We’re drowning in plastics. With governments setting un-ambitious targets, corporations are now listening to consumers who are demanding less plastic packaging and food containers.
Plastic bags will soon be gone from major supermarkets and many other shops too. Campaigns to reduce plastic even more should focus on positive advice, rather than shaming shoppers for their plastic use.
Tonnes of plastic end up in the ocean each year, but a switch away from petroleum-based products to bio-derived and degradable composites could lessen marine pollution.
Victoria’s proposed ban on single-use plastic bags is a step forward, but what about all the other unnecessary packaging? A truly effective waste policy should offer a comprehensive plan for packaging.
Matthew Savoca, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
A new study shows that anchovies – key food for larger fish – are attracted to plastic trash because it smells like food. This suggests that toxic substances in plastic could move up through food chains.
Banning single-use plastic bags makes sense, as long as it doesn’t usher in behaviours that are just as bad, or worse – like over-using heavier bags made of even more plastic.
The success of the plastic bag ban announced by Australia’s big two supermarkets will hinge on whether they can persuade customers to change an engrained behaviour - without annoying them.
Moves by major to supermarkets to only offer plastic bags for a charge could make these businesses more than a million dollars a year, but it may only have a small impact on the environment.
You might have heard the oceans are full of plastic, but how full exactly? Around 8 million metric tonnes go into the oceans each year, according to the first rigorous global estimate published in Science…
After months of deliberation and consultations, the UK government’s long-awaited announcement about a plastic bag charge arrives, only for Defra to shoot it full of holes by opting to exempt retailers…
The European Parliament has voted in a draft law aimed at halving the use of plastic bags across the continent by 2017, and further reducing them by at least 80% by 2019. This positive move is aimed at…
Charging for plastic bags at the checkout and even banning disposable plastic bags has been a growing global trend in recent years. So what should we make of the news that retailer Target is binning its…
Between 30 million and 50 million plastic bags enter the environment as litter in Australia each year. These environmentally damaging bags - produced to be used once and then thrown away - are a symbol…