Plastics

Texan Uses Pollution Settlement To Help Coastal Community

January 7, 2025 Dylan Baddour, The Texas Tribune. Create! Fishing, Plastics, pollution, Texas

Port Lavaca, Texas — Few people still fish for a living on the Gulf Coast of Texas. The work is hard and pay is meager. In the hearts of rundown seaside towns, dilapidated harbors barely recall the communities that thrived here generations ago. But at the docks of Port Lavaca, one group of humble fishermen just got a staggering $20 million to bring back their timeless way of life. They’re buying out the buyer of their catch, starting the largest oyster farm in Texas and dreaming big for the first time in a long time. “We have a lot of hope,” said Jose Lozano, 46, who docks his oyster boats in Port Lavaca. “Things will get better.”

Organizers Fight The Greenwashing Of Plastic Pollution

January 1, 2025 Derek Seidman, Truthout. Organize! Fossil Fuels, Plastics, pollution, Propaganda

By now, it’s indisputable that we’re experiencing a global crisis of plastics production and plastics waste. There may be as much as 200 million tonnes of plastic in our oceans. Humans annually consume thousands of plastic particles and their harmful chemicals. The Global North dumps massive amounts of plastic waste on the Global South. Powerful corporate interests, especially in fossil fuels and petrochemicals, are driving the ongoing boom in plastics production. The plastics industry is pushing false solutions like chemical recycling, even as it’s clear that we can’t recycle our way out of this crisis.

World Leaders Fail to Reach Agreement on Global Plastics Treaty

December 3, 2024 Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, EcoWatch. Educate! Environment, Plastics, Plastics Treaty, pollution, United Nations

Efforts by nations to come to an agreement on a global plastics treaty failed on Monday. While more than 100 countries sought to put a limit on the world’s plastics production — in addition to tackling recycling and cleanup — oil and gas companies were only prepared to address the problem of plastic waste. The meeting in Busan, South Korea was supposed to be the last, but negotiations will continue into 2025, reported The Associated Press. “It is clear that there is still persisting divergence,” said Inger Andersen, the United Nations Environment Programme’s executive director, as Reuters reported.

Alliance To End Plastic Waste Members Created 1,000x More Plastic Than They Cleaned Up

November 25, 2024 Paige Bennett, EcoWatch. Educate! False Solutions, plastic pollution, Plastics, pollution

In 2019, a group of major companies from around the world agreed to form the Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW), an alliance that set out to reduce the amount of plastic flowing into the environment by around 15 million metric tons by the end of 2023. But according to a new report by Unearthed, a Greenpeace investigative journalism team, the initiative members have actually produced more than 1,000 times the amount of plastic than they’ve cleaned up in the 2019 to 2023 timeframe. The report found that the initiative was established by American Chemistry Council (ACC), a trade association, and a PR company. According to Unearthed, the project aimed to “change the conversation – away from short-term simplistic bans of plastic.”

Ahead of Plastics Treaty Talks, Millions Demand Production Cuts

November 25, 2024 Jessica Corbett, Common Dreams. Resist! climate crisis, Plastics, Plastics Treaty, South Korea

With the fifth and final round of global plastics treaty negotiations set to begin Monday in Busan, South Korea, an estimated 1,500 people took to the city's streets and nearly 3 million more signed a petition calling for a legally binding pact "to drastically reduce production and use, and protect human health and the environment." The Saturday march at the Busan Exhibition and Convention Center was led by the global Break Free From Plastic (BFFP) movement and local allies from the Uproot Plastics Coalition. They want the treaty to include targets to slash production.

When Is ‘Recyclable’ Not Really Recyclable?

August 21, 2024 Lisa Song, ProPublica. Educate! Environment, False Solutions, Plastics, Recycling

Is there anything more pathetic than a used plastic bag? They rip and tear. They float away in the slightest breeze. Left in the wild, their mangled remains entangle birds and choke sea turtles that mistake them for edible jellyfish. It takes 1,000 years for the bags to disintegrate, shedding hormone-disrupting chemicals as they do. And that outcome is all but inevitable, because no system exists to routinely recycle them. It’s no wonder some states have banned them and stores give discounts to customers with reusable bags. But the plastics industry is working to make the public feel OK about using them again.

How To Create A ‘World Without Waste’; The Plastic Industry Has Ideas

July 10, 2024 Joseph Winters, DeSmog. Educate! Environment, False Solution, Plastic Industry, plastic pollution, Plastics

In the time it takes you to read this sentence — say, four seconds — the world produces nearly 60 metric tons of plastic, almost entirely out of fossil fuels. That’s about 53,000 metric tons an hour, 1.3 million metric tons a day, or 460 million metric tons a year. Those numbers are fueling widespread and growing contamination of Earth’s oceans, rivers, and the terrestrial environment with plastic trash. In March 2022, the United Nations’ 193 member states got together in Nairobi, Kenya, and agreed to do something about it. They pledged to negotiate a treaty to “end plastic pollution,” with the goal of delivering a final draft by 2025.

How $9 Billion From Taxpayers Fueled Plastics Production

March 15, 2024 Sara Sneath, DeSmog. Educate! Environment, Louisiana, Plastics, pollution, Taxes, Texas

Through billions in tax breaks and subsidies, taxpayers in Louisiana, Texas, and other states have supported the construction or expansion of dozens of facilities manufacturing plastics in the United States since 2012. However, many of these plants have also repeatedly exceeded legal limits on the air pollution they release into surrounding communities, disproportionately affecting people of color. That’s according to an Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) report published on Thursday. For instance, in 2015, then-Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal welcomed Indorama Ventures — one of the world’s biggest producers of single-use plastic — to the state.

Switching To Biodegradable Plastics Could Slash CO2 Emissions

February 24, 2024 Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, EcoWatch. Create! Biodegradable, Biodigestion, CO2, Environment, Plastics, pollution

Plastic pollution is one of the biggest global threats to the environment. Not only does it produce an enormous amount of waste, it breaks down to become the ubiquitous microplastics that contaminate drinking water, food and even the human body, while its production contributes to global heating. A new study, “Replacing Traditional Plastics with Biodegradable Plastics: Impact on Carbon Emissions,” has found that using biodegradable alternatives to replace traditional plastic products would lead to a substantial reduction in carbon dioxide emissions.

Report: Plastics, Oil Industry Deceived Public On Recycling Use

February 17, 2024 Adam M. Lowenstein, DeSmog. Educate! Big Oil, Corporatism, Deception, Plastics, Recycling

An explosive new report finds that the plastics industry has misled the public for decades about the viability of recycling plastic, promoting reuse despite the fact that mechanical recycling was not feasible – perpetuating the plastic waste crisis the world faces today. “The plastics industry has ‘sold’ plastic recycling to the American public to sell plastic,” according to the report by the Center for Climate Integrity (CCI), a nonprofit organization that advocates for legal action to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable. In a statement, CCI claims the study, called “The Fraud of Plastic Recycling: How Big Oil and the plastics industry deceived the public for decades and caused the plastic waste crisis,” includes “evidence that could provide the foundation for legal efforts to hold fossil fuel and other petrochemical companies accountable for their lies and deception.”

Frontline Communities On Hunger Strike Against Plastics Giant Formosa

November 9, 2023 Sara Sneath, DeSmog. Resist! Hunger Strike, Plastics, Taiwan, Vietnam

Fishers, organizers, and concerned citizens in Texas, Vietnam, and Louisiana — areas that are home to existing or proposed Formosa plants — have supported each other’s efforts to mobilize against the Taiwan-based firm, forming the organization International Monitor Formosa Alliance (IMFA). Now the alliance is launching a hunger strike to demand that the victims of a 2016 environmental disaster in central Vietnam caused by Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corporation, a subsidiary of the Formosa Plastics Group, be compensated for their losses, that the polluted area be restored, and that those who have been jailed for protesting be released.

New Report Issues Damning Verdict On Food’s Fossil Fuel Addiction

November 2, 2023 Clare Carlile, DeSmog. Educate! climate crisis, Food and Agriculture, Fossil Fuel, Plastics

Food systems are responsible for at least 15 percent of all global fossil fuel consumption, according to a major report launched ahead of the COP28 climate summit. The analysis shows that the production, transport, and storage of food are driving greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those of the EU and Russia combined. Ultra processed foods like snacks, drinks and ready meals, along with chemical fertilisers made from natural gas, are singled out as major sources of pollution. Published today (Thursday), the research comes weeks before global leaders gather in Dubai to discuss ways to limit catastrophic global heating.

England To Ban Single-Use Plastic Dinnerware, Including Styrofoam

January 10, 2023 Paige Bennett, EcoWatch. Create! climate crisis, England, Environment, Plastics, United Kingdom (UK)

In England, the government has announced plans to ban single-use plastic dinnerware, including closed-cell extruded polystyrene foam trays (commonly referred to as the brand name Styrofoam), plastic utensils and plastic plates. The announcement follows similar bans in Scotland and Wales. Scotland’s ban on single-use plastics took effect in August 2022, and Wales recently passed a single-use plastics ban in December 2022 that will take effect in fall of this year. England’s Environment Secretary Thérèse Coffey confirmed the ban, noting that it would preserve the environment for future generations, as reported by the BBC. The announcement follows a consultation that ran from November 2021 to February 2022 on single-use plastics by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), with results expected to be shared on January 14, 2023.

A Behind-The-Scenes Look At The Global Plastics Treaty

December 10, 2022 Olivia Rosane, EcoWatch. Create! Environment, Plastics, Plastics Treaty, United Nations

Could countries come together to find a solution to the plastic pollution crisis? International collaboration on environmental issues has a mixed track record. The Montreal Protocol successfully reduced the refrigerants and other chemicals burning a hole in the ozone layer, but the efforts of the United Nations Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are still not on track to stabilize greenhouse gas emissions enough to stave off the worst impacts of the climate crisis. Now, nations are trying again with an international treaty on plastic pollution. The first meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) to draft what the UN is calling “an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment” took place in Punta del Este, Uruguay, last week, from November 28 to December 2.

New Greenpeace Report: Plastic Recycling Is A Dead-End Street

October 24, 2022 Greenpeace. Educate! Global Plastic Treaty, Plastics, Recycling, Washington DC

Washington, DC - Most plastic simply cannot be recycled, a new Greenpeace USA report concludes. Circular Claims Fall Flat Again, released today, finds that U.S. households generated an estimated 51 million tons of plastic waste in 2021, only 2.4 million tons of which was recycled. The report also finds that no type of plastic packaging in the U.S. meets the definition of recyclable used by either the Federal Trade Commission or the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastic Economy (EMF NPE) Initiative. Plastic recycling was estimated to have declined to about 5–6% in 2021, down from a high of 9.5% in 2014 and 8.7% in 2018. At that time, the U.S. exported millions of tons of plastic waste to China and counted it as recycled even though much of it was burned or dumped.

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