11 May 2022
UK retailer Boots has vowed to stop selling all wet wipes that contain plastic fibres by the end of the year, Sky News reported. The pharmacy chain is one of the biggest sellers of wet wipes in the country, with more than 140 different brands stocked across skincare, baby, tissue and health care categories. After selling […]
31 Mar 2022
Microplastics found in human blood for first time Microplastic pollution has been detected in human blood for the first time, with scientists finding the tiny particles in almost 80% of the people tested, the Guardian has reported. The discovery shows the particles can travel around the body and may lodge in organs. The impact on […]
15 Mar 2022
As reported in ENDS [paywall] and the Independent, a new report by the Plastic Soup Foundation states that millions of waste plastic “nurdles” from UK sewage plants on the east coast are polluting the North Sea and reaching the Dutch coast. Sewage plants in Britain use black “bio beads”, also known as nurdles, to filter water, but spillages […]
10 Mar 2022
Several studies have been published recently which highlight the accumulation of plastic in riverbed sediment and an underestimation of the volumes flowing into rivers. The first states that ‘hundreds of millions of microplastic particles could be flowing into UK rivers, hidden in raw sewage’. It goes on to say that ‘recently, there was public anger over […]
03 Mar 2022
The much-anticipated talks on a potential ‘Plastic pact’ at UNEA 5 has produced a treaty on plastic waste which has been described as ‘historic’. We covered the run up to the talks in detail over previous weeks. There were reports late in the day that that manufacturers had been lobbying to weaken the treaty proposal, as […]
01 Mar 2022
Reducing use of plastic, made from oil and gas, has implications for the climate as well as pollution levels, Inger Andersen, head of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has said. More than 100 nations convening in Nairobi are expected to take the first steps toward establishing a historic global treaty to tackle the plastic crisis […]
22 Feb 2022
Global survey sees ‘nearly nine in 10 people supporting a UN plastic pollution treaty but will governments follow?’ As we covered recently, the Fifth Session of the United Nations Environment Assembly takes place online and in Nairobi at the end of February 2022. A key element of the summit will be the potential for a […]
17 Aug 2021
Marine animals may eat plastic rubbish in the sea because an additive found in common items such as water bottles and yoghurt pots lead them to mistake the debris for food. A study using hermit crabs has shown their respiration rate increases significantly in response to low concentrations of oleamide and that they are attracted […]
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