Dear Reader,
| This week, soft plastics collected from consumers by the UK’s leading supermarkets for recycling were instead incinerated, an investigation by Everyday Plastic and the Environmental Investigation Agency found.The US is withdrawing approval for an oil and gas giant to produce plastic-based fuels derived from plastic waste amid their direct links to cancer. The Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science has identified microplastic hot spots off the UK’s coast in the North Sea. Bangladesh’s new government has finally implemented plastic bans despite the law being in place since 2002. Finally, South Korea, China and Japan have pledged to work together at the upcoming UN Plastics Treaty negotiations despite their previous differences. |
As always, we hope you enjoy reading.
John Higginson
Editor-in-Chief
Plastic Free Post
Soft plastic collected for recycling burnt by UK supermarkets
| By placing trackers inside packages of soft plastic that were collected by UK supermarkets Sainsbury’s and Tesco in July 2023 and February 2024, campaigners found that 70 percent ended up being incinerated rather than recycled. Everyday Plastic, which carried out the investigation alongside the Environmental Investigation Agency, tracked parcels of soft plastic that the supermarkets collected from customers with the promise they would be recycled. Of 40 packages of plastic, the trackers reached end destinations in 17 cases. Of these, 12 packages were used as fuel pellets or burned for energy, the investigation found. |
Read more here.
USA will withdraw approval of plastic-based fuels likely to cause cancer
| The US Environmental Protection Agency is planning to withdraw and reconsider its approval for the oil and gas company Chevron to produce 18 plastic-based fuels, including some that an internal agency assessment found are highly likely to cause cancer. The risk from one of the plastic-based chemicals, an additive to marine fuel, was more than one million times higher than the agency usually considers acceptable, so high that everyone exposed over a lifetime would be expected to develop cancer. Making fuel from plastic waste has concerned campaigners as nearly all plastic is derived from fossil fuels, and additional fossil fuels are used to generate the heat that turns discarded plastic into fuels, becoming dangerous to human health and the environment. |
Read more here.
Microplastic hotspots forming in offshore UK North Sea
| The Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science based in the UK collected microplastic data from the ocean surface around the country’s waters, finding high concentrations in the coastal Southern Bight of the North Sea, peaking at over 25,000 items per square kilometre. Microplastic pollution hotspots were also identified just off the coast of East Anglia at two sites within close proximity. Most of the microplastics were fragments of polyethene used in everyday items such as shopping bags, water bottles and children’s toys and polypropylene from plastic packaging. |
Bangladesh’s new government tackles single-use plastic
| Since 2002 a law has been in place to stop the use of plastics, however it has never been implemented. The newly formed government in Bangladesh has implemented the ban, beginning with polythene-made bags for grocery use. Currently, the country generates around 87,000 tonnes of single-use plastics annually, of which 96 percent are discarded. The Department of Environment will conduct enforcement activities against using single-use plastic bags by seizing the products and shutting down production across the country from the 1st November. Furthermore, all government offices have stopped using single-use plastic water bottles and a plan is in place for single-use plastic to be phased out gradually. |
Read more here.
South Korea, China, Japan vow joint efforts for UN Plastics Treaty
| South Korea, China and Japan agreed to work more closely to complete negotiations for an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, Seoul’s environment ministry said. Despite the three countries’ shared border with the East China Sea, one of the world’s largest fishing grounds that suffers from high plastic pollution, the countries have had different approaches at previous negotiations. Japan has been working with the EU and Canada to create a UN Plastics Treaty with binding plastic reduction targets, whereas China joined with Saudi Arabia to push for a focus on waste rather than production controls amid criticism from campaigners. |
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