Resources

The world is drowning in plastics. This study zooms in specifically on single-use plastics. These are the most harmful and visible form of plastic pollution. We are talking about a real plastic crisis, which is increasingly endangering our environment and our health, and which also poses serious financial risks.

A review of international commitments for reducing plastic and waste-sector GHG emissions. According to the IPCC, waste management is one of three sectors with the greatest potential to reduce surface temperature rise in the next 10-20 years. Zero waste is an essential, affordable, and practical route to significant emissions reductions, yet is neglected in most countries’ climate plans (Nationally Determined Contributions or NDCs).

This report is a comprehensive account of the United States plastics industry’s significant, yet rarely acknowledged contributions to the climate crisis. Using coal-fired power plants as a benchmark, the report examines ten stages in the creation, usage, and disposal of plastics: fracking for plastics, transporting and processing fossil fuels, gas crackers, other plastics feedstock manufacturing, polymers and additives production, exports and imports, foamed plastic insulation, “chemical recycling”, municipal waste incineration, and plastics in the water.

It is worrying that the number of detergents containing so-called water-soluble plastic has increased significantly. It seems that they are now often added to products as a substitute for non-soluble microplastics.

As governments prepare to discuss a global instrument to tackle plastic pollution, IPEN has published a number of studies showing significant obstacles for countries seeking to implement safe plastic circular economies. The studies reveal that countries are unable to handle large volumes of diverse plastics waste streams safely, and the reality that, without regulations requiring plastic ingredients to be labeled, countries are blindly allowing known toxic chemicals onto their markets in plastic products.

This short executive summary combines IPEN's two new reports on the chemicals in plastic pellets that endanger human health and the environment — the report "Plastic pellets found on beaches all over the world contain toxic chemicals", in which we sampled and tested pellets collected on beaches from over 20 countries, and the report "Widespread chemical contamination of recycled plastic pellets globally", in which we investigated chemicals in pellets made from recycled waste plastics.

Health and environmental groups call for international action to control plastic chemicals, and the scaling down of plastics production, to curb growing crisis

Feeling the pressure from increasingly sustainability-minded consumers and governments, the plastics industry is now promoting “chemical recycling” -- technology that turns plastic back into plastic -- as the silver bullet to solve the plastics crisis. However, of the dozens of “chemical recycling” facilities proposed since the early 2000s, just three are operational, and none are known to have successfully turned plastic into new plastic.

Plastic waste pervades every ecosystem on Earth and is likely affecting neurobiology as well.

Blood Type Plastic by Common Seas reveals groundbreaking research indicating that 77% of tested human blood samples contain microplastics. This alarming discovery underscores the pervasive nature of plastic pollution and its potential health implications. This campaign emphasizes the urgency for further scientific investigation into how these plastic particles affect human health.