By Ryan Johnson Opinion: Alternatives have a significantly higher total impact on the environment, while inflating costs for consumers This week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his government will seek to ban many single-use plastics starting in 2021. Although the final list of banned items is still undetermined, it will likely include plastic bags, takeaway […]

By Christopher Thompson After the release of alarming new figures showing the extent of plastic pollution on Italian beaches, and the sad news that another whale has washed up in Italy with a stomach full of plastic, we look at what Italy is doing to clean up its coastline. Environmental campaigners in Italy raised the […]

By Christopher Thompson US reportedly opposed deal, which follows concerns that villages in Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia had ‘turned into dumpsites’ Almost all the world’s countries have agreed on a deal aimed at restricting shipments of hard-to-recycle plastic waste to poorer countries, the United Nations announced on Friday. Exporting countries – including the US – […]

By Ryan Johnson A World Wildlife study finds the equivalent of a dump truck full of plastic waste is dumped into the water every minute. So the WWF has launched an initiative to cut plastic waste by 10 million tons. Coca-Cola, which has signed on to the program, produces 3 million tons of plastic waste. […]

By Christopher Thompson Production must end now, says first ever estimate of plastic’s cradle-to-grave impact The proliferation of single-use plastic around the world is accelerating climate change and should be urgently halted, a report warns. Plastic production is expanding worldwide, fuelled in part by the fracking boom in the US. The report says plastic contributes […]

By Christopher Thompson Insects are ‘the glue in nature’, says Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson, underpinning the food and water we rely on Humanity must save insects, if not for their sake, then for ourselves, a leading entomologist has warned. “Insects are the glue in nature and there is no doubt that both the [numbers] and diversity of […]

By Ryan Johnson Scientists from the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew, in the UK, published a study that coffee is officially considered endangered, as 60 percent of the 124 known species in the world are threatened with extinction because of deforestation, diseases, and climate change. The majority of the wild coffee species globally are found in […]

By Christopher Thompson We use plastic every day for bags, straws and bottles, but have you ever thought about what happens after you throw it away? Plastic trash takes decades to biodegrade, breaking into tiny particles called microplastics, which eventually end up in the ocean. Sea creatures such as turtles, fish and whales then digest […]

By Christopher Thompson It’s the first state to prohibit restaurants, caterers, coffee shops and grocery stores from using the to-go foam containers because they cannot be recycled locally. Democratic governor, Janet Mills signed the bill on Tuesday and the law will come into full effect in 2021. Styrofoam (or polystyrene) is a form of plastic […]

By Christopher Thompson Sainsbury’s, which was recently targeted by environmental campaigners, has announced several measures to tackle plastic waste. The retailer will introduce a trial scheme for customers to ‘pre-cycle’ by providing an area for customers to remove unwanted primary and secondary packaging in store and leave it for recycling. This means that food remains […]