
Welcome to NEO’s weekly news monitoring of the plastics industry.
Every Monday, we publish a roundup of the top developments in plastics and sustainability – from regulatory changes to company news.
This week’s highlights:
- Australia has defined eight types of single-use plastics it will phase out from 2025. These include plastic utensils and straws, polystyrene food containers and microbeads in personal care products. The country produces 2.5 million tonnes of plastic waste annually, about 84% of which is sent to the landfill. (The Guardian)
- There are four policy approaches that can cut down on plastic pollution, according to a guide from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and World Resources Institute (WRI). These include 1) Single-use plastic bans; 2) Taxes and economic incentives to deter production of single-use plastics and reward alternative plastics production; 3) Product standards and labels to educate the public on the environmental impacts and health hazards of plastic; 4) Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) programmes that ensure that manufacturers maintain responsibility for single-use plastic products throughout their entire life cycle. (GreenBiz)
- Plastic is raining from the sky in the western United States – and much of it is blowing in from the ocean, which has accumulated so much pollution that it has become a net exporter of plastic to the land, new research has found. (Wired)