries being aligned on how to approach the issue.
In the new report Bending the Curve, from the Environmental Investigation Agency, different scenarios examine how production, consumption, waste generation and greenhouse gas emissions respond under varying levels of international participation and coordination, using emerging groupings of countries within the treaty negotiations to guide the scenarios. The report demonstrates that even with less-than-universal participation, limited to only those that have self-described as ‘high ambition’, significant benefits are possible.
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