Plastics

Indonesian village welcomes foreign trash

His weathered face breaks out in a big grin as Keman explains how sifting through rubbish paid for his children's education, one of many in his Indonesian hometown basking in a waste-picking boom.Governments around the world are grappling with how to tackle the scourge of single-use plastic, but for the people of Bangun, trash equals cash. Around two-thirds of the town's residents eke out a living sorting and selling discarded plastic bottles, wrappers and cups back to loca

21 August 2019
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Microplastics and the environment

The alarming spread of microplastics has become a problem that can no longer be ignored. Microplastics are plastics measuring five millimetres or smaller and are formed when larger pieces of plastic such as shopping bags or bottles disintegrate into smaller pieces.Due to their small size, the issue of microplastics might be seen as secondary to the “bigger” problem of plastic bags and other plastic goods which pollute the environment – but there is no escaping it.From drinking water

1 March 2019
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ASEAN’s poor plastic waste record

ASEAN is once again in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons, this time after the newly formed Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW) singled out the region for its disproportionate contribution to plastic waste in the environment – especially the ocean.Approximately eight million tonnes of plastic enters the oceans every year – and there may already be 150 million tonnes of it based on estimated leakages per year since 1950.

17 February 2019
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Calls for better plastic waste management

The current global practice of production, over-consumption and disposal of plastic products has birthed countless never-ending environmental, social-economic, climatic and well-being problems within our societies.

2 December 2018
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