After Overshadowing Climate Talks, the Myth of ‘Circularity’ Looms Over the UN Plastics Treaty
Delegates from 191 countries meet once again this month for the UN plastics treaty talks in Ottawa, and they need to avoid falling into industry traps that will hinder real progress. Dow chair and CEO Jim Fitterling’s recent Commentary in Fortune is a perfect example of how to ensure failure in Ottawa. If delegates commit to the priorities he outlined, they will fail to implement real solutions to the growing problem caused by his company and companies like it.
Earth Day: How one grocery shopper takes steps to avoid ‘pointless plastic’
Nature wraps bananas and oranges in peels. But in some modern supermarkets, they’re bagged or wrapped in plastic too. For Judith Enck, that’s the epitome of pointless plastic. The baby food aisle is similarly distressing for her, with its rows and rows of blended fruits, vegetables and meat in single-use pouches that have replaced glass jars.
Company Seeking Subsidies Circulates Fake Study
A plastics manufacturer seeking tax breaks to build a plant in Lockport has put its application on hold after being called out Thursday for circulating a summary of a study that was fabricated and produced by artificial intelligence. Prior to a public hearing Thursday, the India-based firm SRI CV Plastics, seeking $312,000 in subsidies from the Lockport Industrial Development Agency, provided the agency’s board a one-page summary of a study that touted the safety of PVC pipes, one of the products the company plans to make at the plant.
Indian Plastics Manufacturer Seeks First U.S. Operation in Lockport
An Indian plastics manufacturer that makes pipes and food packaging wants to set up its first U.S. production facility in the Town of Lockport, in the same business park where an affiliated wind-turbine also wants to start production.
Pediatrician Describes Health Risks and Solutions to Country’s Plastics Problem
A medical doctor and epidemiologist with decades of experience in pollution’s impact on the health of people, animals, and nature reminded a national audience recently that “disease, disability, and death occur across the whole life cycle of plastic,” from production through use and disposal.
Judith Enck: Plastic Recycling Doesn’t Work and Will Never Work
Judith Enck, founder of Beyond Plastics, illuminates the global failure of recycling and what we can all do to make a positive difference moving forward.
West Hempstead Activist Wages Anti-plastic Fight
West Hempstead’s Joseph Varon is continuing his crusade against the use of plastics, throwing his support behind two bills before the State Legislature. A seasoned veteran of environmental activism and recycling campaigning, Varon said he hopes to hold plastic producers more accountable.
World Must ‘Restrain Demand’ For Plastic, OECD Report Says
Despite growing recognition that the world is making more plastic than it can handle, the petrochemical industry has kept churning out plastic products — to the detriment of the planet and the climate.
Plastics Production Is Skyrocketing. A New U.N. Treaty Effort Could Cap It.
Negotiators from around the world will start work this month on a treaty to reduce plastic pollution, in what diplomats say is the most ambitious round of climate diplomacy since the 2015 Paris agreement that focuses on global warming.
How Bad Are Plastics, really?
The Atlantic | January 3, 2022 | Plastic production just keeps expanding, and now is becoming a driving cause of climate change.
World Talks on a Treaty to Control Plastic Pollution Are Set for Nairobi in February. How To Do So Is Still Up in the Air.
Environmentalists want national limits on plastic waste, producer responsibility and caps on production. Industry favors better waste management and “advanced” chemical repurposing.
Apocalyptic Painter Alexis Rockman and Plastic-As-the-New-Coal ...
A pair of disparate but always connected conversations on the Green Radio Hour with Jon Bowermaster, featuring superstar environmental painter Alexis Rockman and his latest exhibition about sinking ships and, from Beyond Plastics, Alexis Goldsmith and Eve Fox on the group's in-depth report on how plastic manufacturing is replacing coal as the most insidious ingredient to a fast-warming planet.
Climate change threat from plastic
Although plastic pollution does pose a major and growing danger to marine wildlife, ecosystems, fisheries, and human health, plastic is, unfortunately, not just a threat to our oceans. Plastic is also a major threat to our climate and our collective future, a fact overlooked in most climate change programs, including the important new Biden climate agenda.
THE RECYCLING MYTH: BIG OIL’S SOLUTION FOR PLASTIC WASTE LITTERED WITH FAILURE
The collapse of Boise’s advanced recycling plan is not an isolated case. In the past two years, Reuters has learned, three separate advanced recycling projects backed by other major companies – in the Netherlands, Indonesia and the United States – have been dropped or indefinitely delayed because they were not commercially viable.
Toward a Paris for Plastics
Investors encouraged to support policy advocacy as well as engage with investee companies to reduce plastic use and transition to circular economy.
One Planet: 20 Companies Produce 55% Of The World’s Single-Use Plastic Waste -- Exxon & Dow Top The List
Twenty companies are responsible for producing over 50 percent of ‘throwaway’ single-use plastic that ends up as waste, according to the Minderoo Foundation's Plastic Waste Makers Index. ExxonMobil tops the list – contributing 5.9 million tonnes to global plastic waste – closely followed by US chemical company Dow and China’s Sinopec.
Why this Louisiana plastics plant has become a national lightning rod for environmentalists
Some critics and outside observers say Formosa has become an early test case in a battle over the expansion of plastics production in North America, which some environmentalists see as the next front in the battle with 'Big Oil.'
Will Coronavirus Be the Death or Salvation of Big Plastic?
How the coronavirus pandemic has impacted the projections for plastic production.