Protecting the
Planet... Updates and Extra notes... By weekly topics...
The entries are updates
for the topic(s) for each week. They are arranged in chronological order, with
oldest dates first.
Week 3. Plastics: origins and importance, petro-chemical industry. Damage caused
by (single-use) plastic. Micro-plastic.
Dealing with the
damage: waste, recycling, re-using.
For related web page go to: protecting13
Sep 2017. Sea salt has microplastics in it: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/sep/08/sea-salt-around-world-contaminated-by-plastic-studies The most common type of
plastic they found was polyethylene terephthalate, the material used to make plastic
bottles. The health impact of ingesting plastic is not known. Scientists have
struggled to research the impact of plastic on the human body, because they cannot find a control group of humans who
have not been exposed.
26th January 2018. Damian Carrington. Plastic has been
found to cause disease in coral reefs.
89% of the corals examined that were fouled by plastic were found to be
diseased. Scientists examined 125,000 corals across the Asia-Pacific region. At
least 8 million tonnes of plastic are dumped in the ocean every year. Corals
are not only home to a diverse range of life, but they are vital for at least 275 million people who depend on them for food,
coastal protection from storms, and income from tourism. Plastic was found on a
third of the reefs examined between 2011 and 2014. They did not assess
microplastics... Diseases found include: skeletal eroding band disease, white
syndromes and black band disease. These diseases spread across a colony once
there is infection. Plastic cuts the living creatures in the coral, and blocks
out sunlight. Plastic pollution is estimated as likely to increase to 16bn
pieces by 2025 (an increase of 40%) unless action is taken. Repeated bleaching
is now the ‘new normal’ according to Prof Terry Hughes of James Cook
University’s centre for coral reef studies.
June 2018. From Global
Citizen. (Seneo
Mwamba)
1. Since the 1950s, around 8.3 billion tons of
plastic have been produced worldwide.
2. In some parts of the
world, using plastic is already illegal.
3. 73% of beach
litter worldwide is plastic.
4. A million plastic
bottles are bought around the world every minute.
5. Worldwide, about
2 million plastic bags are used every minute.
6. 90% of plastic
polluting our oceans is carried by just 10 rivers.
7. Plastic is
killing more than 1.1 million seabirds and animals every year.
8. The average
person eats 70,000 microplastics each year.
9. The average
time that a plastic bag is used for is … 12 minutes. (Then it takes up to a
thousand years to decompose!)
10. Over the past 50
years, world plastic production has doubled.
Aug 30th 2018, from CIEL – Centre for International Environmental Law:
https://www.ciel.org/plastic-waste-proposal-basel-convention/
14th Sep 2018, Daniel Boffey: a bicycle path has been made of recycled plastic.
In the
Netherlands a 30-metre path made from 218,000 recycled plastic cups has opened
in Zwolle (in the north-east) as part of a trial. It is expected to be three
times as durable as asphalt. The venture has been carried out by engineers KWS,
Total (oil and gas), and Wavin (pipemaker).
Other places including Rotterdam may take up the technology. The path is made
in prefabricated sections which are light and hollow, and easy to transport;
cables and pipes can easily be fitted inside and it is designed to drain off
rainwater. It is seen as sustainable...
Asphalt is
responsible for 1.5m tonnes of CO2 emissions a year, which is 2% of global road
transport emissions.
The EU has
proposed that all plastic should be reusable or recyclable by 2030. Some opponents argue that wear and run-off will
produce microplastic particles.
23rd Oct 2018,
microplastics in human stools.
Particles
have been found in the stools of eight people from Europe, Japan and Russia. Up
to 9 different plastics were found out of 10 varieties tested for. Most common
were polypropylene and polyethylene terephthalate
were the most common. On average, 20 particles per 10g were found.
Microplastics are defined as particles of less than 5mm. The authors estimate
that more than 50% of the world’s population might have microplastics in their
stools.
Tests were
carried out by the Environment Agency Austria, led by a medical researcher from
University of Vienna.
Previous
studies have found microplastics in the gut of fish, and in tap water and in
flying insects. In Italy a recent investigation found them in soft drinks. In
birds they damage the small intestine, disrupt iron absorption and stress the
liver. Nothing is known about the impact on human health.
19th Oct 2018. Sandra Laville.
The plastics recycling industry is facing an investigation into suspected
widespread abuse and fraud within the export system amid warnings the world is
about to close the door on UK packaging waste, the Guardian has learned.
The Environment Agency (EA) has set up a team of
investigators, including three retired police officers, in an attempt to deal
with complaints that organised criminals and firms are abusing the system.
Six UK
exporters of plastic waste have had their licences suspended or cancelled in
the last three months, according to EA data. One firm has had 57 containers of
plastic waste stopped at UK ports in the last three years due to concerns over
contamination of waste.
Allegations
that the agency is understood to be investigating include:
Exporters
are falsely claiming for tens of thousands of tonnes of plastic waste which
might not exist
UK plastic
waste is not being recycled and is being left to leak into rivers and oceans
Illegal
shipments of plastic waste are being routed to the Far East via the Netherlands
UK firms
with serial offences of shipping contaminated waste are being allowed to
continue exporting.
UK households and businesses used 11m
tonnes of packaging last year, according to government figures. Two-thirds of our plastic packaging waste is exported by an export
industry which was worth more than £50m last year.
The exporters make millions by charging retailers and manufacturers a
fluctuating tonnage rate for plastic waste recovery notes – currently £60 a
tonne. Retailers buy these plastic export recovery notes – Perns
– to satisfy the government they are contributing something to recycling
plastic packaging waste. But the system – which was heavily criticised as open
to fraud and abuse by the National Audit Office this summer – relies on
companies making self declarations about how much packaging they are exporting.
The Guardian understands information has been passed to the EA – the
regulators – which shows huge discrepancies between the amount of packaging
exports recorded by HM customs, compared to the amount UK exporters claim to
have shipped. The data, analysed by the Guardian, reveals British export firms claim to have shipped abroad 35,135 tonnes more
plastic than HM Customs has recorded leaving the country.
One source
with knowledge of the inquiry said: “In the last few months the customs figures
on waste plastic are lower than the figures given to the Environment Agency by
the exporters – suggesting more people are shipping stuff they claim is waste
plastic in order to get the Pern price. “Perns are running at around £60-70 a tonne, so that
encourages all sorts of people to pursue the export market, and the question is
whether the enforcement is strong enough to detect whether this is actually
plastic waste being shipped out.”
At least 100 containers of plastic
waste a day are shipped out from ports including Felixstowe and Southampton to
Europe and the Far East. Insiders said EA staff have never visited any
of the countries or sites where British waste plastic is exported for
recycling.
Jacob Hayler, executive director of the Environmental Services
Association (ESA), is one of many individuals who has raised the issue of the
discrepancy in figures with the EA. “We have flagged this and they are aware of
it,” he said. ‘The agency and others are looking at how to improve enforcement
… there is organised crime, and criminal gangs exploit the system, that does go
on.”
The ongoing
investigation into corruption in the plastics industry comes as the UK seeks
new international markets for its plastic waste. In January, China stopped accepting British plastic waste and exports
shifted to Malaysia, Vietnam and Poland. But Malaysia and Vietnam have imposed
temporary bans on imports and Poland is considering restrictions, a sign that countries
are growing more wary amid evidence of high contamination rates.
Figures seen by the Guardian show UK exports to Turkey and the
Netherlands soaring as a result. Several insiders told the Guardian the export market – which
the UK relies on as it struggles to meet a target to reprocess more than half
its plastic waste by 2020 – could dry up within weeks. Phil Conran,
director 360 Environmental and chair of the government’s advisory committee on
packaging, said: “All these markets are effectively closing the door to the
poor quality material and they are increasingly limited in what they will
accept of the better quality material. “At the moment material is still being
collected and still going somewhere ... but all the sense is that we have
reached a tipping point and we simply are struggling to find markets for
material that is being collected.”
The new
markets have brought more fears of abuse within the system. According to
packaging declarations made by companies, the UK exported 27,034 tonnes of
waste plastic to Turkey in the first three months of this year compared to
12,022 tonnes in the first three months of 2017. Netherlands exports have risen
by nearly 10,000 tonnes in the first six months of this year, compared to the
same period in 2016; 38,207 tonnes in 2018 compared to 28,784 in 2016.
The EA has been passed allegations
that export firms are using the Netherlands to effectively launder plastic
waste – exploiting looser controls over shipments to Europe – before illegally
moving it out to other countries in the Far East, where they might struggle to
get approval under the UK licence system.
Addie van der Spapen, of Netherlands
recycling firm Kunststof Recycling, said the country certainly did not have the capacity
to reprocess increased amounts of plastic waste from the UK. “It won’t all get
recycled. Europe is getting overflowed with the material from England, they are
flooding Europe with their plastic,” he said. The growing market in Turkey is
also raising fears that more UK plastic waste will leak into the oceans. One
source said: “The concern about Turkey is more whether material is being stored
to be recycled later, or not recycled at all and being burnt.”
An inquiry by the National Audit Office [pdf] earlier this year criticised the lack of rigour by the EA and the Government. “The financial incentive for companies to fraudulently claim they have recycled plastic packaging is higher than for any other material,” they said. “There is therefore a risk that some of it is not recycled under equivalent standards to the UK and is instead sent to landfill or contributes to pollution.” Marie Fallon, of the Environment Agency, has confirmed to MPs an intelligence led central investigations team has been set up to tackle corruption and fraud within the export system. Fallon accepted the agency could have done better over the years in tackling abuses. In 2016-17 staff carried out fewer than 40 pc of 346 spot checks on companies it had planned. This year five export firms flagged as red rated for risk are still operating and 33 considered to be of medium risk are also still accredited to export waste.
24th Oct 2018, Sandra Laville,
Isle of Man has rid its beaches of plastic.
In 2007 it
took people six weekends to clear plastic litter, and they found 30,000 plastic
bottles and large pieces of plastic. A charity – Beach Buddies – carries out
regular clean-ups. UNESCO has designated it a biosphere region, along with
other islands for commitment to protecting the coastal environment and
biodiversity. There are 52 UNESCO island and coastal
biosphere areas, including Menorca, the Maldives, the Philippines, Mauritius, Jeju in South Korea and Noosa in Australia.
Only 13% of
the world’s oceans have avoided the impact of humanity, says Dr Fiona Gell, marine biologist in the Dept for Environment, Food
and Agriculture in the Isle of Man government. She is concerned about the decline
of sea grass, which has a really high level of carbon storage and is important
for juvenile scallops. Environmentalists have overcome the opposition of
fishing businesses (king and queen scallops, brown crab, lobster and whelk) but
they have now been involved in drawing up the protective marine belt around the
island. Now, dredging or trawling for scallops is banned throughout the year
except for two weeks before Christmas. They are allowed to trawl for 30 minutes
maximum, and regular stock surveys are carried out. The fishermen understand
the danger of over-fishing.
There are
about 15,000 marine protected areas (MPAs) covering about 7% of the world’s
oceans. Half the US’s territorial waters are protected, and other countries
such as France, Australia have MPAs. It is important to distinguish different
kinds of MPA though, as only ‘fully protected’ or ‘strongly protected’ areas
are really effective. A fully protected area can increase the total mass of
marine life by more than 400%. This is needed because sea life has been
declining – World Wide Fund for Nature estimated in 2015 that the number of
fish in the oceans had halved since 1970. Coral reefs are also affected.
70% of the
world’s surface is ocean.
There are about 230,000 marine species living in our oceans.
15th Nov 2018. Greenpeace has carried out a survey
of supermarkets, ranking them by how much they do about plastics: Best is
Iceland, scoring 58% for reducing single-use plastic, 47% for eliminating
non-recyclable plastic, 49% for influencing suppliers, and 84% for
transparency. Worst is Sainsbury’s, 31%..... 15%.... 36%.... 61%.... https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/supermarket-score-new-plastic-league-table/
21st Nov 2018. Dead whale had 1,000 plastic items in
its stomach. AP
It was washed up in eastern
Indonesia. Plastic included flip-flops, 115 drinking cups according to staff from
Wakatobi national park. It was a 9.5 metre sperm
whale. The plastic weighed 5.9 kg. Indonesia is the world’s second-largest
plastic polluter after China according to an article in Science (Jan 2018) – it
produces 3.2m tonnes of mismanaged plastic waste a year, of which 1.29m tonnes
ends up in the ocean.
22nd Nov 2018. Sandra laville. Microplastic comes from tyres and
synthetic clothing, according to FoE. Between 9 and 32 thousand tonnes of
microplastic enters waterways each year from just four sources: tyre abrasion
accounts for 7-19,000 tonnes. Clothing creates up to 2,900 tonnes – two thirds
of clothing is made from synthetic material, according to a report by Eunomia. 26,000
tonnes of large plastic waste enters waterways each year. Up to 5,900 tonnes of
plastic pellets used in manufacturing, and between 1,400 and 3,700 tonnes of
paint are lost to surface waters each year. FoE recommends a standardised test
to measure tyre tread abrasion rates, and a car tyre levy to pay for research
into solutions and mitigation measures.
28th Nov. 2018, Damian
Carrington. Microplastics in
the sea.
Toxins from microplastics stop periwinkles from being able to detect crabs that eat them. In Biology Letters, a new study shows damage to a link between predator and prey – previous research had shown mussels were harmed. The periwinkle is a keystone species, it eats algae and is eaten by crabs. Microplastics attract metals and persistent organic pollutants.
31st Dec 2018. Food waste: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/31/food-waste-chief-to-target-scandal-of-250m-binned-uk-meals
250m meals a
year = 100,000 tonnes of food is sent to generate electricity from waste, for
anaerobic digestion, or for animal feed – even though it is still edible...
43,000
tonnes of surplus food is redistributed from retailers and food manufacturers.
19th Dec. 2018: government has come up with new
rules on waste etc.:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/resources-and-waste-strategy-for-england
2019.
7th March 2019. Damian Carrington. A study in Singapore
has shown microplastics can harbour
harmful bacteria. A study led by Christian Dunn at Bangor University shows
how much microplastic there is in our waterways: they were found in all 10
lakes, rivers and reservoirs studied. In the Tame, (near Manchester) – which is
the most contaminated place yet tested in the world, there were more than 1,000
pieces per litre. Even in remote places like Loch Lomond there were two or
three pieces per litre. The Thames had about 80 particles per litre, and the Blackwater in Essex had 15. Ullswater
has 30, and the Llyn Cefni reservoir on Anglesey had
40. Plastic has been found in Swiss mountains and in the deepest parts of the
oceans.
FROM CPRE EMAIL APPEAL FOR FUNDS 31ST
March 2019
At this late stage, powerful vested interests are fighting to
derail the deposit return system and water it down. They want the government to
agree to the option of a restricted system, limited to smaller drinks
containers of 750ml or less – even though recent research suggests that larger
bottles could make up as much as 58% of littered drinks containers.
We must make sure the government does not bow to industry pressure
for a restricted system. It would mean that billions of bottles will continue
polluting our rivers, beaches, fields, parks and hedgerows for years to
come. And industry would once again be able to avoid taking
responsibility for the mess they create.
Nothing less than an ALL-IN system,
that includes drinks containers of ALL sizes and materials, will truly combat
the growing problem of litter in our countryside.
13th April 2019. Letters
from: Maddy Haughton-Boakes,
Campaign to Protect Rural England, Richard Ali, Paper Cup Alliance.
The deposit
charge on carrier bags has been shown to work, since these now comprise only 1%
of the pollution. There should be a deposit return system for all drinks
containers – the producers should be liable for the costs of dealing with
packaging.
The
polyethylene coating on paper cups can be ‘easily separated from the paper
using water. There are five cup recycling plants across the UK that are already
doing this and have the capacity to recycle all paper cups in the UK...’
Glasgow, Leeds and Cardiff are showing cup collection initiatives. ‘Used paper
cups are accepted at Costa, Nero, Greggs, Starbucks and McDonald’s and there
are now 4,500 high-street collection points and over 20 waste management
companies supporting paper cup collection schemes.’
17th April 2019. Letter from Michael Stephen, Oxo-biodegradable
Plastics Association.
There is a
way of making plastic more biodegradable, so it decays more quickly and can be
recycled into nature by naturally occurring bacteria. Oxo-biodegradation
is required by law in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Pakistan. It creates no
toxicity.
17th April 2019, Jonathan
Watts: history of plastic pollution:
A plankton
sampling device – collecting pelagic plankton which indicates water quality as
well as being a source of food for marine life – has been operating for the
past century, and also recorded problems when its work was disrupted by
plastic... Strands of fishing twine were first found off the coast of Iceland
in 1957, then a plastic bag in 1965. During the three decades from the ‘50s
less than 1% of tows were disrupted, by the 1990s it was 2% and now it is
between 3% and 4%.
The device
was towed at a depth of about 7 metres, which is where many fish and marine
mammals are found, and it covered a very wide range of oceans – the worst was
the southern North Sea.
Since 2004
it has also been sampling for microplastics and has shown a big rise from 1960
– 1990.
Government
cuts in the 1980s nearly led to the project stopping, but scientists kept it
going and modernised its procedures.
A proposal from SumOfUs.org
The Basel Convention is a
legally binding agreement on cross-border waste disposal signed by almost every
country in the world, including the European Union. With one small tweak,
proposed by Norway, countries exporting their plastic rubbish would have to get
the prior informed consent of the country receiving it -- so developing
countries can keep shiploads of plastic pollution from landing on their shores.
But getting all 190 governments on board by May
will be no easy task, especially with plastic industry lobbyists desperate to
keep the status quo. That’s why we need this campaign right
now.
8th April 2019. (Fiona
Harvey) According to the Plastic Rivers report, from Earthwatch
Europe and Plastic Oceans UK:
Plastic
bottles are the most prevalent form of plastic pollution, followed by food
wrappers and then cigarette butts. Plastic bags only comprise 1%, showing the
bans etc have had an impact. About 80% of plastic rubbish flows into the oceans
from rivers. We need to focus on cleaning up rivers, some say, while we deal
with our dependence on throwaway plastic. The report looked at macroplastic in fresh water, and excluded fishing gear
(which RSPCA says kills birdlife). It also excluded items from farming and
industry, to concentrate on consumers’ contributions. Note that polar bears eat
plastic when they scavenge on rubbish dumps – forced to go there when global
warming deprives them of food.
8th April 2019 (Severin Carrell, Scotland Editor
Guardian) – disposable cups and the ‘latte levy’ (a charge on single-use cups)
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/apr/07/is-the-future-compostable-scotland-greens-argue-as-sales-soar Vegware
has been doing very well from compostable food cups and biodegradable food
boxes, but questions have been raised by Scottish Greens about the practicality
of composting coffee cups etc: they need to be disposed of in specialist
composting plants, or in council food composting bins at home... The CEO of Vegware retorts that there are many other sources of
single-use plastic such as sandwich packaging, home takeaway deliveries, lids
and stirrers on coffee cups: it would be better to increase the cost of
landfill. Supermarkets pay £91.35 a tonne (in Scotland?).High costs would make
producers avoid waste.
Vegware is
proposing closed loop contracts, where it supplies its products to businesses
and then disposes of them. But this only covers Scotland and south-west
England. Commercial composting covers only 38% of UK postcodes. FoE Scotland
chief executive Richard Dixon suggests a lower ‘latte levy’ for disposable cups.
Greenpeace has carried out a survey of
supermarkets,
ranking them by how much they do about plastics: Best is Iceland, scoring 58%
for reducing single-use plastic, 47% for eliminating non-recyclable plastic,
49% for influencing suppliers, and 84% for transparency. Worst is Sainsbury’s,
31%..... 15%.... 36%.... 61%.... https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/supermarket-score-new-plastic-league-table/
April 2019: Global Citizen: UN Global Goals.
Plastic
waste is a scourge on the natural environment, and innovation is absolutely key when it comes to ensuring we dispose of our waste
sustainably. The UN’s Global Goals include calls to protect life on land and
life below water (Goal No. 14 and 15), and to create cities and communities
that are sustainable (Goal No.11). Join the movement by taking action here to support the Global
Goals.
8th April 2019.Links to Greenpeace action on
plastics, especially with reference to Sainsbury’s:
Coca-Cola:
Largest user of recycled plastic in the food and drink industry in Britain,
use around 10,000 tonnes of recycled plastic in their bottles each year.
In 2020 will see 4,000 tonnes of plastic removed from supply chain. On average
all their bottles contain 25% recycled plastic – aim is 50% to 100%.
limited
availability of food-grade quality recycled plastic – hope that the new
technology opens up new streams of material. Glaceau smartwater bottles made from !00%
recycled plastic. The equivalent of 3,100 tonnes recycled rather than new (‘virgin’) plastic
being used each year .
30 million
packs now in paper not plastic. Sprite bottles no longer green,
reduced weight of packaging by 27%, finding ways of retrieving marine plastic
(from Mediterranean Sea). Clean Tech plant in Lincolnshire is Europe’s largest
plastic recycling plant.
8th April 2019. (Fiona
Harvey) According to the Plastic Rivers report, from Earthwatch
Europe and Plastic Oceans UK:
Plastic
bottles are the most prevalent form of plastic pollution, followed by food
wrappers and then cigarette butts. Plastic bags only comprise 1%, showing the
bans etc have had an impact. About 80% of plastic rubbish flows into the oceans
from rivers. We need to focus on cleaning up rivers, some say, while we deal
with our dependence on throwaway plastic. The report looked at macroplastic in fresh water, and excluded fishing gear
(which RSPCA says kills birdlife). It also excluded items from farming and
industry, to concentrate on consumers’ contributions.
17th April 2019. Letter from Michael Stephen, Oxo-biodegradable
Plastics Association.
There is a
way of making plastic more biodegradable, so it decays more quickly and can be
recycled into nature by naturally occurring bacteria. Oxo-biodegradation
is required by law in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Pakistan. It creates no
toxicity.
17th April 2019, Jonathan
Watts: history of plastic pollution:
A plankton
sampling device – collecting pelagic plankton which indicates water quality as
well as being a source of food for marine life – has been operating for the
past century, and also recorded problems when its work was disrupted by
plastic... Strands of fishing twine were first found off the coast of Iceland
in 1957, then a plastic bag in 1965. During the three decades from the ‘50s
less than 1% of tows were disrupted, by the 1990s it was 2% and now it is
between 3% and 4%.
The device
was towed at a depth of about 7 metres, which is where many fish and marine
mammals are found, and it covered a very wide range of oceans – the worst was
the southern North Sea.
Since 2004
it has also been sampling for microplastics and has shown a big rise from 1960
– 1990.
Government cuts in the 1980s nearly led to the project stopping, but scientists kept it going and modernised its procedures.
May 2019. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/may/30/anthropocene-epoch-have-we-entered-a-new-phase-of-planetary-history
- year 2,000 when discussion took place first. Paul Crutzen
originated the term. Various measures: CO2 levels, mass extinction, changes we have made to biosphere, ‘stuff’: 30tn tonnes
total made/manufactured, plastics. Starting Date mid 20th
century. ‘Spike’ between periods: radiation from nuclear testing.
June 2019: where has all the plastic
gone?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/23/all-the-plastic-ever-made-study-
June 2019, plastics, recycling &
the global south: https://leftfootforward.org/2019/06/the-war-over-where-your-recyling-goes/
18th June 2019: Example of city where there is
maximum recycling: Eskilstuna, Sweden – article by Ammar
Kalia
31st Aug. 2019. M & S to remove glitter from Christmas
cards, wrapping paper calendars and crackers. Aims to be 100% plastic free by
end 2020. Most glitter is made from aluminium bonded to polyethylene terephthalate. Trillions of microplastic particles have
been found in the oceans. M & S have
removed 1,000 tonnes of plastic packaging from its business. Waitrose, Tesco
and Aldi are taking similar action. (Sarah Butler).
12th Sep. 2019. Microplastics: seem to harm
earthworms, as their weight suffers a decrease Worms placed in soil loaded for
30 days with high density polyethylene (HDPE) lost about 3% of their
bodyweight, whereas worms in soil without PDPE gained 5%. Lead author: Bas
Roots, Anglia Ruskin University, in Environmental Science and Technology.
Possible explanation: obstruction or irritation of the digestive tract. The
worms (especially rosy-tipped earthworm, Apporectodea
rosea) are vital in agriculture.
European
studies have found anything between 700 and 4,000 plastic particles per
kilogram of soil in some agricultural land.
27th
Dec 2019 Italian ski resort (Pejo 3000) in
Val di Sole, Trentino has
banned plastic after a study found 131m – 162m plastic particles in the surface
of one of the largest glaciers in the Italian Alps. The Pejo
valley has hydroelectric plants and wood-chip heating from local forestry
operations.
Plastic fibres found in creatures at bottom of deepest trench in the ocean.
https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/mariana-trench-animals-plastic/
2020
Jan 2020.
From Ecowatch, Olivia Rosane, 20th Jan
2020.
China,
the world's No. 1 producer of plastic pollution, announced major plans Sunday to cut
back on the sale and production of single-use plastics.
According to the plans
put forward by the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry
of Ecology and Environment, plastic bags will be banned in major cities by the end of 2020 and in
smaller cities and towns by 2022, Reuters
reported. (Markets selling fresh fruits and
vegetables will have until 2025 to phase out the bags).
The commission said it was enacting the changes in order to protect
public health and "to build a beautiful China," CNN reported.
The plan targets a variety of plastic types and industries over the next
five years, BBC News reported. Other measures include:
A ban on the production and sale of plastic bags less than 0.025 millimeters thick
A ban on single-use straws in restaurants by the end of 2020
A mandate that restaurants reduce the use of plastic items by 30 percent
A mandate that hotels not give out free plastic items after 2025
The plan also calls for
the phaseout of plastic takeaway items and shipping
packages, Reuters reported. The government also announced Sunday it would work
to create recycling programs and promote the use of recycled plastics, according to CNN.
"It's the first
time Beijing has recognised single-use plastics as a major problem and
specified the urgent necessity to significantly reduce them," Greenpeace tweeted in response to the announcement.
China did ban retailers
from giving away free plastic bags in 2008, and also banned the production of
ultra-thin bags, BBC News reported.
China is the world's
largest manufacturer of plastic, according to CNN. It is also the world's
leading producer of plastic waste, according to the University
of Oxford's Our World in Data. It
produced 60 million tonnes (approximately 66 million U.S. tons) in 2010,
followed by the U.S., which produced 38 million tonnes (approximately 42 U.S.
tons). However, on a per capita basis, the average Chinese person discards
one-fourth to one-half of the plastic waste discarded by the average U.S.
resident.
But because China has a
much larger population, the tossing of plastic waste has become a major problem
for its infrastructure and environment, overwhelming its landfills and
polluting its rivers. China's largest dump is around the size of 100 soccer
fields and is already at capacity, 25 years before planned, BBC News reported.
And the Yangtze River dumps more plastic into the oceans
than any other river in the world, according to CNN.
Around eight
million metric tons of plastic enter the world's oceans
every year, where they pose a major threat to marine life. China is the leading contributor to the kind of mismanaged
plastic waste that is the most likely to end up in the oceans, generating
around 28 percent of the world's total, according to Our World in Facts. Asia
as a whole is the region that produces the most mismanaged waste, but other
countries in the area are also taking steps to combat the problem. Thailand banned plastic bags at major
stores this year;
Bali in Indonesia banned single-use plastics; and Jakarta, the country's
capital, will ban plastic bags by June 2020, BBC News reported.
27th Feb 2020: Note that
chemical pollution by industry is not new. Ryan Gilbey (article on film producer Todd Haynes – film ‘Dark
Waters’ about a lawyer Rob Bilott, who took on
DuPont). ‘For decades, the company had been dumping the unregulated chemical
PFOA – which causes birth defects and cancer – in Parkersburg, West Virginia –
it poisoned the land and livestock and thousands of people.’ The fight went on
for two decades. Film ends with the fact that ‘PFOA, part of the Teflon coating
manufactured since the 1950s by DuPont, is now in 99% of life on the planet.
It’s a ‘forever chemical’, which means it never leaves the bloodstream.’
13th May 2020. Karen
McVeigh. Scientists have discovered microplastics in sea spray. Uni of Strathclyde and Observatoire
midi-Pyrenees published in Plos One. 359m tonnes of
plastic were manufactured in 2018 globally – possibly 10% of it ends up in the
sea each year. Globally up to 136,000 tones of
microplastic could be being blown ashore each year.
Feb. 2020. National
Trust ditches plastic for its membership cards.
5 million members. New cards will use durable
paper with water-based coating certified by FSC, produced in a mill powered by
its own biomass. Will be recyclable, compostable and cheaper to make! NT also
looking at alternatives to plastic tree guards, drink dispensers to
reduce sale of bottled drinks, etc. (PA media)
15th Feb. 2020. Zoe Wood. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/feb/15/the-milkman-gets-an-eco-makover-as-refill-service-knocks-on-door
A major new online service backed by the world’s biggest brands will deliver products ranging from soft drinks to washing powder and shampoo in refillable containers to your front door.
The Loop,
which launches next month, is one of the most ambitious attempts yet to
eliminate plastic waste from the weekly shop. It is backed by major consumer
goods companies Unilever and PepsiCo, who have created
eco-versions of popular brands including Tropicana, Persil and Hellmann’s, to
sell via the website.
The service
will also include products such as refillable Sure and Dove deodorant sticks,
and pots of Signal toothpaste pellets, which do away with the need for plastic
tubes.
Supermarkets
have already begun to gauge whether shoppers are willing to put in the extra
effort required to make refill schemes economical in their stores. Last year Waitrose created dedicated areas in a handful of supermarkets where
customers can replenish products ranging from wine and beer to rice and
cleaning materials. Sainsbury’s is to sell milk and fizzy drinks in returnable
glass bottles this
year as part of its plastic reduction drive.
Tesco is
eager to shrink its massive plastic footprint and has announced a series of
initiatives – including the recent decision to banish shrink-wrapped multipacks of baked beans and soup from its
shelves.
Milk &
More, the UK’s biggest doorstep delivery company, said that last year 70,000
new customers signed up to have their milk delivered in reusable glass bottles.
Similarly
this week Abel & Cole, the organic box delivery firm, said it was rolling
out a “club zero” refill scheme, in which store cupboard foods such as lentils
and porridge oats are delivered in reusable plastic pots alongside its
vegetables and fruit
Loop
customers are required to pay refundable deposits linked to the size of each
container.
Plastic
packaging is a £540bn industry and demand is still rising, particularly in
Asia....
22nd May 2020. Damian Carrington. Microplastic in the sea:
The research by Lindeque’s team, published in the journal Environmental Pollution, used nets with mesh sizes of 100 microns (0.1mm), 333 microns and 500 microns. They found 2.5 times more particles in the finest net than in the 333 micron net, which is the kind usually used to filter microplastics, and 10 times more than in the 500 micron net.
The surface
trawls off the coast of Plymouth in the UK and the coast of Maine in the US
showed similar results, suggesting they are representative of waters near
populated land. The particles were dominated by fibres from textiles such as
ropes, nets and clothing.
“Using an
extrapolation, we suggest microplastic concentrations could exceed 3,700
particles per cubic meter – that’s far more than the number of zooplankton you
would find,” Lindeque said. These tiny animals are
among the most abundant species on the planet.
The research
on microplastics in rivers, published in the journal Global
Change Biology,
analysed the droppings and regurgitated pellets of white-throated dippers at 15
river sites in south Wales. The scientists said the results were startling.
They found
that the birds, which feed on river insects, were eating about 200 pieces of
plastic a day. These were mostly fibres, and a quarter were
larger than 500 microns.
The team
also found that the dippers were feeding thousands of plastic fibres to their
nest-bound chicks during their development. Previous research by the scientists
had shown that half of the river insects contain microplastic fragments.
Prof Steve Ormerod, of Cardiff University, who led the work...
[see other articles on microplastics at this location]
26th Aug 2020. (See 5. below) proportion of waste incinerated rose from 12.1% in 2008-9, to 43.8% in 2018-19.
Sep 2020:
Unearthed.
Greenpeace
report on oil industry and plastics: our latest investigation, which was published yesterday on
the front page of the New York Times.
The story is
pretty shocking. It’s about Big Oil, plastics and Africa.
The
documents we got hold of show that a trade body that represents the world’s
biggest oil and chemical companies have been lobbying the Trump administration
during the pandemic to use a trade deal with Kenya to expand the plastics
industry across Africa.
Kenyan
environmentalists said the proposals could make Kenya “a dump site for plastic
waste”.
And that’s
not all - other documents show that the same lobby group last year - which
represent Shell, Exxon and Dow among others - tried to prevent the introduction
of new international rules that put limits on the export of plastic waste from
rich countries to those in the global south. They say the rules would limit
supply for plastic recycling plants.
Sep. 2020. EEB: https://meta.eeb.org/2020/09/24/plastics-pollution/
We analysed
voluntary commitments from the 10 biggest plastic polluters according to the
two most recent Break Free From
Plastic brand audits:
Coca-Cola, Colgate-Palmolive, Danone, Mars
Incorporated, Mondelēz International, Nestlé,
PepsiCo, Perfetti Van Melle,
Procter & Gamble, and Unilever.
Our analysis
shows that companies have widely differing levels of commitment, ranging from
near zero (Perfetti Van Melle
and Mondelēz International) to more
impressive-sounding commitments (Unilever, Danone and
Coca-Cola).
However,
even the more ambitious commitments are not commensurate with the severity of
the plastics pollution crisis. Most come with serious problems around
transparency and accountability and are focused on recyclability but without
strong support for mandatory collection. Many companies, like Mars Incorporated
and Mondelēz International, also seem to be
pinning their hopes on chemical (‘advanced’) recycling – a false solution with
not only a history of failing expectations, but also severe climate and
toxicity consequences.
Companies
also consistently fail to meet their own commitments. Coca-Cola, for example,
has left behind a 30-year trail of broken promises, ranging from missed targets on
recycled content to failed commitments on recovery and the introduction of
bio-based plastic. This starkly illustrates that, regardless of how ambitious
voluntary commitments sound, most companies regard them as just paper promises,
easily ignored after they have generated favourable headlines...
... our analysis found a shocking amount of overlap between
corporate membership of the initiatives that claim to solve plastic pollution
and trade associations and lobby groups that actively work to undermine
ambitious legislation. This reveals how companies use these commitments to
appear to be part of the solution, while at the same time they aggressively
oppose and lobby to weaken legislation via trade associations, producer responsibility
organisations and even fake environmental groups.
[Distracting from legislative measures, delaying, and
derailing – the three Ds.]
To highlight a recent example: the plastics industry is
trying to undermine the definition of plastic in the implementing guidelines of
the Single Use Plastic (SUP) Directive, which could
make the Directive meaningless.
Read
the full report here: https://talking-trash.com
Nuša Urbančič is campaigns
director at the Changing Markets Foundation.
2nd Sep 2020. Jonathan
Watts. Microplastic pollution is harming
soil-dwelling mites, larvae etc in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
Roundworms, springtails etc recycle carbon and nitrogen and break down organic
matter into a form that bacteria can consume. 6,300m tonnes of plastic waste
has been produced since 1950, and 79% accumulated in landfills or leaked into
the environment.
Researchers contaminated patches of land with low-density
polyethylene fragments, left it for 287 days, then counted species in
contaminated compared to non-contaminated soil.
Orbital mites declined by 15%, fly larvae by 30%, insect larvae 41% and
ants 62%. Nematodes declined 20%. Research warns of cascade through food chain,
possibly affecting bacteria and fungi.
Sep 2020, Hakai magazine: effects of plastic on fish: The oceans are full of microplastics, yet scientists have a limited understanding of just how these tiny particles impact fish. Part of the issue is that plastic particles in the sea are often covered in microorganisms and chemical pollutants such as oil, and isolating plastic from these contaminants can be difficult.
Now, a
systematic review of 46 research projects has assessed the toxicity of pristine
plastics on fish, finding that the smallest plastics have the biggest impact, particularly when it comes to behavior and neurological functions.
In the new
work, Hugo Jacob and Marc Besson, marine biologists
at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Monaco, focused on studies of
microplastics and nanoplastics smaller than 0.1
micrometers in size. The scientists analyzed research
that examined the impacts of feeding uncontaminated plastic to fish, noting in
particular how the plastics affected their biological functions and systems.
They found
that the particles adversely impacted a third of the nearly 800 biological
outcomes examined, with behavioral, sensory, and
neuromuscular functions most severely affected.
Plastic
exposure was linked to neurotoxicity and abnormalities in brain development and
structure. In studies that looked at larger microparticles,
those effects were likely driven by disruptions to the immune system,
metabolism, and microbiome. Other studies suggested
that plastic particles less than 500 nanometers in
size could be small enough to enter the brain and directly initiate such
neurological disorders.
(much research looks at plastic beads, and not at other
shapes)
Wagner says.
He would like to see studies move away from polystyrene and polyethylene and
toward other common plastics that pollute the marine environment, like PVC,
which is found in everything from pipes to raincoats; PET, which is used in
drinking bottles; and polypropylene, which is common in food packaging.
(edie) Sep 2020: https://www.edie.net/news/16/Report--World-could-reach-peak-plastic-production-in-2027--risking-billions-of-dollars-for-oil-majors
. The virgin plastics industry is described in the report as a 'bloated behemoth'
which is primed for disruption
That is the
conclusion of a new report from think tank Carbon Tracker and
systems change service provider SYSTEMIQ, entitled: ‘The Future’s Not in Plastics: Why Plastics Demand Won’t Rescue
the Oil Sector’.
Published
today (4 September), the report highlights how future scenarios used by oil
majors like BP and trade bodies like the
International Energy Agency (IEA) are still predicting a global growth in oil demand through
to 2040, despite trends towards cleaner heating and electric transport, which
will accelerate in the coming decades. This is because they rely on a boom in
the global demand for plastics. BP sees plastics driving 95% of the sector’s
growth within this timeframe.
Oil majors
are investing in line with such scenarios, collectively planning to funnel
$400bn into new virgin plastics production capacity by the end of 2026, the
report states. With this level of financing, global production would increase
by 25%.
The
publication of the report comes shortly after the Ellen Macarthur
Foundation launched a US version of
its Plastics Pact,
supported by more than 60 organisations including corporates
like Mars, Kimberly-Clark, Nestle and Coca-Cola. The Pact’s ambition to create
a new circular economy for plastics is crucial, given that recent
Foundation-backed research warned that the volume of plastic entering oceans and waterways will triple
and the global ocean plastic stock will quadruple by 2040.
In related
news, the Alliance to End Plastic Waste this week published its first annual
progress report. The report confirms that the 2025 targets for the Alliance are
unlocking at least five times the initial $400m investment made by founding
members; deliver multiple zero-plastic cities; diverting more millions of
tonnes of plastic waste from landfill, incineration and dumping in 100 at-risk
cities and supporting more than 100 million people with paid roles in waste
management. Sarah George
28th Sep 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/28/new-super-enzyme-eats-plastic-bottles-six-times-faster
A super-enzyme that degrades plastic bottles six times faster than before has been created by scientists and could be used for recycling within a year or two.
The
super-enzyme, derived from bacteria that naturally evolved the ability to eat
plastic, enables the full recycling of the bottles. Scientists believe
combining it with enzymes that break down cotton could also allow mixed-fabric
clothing to be recycled. Today, millions of tonnes of such clothing is either dumped in
landfill or incinerated.
The new
research by scientists at the University of Portsmouth and four US institutions
is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences.
Researchers
have also been successful in finding bugs that eat other plastics such as
polyurethane, which is
widely used but rarely recycled. When polyurethane breaks down it can release
toxic chemicals that would kill most bacteria, but the bug identified actually
uses the material as food to power the process.
1st Oct 2020 https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/01/new-british-standard-for-biodegradable-plastic-introduced Sandra Laville.
Plastic claiming to be biodegradable will have to pass a test to prove it breaks down into a harmless wax which contains no microplastics or nanoplastics in order to make the grade, published by the British Standards Institution.
The
benchmark for the new standard was reached by a British company called Polymateria, which has created a formula to transform
plastic items such as bottles, cups and film into a sludge
at a specific moment in the product’s life.
The
biodegradable products created contain a clear recycle-by date, to show
consumers that they have a timeframe to dispose of them responsibly in the
recycling system before they start breaking down. The bio-transformation
chemicals created by Polymateria are added to plastic
in the manufacturing stage of an item, with a bespoke element in the formula
for each type of plastic item being produced.
Niall Dunne,
chief executive of Polymateria, said in tests using
the biotransformation formula, polyethylene film fully broke down in 226 days
and plastic cups in 336 days.
Currently
many plastic products in litter persist in the environment for
hundreds of years.
Scott Steedman, director of standards at BSI, said: “Tackling the
global challenge of plastic waste requires imagination and innovation. New
ideas need agreed, publicly available, independent standards to enable the
delivery of trusted solutions by industry.
“PAS 9017 is
the first stakeholder consensus on how to measure the biodegradability of polyolefins that will accelerate the verification of
technologies for plastic biodegradation.”
The new
standard was sponsored by Polymateria, based at
Imperial College, London and agreed after independent review and discussions
with stakeholders in the industry, the waste and recycling group Wrap, the
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Department for
Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
Glitter
may add sparkle to the holiday season, but its afterlife is decidedly less
shiny.
The festive
coating and arts-and-crafts staple is actually another type of microplastic — those pesky plastics five millimeters
or less in diameter that end up everywhere from Arctic ice to the bellies of
sharks.
"Glitter
might look lovely but, because it's plastic, it sticks around long after the
sparkle has gone – often in the stomachs of fish and birds," campaigner
David Innes told The Guardian in 2019.
That's why
three major UK retailers have decided to eliminate glitter from their Christmas
merchandise this year. Morrisons, Waitrose and John
Lewis have all announced that their store brand holiday products will be
glitter free for 2020.
Oct. 2020. Sandra Laville: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/01/new-british-standard-for-biodegradable-plastic-introduced
Plastic
claiming to be biodegradable will have to pass a test to prove it breaks down
into a harmless wax which contains no microplastics or nanoplastics
in order to make the grade, published by the British Standards Institution. The
benchmark for the new standard was reached by a British company called Polymateria, which has created a formula to transform plastic
items such as bottles, cups and film into a sludge at
a specific moment in the product’s life.
Once the
breakdown of the product begins, most items will have decomposed down to carbon
dioxide, water and sludge within two years, triggered by sunlight, air and
water.
The products
that can be transformed include the most common litter items, such as food
cartons, food films and bottles.
Dec 2020:
Plastics: Ecowatch: https://www.ecowatch.com/stop-plastic-pollution-2649324134.html?rebelltitem=6#rebelltitem6
(5 points about plastics)
Jan. 2021, edie, https://www.edie.net/news/5/UK-Government-faces-fresh-accusations-of-backtracking-on-post-Brexit-environment-pledges/
especially in relation to plastic.
Waste:
Oceans: Sep. 2019, from
sumofus and earthworks: - 220 million tonnes. That’s the appalling amount of toxic
waste that mining companies dump directly into our oceans, rivers and lakes every year.
A Credit Suisse-financed mining
company is about to dump 30 million tonnes of toxic heavy metals - Chrome. Nickel. Copper -and chemicals into a beautiful Norwegian protected fjörd -- a natural reserve for many salmon.
Jan 2020. Recycling/reuse: One of UK’s 5
missed environmental targets: EU – 50% of household waste to be recycled or
reused by 2020.East Riding (highest) meets 65%, but Newham 17% (lowest).
Nationally, recycling rates dropped 2017-18.
Jan. 2020 Labelling not clear. Which analysed 20 common toiletries and found the majority had no
recycling information on most of them. Only 6 had accurate and detailed
labelling. Majority of consumers said they didn’t know ow
to cut back on plastic in the bathroom. Recycling labelling should be
mandatory. In 2017 the UK recorded a 45.7% recycling and composting rate. (2016
was 45.2%). EU target is 50%
16th Feb. 2020. Ex-landfill sites
now good for wildlife.
Once one of western Europe’s biggest landfill sites, Thurrock Thameside
Nature Park, is now
a thriving haven for wildlife
valuable
home for some of the UK’s rarest inhabitants, including cuckoos, adders, water
voles and the extremely rare shrill carder bee.
Many people
are unaware of just how valuable scrub is as a habitat. It is one of the most
underrated habitats and some of our most iconic British species need scrubland
to thrive,
In the
mid-1990s there were about 1,500 active landfill sites in the UK. Now there are
fewer than 250, largely because taxes were introduced that made sending rubbish
to landfill more expensive than incineration.
There are
20,000 old landfill sites in England and 1,315 of them have at least one
environmental designation on them, according to analysis of Environment Agency and Natural England data by Dr James Brand from Queen
Mary University of London. A significant proportion – 11% –
of sites of special scientific interest in England are built at least in
part on old landfill.
layer of
clay crust just 1.4 metres (4.6ft) thick, which sits on 30 metres of gurgling
waste, weighing around 20m tonnes. The only building on site – the visitor
centre – is held upright by hydraulic jacks.
Like most
landfill sites, this crust is too thin to support trees because their roots
would penetrate the black plastic the waste is wrapped in, potentially causing
methane and toxic liquids to be released into the environment. This is why
wildlife reserves on landfill sites are often left as scrub or grassland.
Mucking
Marsh (as it used to be called) landfill belches out enough methane gas to
power around 10,500 homes. This potent greenhouse gas is released via a
pipeline and then combusted to form CO2 and particulate matter before being
released into the atmosphere. Enovert will manage the
decaying matter until it stops producing gas, which is expected to happen in
2040. The decay of organic waste on landfills accounts for one third of UK’s methane emissions, so making sure landfills are
properly sealed is key to minimising environmental
damage.
May 2020. Waste
warriors. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/may/06/zero-waste-warriors-meet-the-people-whose-household-rubbish-fits-in-a-jam-jar
26th
Aug 2020. (See 5. below) proportion of waste incinerated rose
from 12.1% in 2008-9, to 43.8% in 2018-19.
Sep 2020 21 containers of waste returned to
Britain from Sri Lanka because contained illegal matter (e.g. hospital waste).
A further 242 containers from Britain remain in the port at Colombo (the
capital) and at a free trade zone outside the capital – they arrived in 2017
and 2018. The government is taking legal action against the shipper to have
them removed.
Oct 2020 Rebecca Smithers:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/24/crisps-chocolate-and-cheese-worst-offenders-for-recycling-which-report-says Which
analysed 89 best-selling branded groceries and only 34% had recyclable
packaging, and 41% had no relevant labelling.
July 2020. Flytipping
(Libby Brooks, Scotland). Problem has become worse during pandemic. Is an app
for reporting flytipping to councils; ClearWaste. Nearly one in five councils in the UK issue no fines. If it is difficult to use municipal tips
(charges and permits, also landfill taxes) then people will fly tip.
7th Oct 2020. Flytipping. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/07/one-guy-pulled-a-crowbar-on-me-why-fly-tipping-wars-are-raging-across-britain
One thing is
clear: fly-tipping is a national scourge. Even before Covid-19, it was a major
problem for UK councils. Large-scale fly-tipping – defined as the dumping of a
lorry-load of rubbish – more than doubled in England between
2012 and 2019. English
councils spent £12.8m last year clearing up more than 36,200 large tips. It is
believed that organised crime may be behind the surge, with criminals posing as
legitimate waste-disposal businesses only to dump the rubbish they collect on
private land or public roads.
But Covid-19
turbocharged the problem. Fly-tipping increased by 300% at the start of lockdown, according
to the Daily Mail. “It was a perfect storm of people being furloughed, finally
getting around to doing DIY jobs they’d been putting off and then finding that
recycling centres were closed,” says Richard McIlwain
of Keep Britain Tidy. Household goods stores saw a 42% rise in sales in May,
while about half of local authorities closed
their recycling centres or reduced opening hours, meaning there was nowhere for the public to
take their DIY offcuts and empty tins of paint.
... A better
solution, of course, would be to nip fly-tipping in the bud. “We need to make
it easy for people to do the right thing,” says McIlwain,
explaining that some recycling centres will make residents pay to dump
materials that are not household waste. “We appreciate that local authorities need
to raise money, but they should be properly funded by central government,” he
says. “If the system is fully funded, so that recycling centres open seven days
a week and accept a variety of materials, you won’t have so many people going
on Facebook and hiring dodgy people cheaply.” He also
calls for strengthening the waste-carrier licensing process, plus tougher court
penalties. “Ninety per cent of fines are less than £1,000 – a day’s pay if you’re running a professional fly-tipping business.”
Plastics: Ecowatch: https://www.ecowatch.com/stop-plastic-pollution-2649324134.html?rebelltitem=6#rebelltitem6
(5 points about plastics)
Jan 2020. Rebecca Smithers
reports food waste in UK falling (by 7% per person over past 3 years). But 4.5m
tonnes are thrown away annually. Food worth £14bn that could be eaten is
wasted.
2021
Jan 2021. Food waste: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/23/cut-food-waste-at-home-by-sniffing-and-tasting-urges-new-campaign
March 2021. https://www.ecowatch.com/us-illegal-plastic-waste-2651126176
The majority
of the world is working together to reverse the massive plastic pollution problem. But, the world's leading
producer of plastic waste, the U.S., hasn't signed on and
isn't following the rules.
In 2019, 187
countries, except for the U.S. and Haiti, voted to amend the 1989
Basel Convention to include plastic waste in the definition of hazardous materials, and to
strictly limit how that trash is traded internationally. The binding framework hoped
to make globally traded plastic waste more transparent and better regulated. It
went into effect on Jan. 1, 2021.
UN officials hoped the agreement
would curb ocean plastic within five years. Supporters believed the convention would level the
industry's global playing field by allowing developing nations such as Vietnam
and Malaysia to refuse low-quality and hard-to-recycle plastics before they
were shipped from developed nations, a UN transboundary
waste chief told The Guardian.
US produces most plastic but hasn’t signed up. Basel Action
Network: exports banned to countries that have signed but US still doing it:
new report showed that American exports of plastic scrap to poorer countries
have barely changed and that overall exports of scrap plastics even rose.
Tesco has
begun rolling out soft plastic recycling points to 171 stores in the South West
of England and Wales with plans to roll out to all large stores nationwide.
This will be the first time that the UK has had a network of collection points
of this size dedicated to the collection of soft plastic. Most councils don’t collect soft plastic from homes for recycling
and it therefore often goes to landfill.
The roll out
follows an extremely successful 10-store trial where customers responded
positively, returning more than 10 times the expected amount of plastic. The
material has already been used to produce food-grade packaging for a selection
of Tesco cheeses.
The most
common items to be returned during the trial were:
See also: Tesco supermarket has launched
a trial for an innovative recycling scheme specifically focusing on
plastics that can’t be recycled on the kerb. Soft plastics like crisp
packets, plastic bags, and pet food pouches generally can’t be recycled by
local authorities — blocking efforts to hit 100% recycling rates. But the
supermarket has now partnered with Swindon-based recycling specialist Recycling
Technologies to help tackle the problem. From this week, according to
Tuesday's announcement,
Tesco is actively encouraging shoppers to bring their non-recyclable plastics
to collection points at 10 stores across Swindon and Bristol.
And if the trial goes well, the
initiative could be rolled out across the whole of the UK. The plan is
basically to create a closed loop for plastic production. The soft plastics
returned to the store will be converted back into oil by Recycling
Technologies, and then that oil can be used in the production of new
plastics. According to
Sarah Bradbury, Tesco’s director of quality, the technology “could be the final
piece of the jigsaw for the UK plastic recycling industry.” Bradbury added
that the initiative will help the store reach its target to have all of its
packaging 100% recyclable by 2025.
And environmental campaigners are
on board with the initiative too. Paula Chin, WWF UK’s sustainable
materials specialist, said: “It’s
great to see Tesco running this innovative trial, looking for new ways to make
it easier for customers to recycle plastic materials which would usually go in
their waste bins.” She added: “While we can all do our bit by reducing the
plastic we buy and embracing reusable items, we need producers, businesses, and
governments to face their responsibilities too.”
The stores involved in the trial
are: Bristol Lime Trees Road Superstore, Yate Extra,
Bristol Brislington Extra, Bristol Staple Hill Metro,
Keynsham Superstore, Bristol East Extra, Cirencester
Metro — Farrell Close, Cirencester Extra, Swindon Extra, and Tetbury Superstore.
The announcement is a step in the
right direction for achieving the goals set out in the UK Plastics Pact — signed by
dozens of companies in the UK in April 2018 to help crack down on plastic
pollution. Tesco was one of the supermarkets that signed, along with Aldi, Asda, Lidl,
Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, and Waitrose. In fact,
combined, those that signed the pact are responsible for some 80% of the plastic packing on products sold
in UK supermarkets. And one of the four targets outlined in the pact is to
make 100% of plastic packaging reusable, recyclable, or compostable.
According to the most recent government
data, from 2017, the UK recycling rate for waste from households is
about 46% — still short of the EU target to recycle at least 50% of household
waste by 2020. For packaging waste specifically, plastic
falls far short of most other recyclable materials. In 2017, according
to the data, about
46% of plastic packaging was recycled; compared to 71% of metal, 79% of paper,
and 67% of glass.
But while individuals and local
authorities can also play their part in making sure we dispose of our waste
sustainably, there is also an ongoing call from campaigners for supermarkets
and other businesses to take greater responsibility for disposing of the
plastic waste they’re putting into the market. Supermarkets in the UK
currently pay less towards the proper collection and disposal of plastic waste
that in any other country in the EU, according to a 2018 Guardian
report. Instead, taxpayers pay 90% of the total cost. The plastic pact,
and the actions that are coming as a result, is great — but campaigners have
also consistently said that voluntary action isn’t enough, and that we need
legal enforcements in place to hold businesses accountable to their
pledges.
Julian Kirby, from Friends of the
Earth, said of the pact that it must be
“accompanied by government measures to ensure that everyone plays their part
and these targets are actually met.
Extra Notes for Week 3 class:
2018. Book: How to go Plastic Free,
Caroline Jones.
Humanity now
produces its own weight in plastic every single year. That’s 300 million tons
(330 million US tons) – with a shocking 10-20m tons of that ending up in the
ocean.
2nd Sep 2020. Soil
affected.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/02/microplastic-pollution-devastating-soil-species-study-finds damage caused in soil by microplastics (not
just ocean): harm to mites, larvae etc, that maintain
the fertility of the land. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: more
concentration in the soil than in the sea. We have produced 6,300m tonnes of
plastic waste since 1950, of which 79% has accumulated in landfills or leaked
into the environment.
Research
carried out in China: covered land in plastic fragments – orbital mites reduced
by 15%, and greater reduction in dipteral larvae (30%). Nematodes (20%) –
likely to affect bacteria and fungi, though no effects found in the experiment
(?)
Nov 2020. Incineration
à CO2.
Carbon
emissions from waste disposal are increasing because of the expansion of
energy-from-waste incineration plants, a coalition of campaigners has warned.
By 2030 the
government’s push to increase incineration of waste will increase CO2 emissions
by 10m tonnes a year, mostly from the burning of plastics, the groups said.
They argue that the growth in energy-from-waste incineration means the UK will
not be able to meet its commitment to net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
The
coalition... includes Extinction
Rebellion’s zero waste group, Friends of the
Earth, the UK Without Incineration Network (UKWIN), Greenpeace and the MP
John Cruddas
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/18/coronavirus-face-masks-could-be-polluting-the-sea
26th Jan 2021. Supermarkets survey.
Ten biggest
retailers produced 900,000 tonnes of packaging and 2bn plastic bags in 2017 –
study by Greenpeace
and the Environmental Investigation Agency, - The supermarkets sold 2.1bn
plastic bags in 2019, including 1.58bn “bags for life” which are intended to be
reusable. This equates to almost 57 “bags for life” per UK household in 2019,
more than one a week, and is a 65% increase since 2017... The amount of plastic
cutlery sold or given away has also risen sharply, from 143m items in 2017 to
195.5m in 2019.
Waitrose was
ranked as the leader in plastic reduction... Iceland was bottom. Although the
supermarket has reduced the plastic in its own-brand products by 29% since
2017, increases in plastic from branded goods offset its progress.
A Co-op
spokesperson said: “We have one of the smallest plastic footprints of any major
food retailer and almost half of our packaging uses recycled content. We are
committed to eliminating unrecyclable plastic and will make all of our
packaging recyclable this year and we continue to rollout compostable carrier
bags as an alternative to bags for life.”
13th April 2021.
Microplastics in air circulating round the globe.
human
pollution has led to a global plastic cycle, akin to natural processes such as
the carbon cycle, with plastic moving through the atmosphere, oceans and land...
Prof Natalie Mahowald, at Cornell University - published in the
journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, - the result of
road traffic and winds across oceans and farmland whipping up plastic particles
already in the environment (not directly from discarded plastic in towns).
roads were
the dominant factor in the western US, linked to about 85% of the microplastics
in the air. These are likely to include particles from tyres and brake pads on vehicles,
and plastics from litter that had been ground down.
May 2021. UK plastic dumped abroad.
Greenpeace
video on Instagram... Quotes Johnson and Gove ‘The UK
is a global leader in tackling plastic pollution...’
Less than
10% of plastic recycling is actually recycled in the UK. The rest is sent
overseas where it’s often burned or dumped, fuelling health and wildlife
emergencies.
Globally,
more than 90% of all plastic waste ever produced has not been recycled...