A Grist post on plastic pickers really got me this morning. Here’s the set up and helps answer, ‘who are plastic pickers?’ an estimated 20 million people make a living by collecting discarded plastic, aluminum, and other refuse from dumpsites and landfills and selling it to recyclers. They’re called “waste pickers,” and though their work is essential…
The Institute of Bank America published a great short piece on plastic and its circular economy. A strange place for good plastic research and needed investments. I found it well worth the read. There were two key points that I found important. First, a circular economy for any product cycle is heavily dependent on the…
One of my favorite places for data, Statista.com, just published a piece on the growth of plastic waste. Their projections are scarier than historical. How did we get here? You will find more infographics at Statista What does it look like going forward? In just two decades, the global annual production of plastic waste has…
Those amazing people at ELAW (website), published an entire monthly update on Plastic, the problems, issues and where progress is being made around the world. ELAW also set up a plastic resource center – check it out here https://elaw.org/plastic. ELAW is pleased to present this overview of laws designed to tackle the growing problem of…
Fast Company published a piece on our plastic recently. What caught my attention in this post was its novel approach to focus on a full life cycle rather than just after the consumer ‘threw it away’. Before they approach problem details, they set up why this discussion is important now. An international agreement to end plastic…
Plastics are everywhere, all the time. The list of dangerous chemicals and horrendous outcomes due to plastics cannot be overstated it seems to me. Yet, after 4 (FOUR!) formal discussion meetings on a plastics treaty, world leaders and their industry adovcates are no closer to a treaty. Grist summarized the conference well. “Nothing happened that…
