Plastics

Turkey like China: stop to the import of plastic waste

by Giorgia Marino 28 MAY 2021 13:47

It’s Turkey’s turn to be tired of accepting plastic waste from Europe. With an amendment published on May 18th in the Official Gazette, the Turkish Ministry of Commerce has banned the import of ...

What We Waste: 41 billion bottles and cans are littered every year in Europe

by Giorgia Marino 03 MAY 2021 12:50

There are over 41 billion plastic and glass bottles and beverage cans that every year, in Europe, escape the recycling circuit and end up in landfills, incinerators or, worse, in rivers and the sea....

Making plastic circular is an increasingly chartered field

by Alexandra Popescu 25 FEB 2021 07:47

Streams of all things plastic floating across our oceans are now common news footage. By 2040, the amount of ocean plastic globally could triple to 29 million metric tonnes. Of the plastic we throw ...

Making Empties Count: Deposit Return Schemes Across The World

by Tosca Ballerini 21 JAN 2021 00:00

Many experts identify Deposit Return Schemes (DRS) as a key way of reducing the production of single-use packaging waste, especially in the food and drinks sector. The mechanism is simple: encourage...

Enough Is Enough: Overpackaging in the Food System

by Giorgia Marino 12 JAN 2021 00:00

In Europe alone, the demand for plastic is close to 50 million tonnes a year, 40% of which is packaging. And almost entirely single-use. This is too much. Examples of overpackaging mostly come from ...

Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Nestlè named the world’s top plastic polluters for the third year

by Giorgia Marino 11 DEC 2020 00:00

Coca-Cola has conquered, for the third year in a row, the unenviable podium of the top plastic polluter in the world. This was stated in the latest report by the Break Free From Plastic coalition, w...

Big Plastic’s Manual Of False Solutions For Plastic Waste

by Tosca Ballerini 23 OCT 2020 00:00

Delay, distract, and derail any law or action plan for reducing plastic waste, so business-as-usual can go on as long as possible. These are the three basic tactics that Big Plastic has successfully...

Plastic packaging: in the EU, Covid boosts the single-use and pushes recycling targets away

by Giorgia Marino 06 OCT 2020 00:00

Europe is far from the plastic packaging recycling targets it set for itself. Take this step forward, and it will not reach those of 2025 nor those of 2030. This is the conclusion, not exactly heart...

Plastic in the ocean: reducing pollution will have positive impacts on the economy

by Tosca Ballerini 04 SEP 2020 00:00

One of the most ambitious regulations in the world to tackle plastic pollution in the ocean, the EU Single-Use Plastics Directive (SUPD) will come into force on January 1, 2021. Even if the directiv...

The Atlantic Ocean contains more plastic than we thought

by Giorgia Marino 28 AUG 2020 00:00

Plastic, or rather microplastic is added to plastic. And the Atlantic Ocean is even more contaminated than we feared. This is demonstrated by a new study by Katsiaryna Pabortsava and Richard Lampitt...

Germany wants to charge suppliers of throwaway items for abandoned waste

by Giorgia Marino 26 AUG 2020 00:00

Packaging, cigarette butts, plastic cups and all sorts of throwaway items carelessly abandoned on the street or in parks. How much does it cost to collect and dispose of them correctly? Germany has ...