カテゴリー: Plastics
Buoyant, the size of a lentil and almost impossible to recover: how nurdles are polluting the oceans
Millions of the tiny plastic pellets are being washed up on the coast of Kerala in India in the latest in a series of global spills, as plastic treaty talks continue in GenevaWhen a Liberian-flagged container ship, the MSC Elsa 3, capsized and sank 13 …
Tofu factory owners in Indonesia’s East Java feed their boilers with tonnes of foreign plastics each week to produce tofu sold in the regionPlastic waste from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, France, the US and Britain is being used to fuel tofu producti…
Type of microplastics used in skin exfoliators and banned in UK and US found in 45% of Indian products studiedIndia should consider a ban on microbeads in personal care products, in line with many other countries in the world, say researchers.Microbead…
The high street retailer may be shutting shops in the UK but its legacy lives on for a plastics company which continues to help improve the lives of India’s waste pickersSitting in a sultry corner of southern India, beside the rain trees and beaches o…
In Pacific countries people lived in harmony with nature for centuries, now even river bed mussels are affected by the way we liveAs a marine biologist in Fiji I am used to seeing plastics in our waterways.I’ve written of plastics in the sand, sea and …
Ban on 19 items comes in on Friday, but researchers warn that millions are not prepared to use alternatives to ubiquitous plasticOn Friday India’s nationwide ban on single-use plastic comes into effect, but a glance at the street vendors who line one …
From upcycled school benches in India to plant pots in Peru, people are finding enterprising and ingenious solutions to a perennial problemWhen it rains in Uganda, plastic waste clogs street drains. For Faith Aweko, growing up in a slum in Kampala, the…
Tonga has seen an increase in plastic waste since the tsunami in January, after huge quantities of supplies were brought in for relief effortsGet our free news app; get our morning email briefingSince the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano erupted in To…
Sri Lankan beaches buried in pellets only ‘tip of the iceberg’ of environmental harm after analysis of nurdles from burning shipContainer ship accidents at sea should be considered the “oil spills of our time”, warned environmental organisations that f…
The country’s golden beaches have turned black as debris released from a sunken ship continues to wreak environmental and economic havocWhen Adnan Sheikh took his family on holiday to Sri Lanka last October, he booked them into a hotel for two weeks in…
About 20 elephants have died in eight years after eating plastic in open landfill siteConservationists and veterinarians have warned that plastic waste in an open landfill in eastern Sri Lanka is killing elephants, after two more were found dead at the…
Billions of these tiny plastic pellets are floating in the ocean, causing as much damage as oil spills, yet they are still not classified as hazardousWhen the X-Press Pearl container ship caught fire and sank in the Indian Ocean in May, Sri Lanka was t…
Ignorance about plastic recycling has tricked us into guilt-free consumption – decision makers have to give us sustainable optionsGrowing up my school lunches were covered in plastic wrapping, like those of many of my schoolmates. I was taught from a y…
Ban on plastics including cotton buds, packaging, cutlery, straws and fruit labels to be phased in from next yearNew Zealanders will be farewelling their plastics – bags, ear buds, spoons and straws – as the government attempts to match the country’s r…
Owners of Queensland’s controversial Carmichael mine say plant will use 3.1m tonnes of coal a year to make PVCThe owners of the controversial Carmichael mine in Queensland want to build a US$4bn plant in India that would use Australian coal to make pla…