12 Aug 2025
Photo by Naja Bertolt Jensen High-stakes negotiations resumed in Geneva on 5th August for a legally binding global treaty to tackle plastic pollution, with delegates from 175 countries attempting to finalise an agreement that has eluded negotiators for nearly three years. The resumed fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5.2), scheduled to run […]
24 Jul 2025
A new scheme is being trialled in south Wales with the aim of recycling an extra 200 tonnes of farm plastics to reduce farm plastic pollution in rivers. The Natural Resources Wales (NRW) Four Rivers for LIFE project is working with Agriculture Plastics Environment (APE), Birch Farm Plastics and Afonydd Cymru to increase the collection […]
11 Feb 2025
Microplastics are an incredibly widespread pollutant, found buried in Antarctic sea ice, inside the guts of marine animals inhabiting the deepest ocean trenches, and in drinking water around the world. More than 120 trillion microplastics (i.e. plastic particles under 5 mm) are estimated to have entered the global ocean. In the ocean, microplastics […]
11 Jun 2024
Following the ceremonies of the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings, the President of the French Republic Emmanuel Macron hosted the President of the United States Joseph R. Biden Jr. in Paris for a State visit. The two presidents reaffirmed several joint policies and initiatives, including those on Plastic pollution, Biodiversity and Ocean Protection. An […]
30 Apr 2024
The UK’s bottle deposit and return scheme (DRS) has faced yet another delay, pushing its launch back to October 2027, four years later than originally planned. The BBC has reported that the delay was primarily attributed to disagreements between the UK and Welsh governments over whether to include glass in the scheme. Prolonged negotiations Initially, […]
22 Apr 2024
Global Plastics Treaty Delegates gather in Canada for the latest round of negotiations towards a Global Plastics Treaty(including in the marine environment), with analysis by EIA finding that the Treaty ‘could halve plastic production emissions’ and Pew puts forward its recommendations for a ‘Global Solution’. Meanwhile, research shows that plant-based plastic releases nine times less […]
09 Apr 2024
New research from CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, and the University of Toronto in Canada, estimates up to 11 million tonnes of plastic pollution is sitting on the ocean floor. Dr Denise Hardesty, Senior Research Scientist with CSIRO, said this is the first estimate of how much plastic waste ends up on the ocean floor, […]
19 Mar 2024
By Samantha Garrard, Senior Marine Ecosystem Services Researcher at Plymouth Marine Laboratory. Plastic has been found in every single part of the ocean, from the surface to the seafloor and from the tropics to the poles. Land-based sources of plastic account for the majority of this pollution, with plastic bags, bottles, wrappers, food containers and cutlery among […]
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