Malaysia sends back 150 shipping containers of plastic waste to Western countries; China announces plan to ban all single-use plastics; oil companies ramp up plastic production; Designer Masaba Gupta designs garments with built-in shopping bags; and more.
China has announced it will ban all single-use plastics by 2025. Photo and article from Forbes.
INITIATIVES
Malaysia has sent back 150 shipping containers of plastic waste to rich countries including the United States, United Kingdom, France and Canada, insisting it won't be the "garbage dump" of the world. The country has been inundated with shipments of illegal plastic waste since 2018, when China cracked down on a large recycling industry. Read more on CNN.
China, one of the world’s largest consumer of plastics, just announced its plan to ban single-use plastics across the country. The policy will ban the production and sale of disposable plastic tableware and cotton swabs by the end of 2020. Production of household products containing microbeads will be banned by the end of 2020 and sales of such products will be banned two years after that. Read more on Forbes.
Slovenia is working to position itself as a European leader in creating a fully circular economy. The Slovenian parliament has passed a motion to adopt an EIT Climate-KIC-led circular economy proposal, which moves away from traditional linear economic business models and transitioning to closed-loop systems. Read more on Smart Cities World.
Two teenage activists who helped change the law on plastic pollution in Indonesia have been invited to Davos as teenage change-makers. One boy, Gary Bencheghib, rowed down the country’s most polluted river on kayaks made from plastic water bottles as a campaign. Another young activist, Melati Wijsen, co-founded the NGO Bye Bye Plastic Bags with her sister. Read more on the World Economic Forum.
IKEA is phasing out all single-use use plastic products from its home furnishing range globally. Its new range of renewable source disposable items will now be made from materials such as paper, bamboo and metal, depending on the market. Read more on Grazia.
Brazilian beverages company Ambev SA has set an ambitious target of eliminating plastic pollution in its packaging by 2025. Latin America's largest brewer is partnering with stakeholders, including suppliers, recycling cooperatives, startups and universities to have all its beverages either in returnable packaging or made of 100% recycled material. Read more on The New York Times.
Democratic lawmakers in Albany, NY, have introduced a bill that would prohibit selling cigarettes with single-use filters, which are the #1 plastic pollutant in the world right now. If you are based in New York and would like to call your senator to ask them to support this bill, you can find your senator here. Read more on ABC News 10.
UK supermarket chain Asda has announced that its fishing crews will now catch deadly plastic waste from the ocean along with their daily catch. The store's fishermen will now be equipped with specialist bags so that they can collect harmful plastic waste as well as fish. Read more on the Yorkshire Evening Post.
Although we shared this in a prior Plastic News post, it’s worth reiterating that a surge of new plastic is about to hit the planet. Companies like ExxonMobil, Shell, and Saudi Aramco are ramping up output of plastic — which is made from oil and gas, and their byproducts — to hedge against the possibility that a serious global response to climate change might reduce demand for their fuels. Read more, this time on Wired.
PACKAGING
Sealed Air has launched a new version of Bubble Wrap that is made from at least 90% recycled content. This recycled content is sourced from post-industrial materials, and the packaging can be recycled at store drop-off locations. Read more on Environment + Energy Leader.
Coca-Cola says it will not ditch single-use plastic bottles because consumers still want them. The firm, which is one of the world's biggest plastic waste polluters, has pledged to recycle as many plastic bottles as it uses by 2030. However, Ms Perez said the firm could not ditch plastic outright, as some campaigners wanted, saying this could alienate customers and hit sales. Read more on BBC News.
PopSockets has partnered with TerraCycle to create a free recycling program for PopSockets products and packaging, as well as any brand of cellular phone case. For every shipment sent to this recycling program, collectors earn points to use for gifts or donations to the charity of their choice. Read more on Waste Advantage Magazine.
An 8-year-old girl in Illinois, Nicolina Pappas, has begun hand-sewing metal straw pouches to encourage people to move away from single-use plastics. She was inspired to do so when she saw a video of a sea turtle with a plastic straw stuck in its nose. She has created more than 100 pouches so far, and has started the company Nicolina’s Turtle Co. Proceeds go toward sponsoring turtles at the Niabi Zoo. Read more on WQAD8.
German discount supermarket Aldi is removing plastic applicators from its own-brand tampons from the end of this month, which is expected to save 14 tonnes of plastic a year. Discarded period products are a major contributor to the plastic waste crisis. The UK uses 4.3 billion disposable sanitary products a year. Read more on Business Green.
Lavazza has revealed a new recyclable and biodegradable product, KLIX Eco Cup – manufactured using paper sourced from sustainably managed forests. A Life Cycle Assessment reported that using the cup reduces environmental impacts by almost 2/3 compared to a standard paper cup. Read more on Packaging Europe.
TECHNOLOGY & DESIGN
UNEP India and designer Masaba Gupta have launched a clothing line in which garments come with built-in detachable, reusable bags. The House of Masaba and Ogilvy India are encouraging other designers to plagiarise their ideas and execute it themselves. Read more on Business Insider.
Shell says that it has successfully made “high-end” chemicals using a liquid feedstock made from plastic waste using a pyrolysis process that is considered a breakthrough for hard-to-recycle plastics. The initiative advances Shell’s ambition to use one million tonnes of plastic waste a year in its global chemical plants by 2025. Read more on Plastics Today.
Daimler, the owner of Mercedez-Benz, is partnering with Israeli firm UBQ to test a thermoplastic made from household waste in their cars. Last year, the thermoplastic was named “the most climate-positive material on the planet,” as each ton of the material equals the carbon emission reduction of 540 trees. Read more on Hamodia.
Re:newcell, a Sweden-based company, has developed a process to create new clothes from old fabric. Most of the recycled materials in fashion today are recycled not from textiles but from things like plastic bottles or nylon fishing nets. This new process uses chemical solvents to dissolve fabrics and create "circulose pulp," which then can be spun to create yarn. Read more on GreenBiz.
OTHER NEWS
PSA: Contact lenses are a forgotten microplastic, and should not be flushed down the toilet. An estimated 1.8 billion to 3.36 billion lenses are flushed every year, and they are too small to be filtered out and removed at wastewater plants. Instead of flushing your lenses, throw them in your trash or, better yet, find a drop-off location to recycle them through TerraCycle. Read more on Earth911.
Researchers in Oregon are studying the life cycle of Pacific sand crabs as an indicator for the effects of microplastics on coastal marine life. The study found that exposure to plastics may lead to premature death and the premature release of eggs in the species. For embryos, exposure to the plastic either sped up their development or slowed it down, depending on when they were exposed. Read more on the Astorian.
Frustrated with the “ludicrous charade” of the COP25 World Climate Summit in December, Spanish design collective luzinterruptus turned to visual protest by creating the temporary guerrilla art piece, “Death by Plastic.” Made from plastic waste and transparent fabric, the glowing environmental art installation depicts a crime scene-like visual with a series of people-shaped sculptures lying on the ground. Read more on Inhabitat.