In the UAE, conscious companies are co-leading the change to help people live with less pointless plastic. Businesses including cafes, restaurants, and hotels in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Sharjah have joined forces with Goumbook’s Refill UAE campaign to tackle single-use plastic.

Growing awareness about the disastrous environmental impacts of plastics has fuelled the rising popularity of reusable and refillable drinks containers, like coffee cups and water bottles, in part thanks to the award-winning Refill campaign and app, which connects people to places they can eat, drink and shop without the pointless packaging.

Thanks to the work of Goumbook, who have been pioneering the movement of ditching single-use plastics in the country since 2016 and run the Refill campaign in the UAE, there are now 44 Refill Stations listed locally on the Refill app.

It’s time for a Refill Revolution

Refill UAE are now calling on all residents to do their bit to tackle plastic pollution by finding out what they can refill and reuse locally, supporting local businesses at the same time.

To make life easier for people that are looking to take steps to reduce plastic, the free Refill app now lists more than 274,000 locations around the world where people can eat, drink and shop. This includes everything from independent cafes offering a discount for bringing a reusable cup, to greengrocers, bakeries, and zero-waste shops. Already signed up to the app right here in the UAE are independent cafes including Tom & Serge, The Sum of Us, and Café Confetti, chains such as Limetree Café, Organic Foods & Café, and Baker & Spice, as well as retailers like Adidas’ new flagship store in the Dubai Mall, and many more.

The Refill app has already been downloaded more than 350,000 times and saved millions of items of single-use plastic items from ending up in our waste stream demonstrating the collective power of individual action on the planet. This is now more important than ever – with previous progress on plastic pollution having stalled after a year of lockdowns, altered habits, and additional sources of single-use items.

“Although our attention has been diverted during the course of the pandemic, plastic pollution hasn’t gone away – now is the time to scale up our efforts and make it a priority as we build back better”, Tatiana Antonelli Abella, founder of Goumbook, explained. “The reactions we at Goumbook get from our community in the UAE couldn’t be clearer: public support for a world where plastic pollution isn’t choking our oceans, landscapes and wildlife is resounding.”

“We don’t want to go back to ‘business as usual’ and we certainly don’t want to backtrack on the process we’ve made in tackling single-use plastic and growing the Refill Revolution. Instead, we need to create a ‘new normal’ where we transition away from our single-use, disposable culture and take action to protect ourselves and our planet.”

This World Refill Day on June 16^th has proven that people want to see action on plastic pollution, that local businesses are proud to be part of Refill UAE and that by joining hands this global movement can create a wave of change and show other businesses, brands, and governments that reuse is the solution!

Staying safe staying hydrated!

Last month, over 100 scientists released a statement confirming that single-use plastic is no safer than any other material and reusables are perfectly safe to use during COVID-19, provided they are cleaned properly. This means it’s safe for both Refill Station staff and the public to use and accept reusable bottles, cups and containers providing standard government food safety advice for health and hygiene is followed.

Working with our partners City To Sea, wee are happy to share guidance for Refill Stations on safely accepting reusable bottles for drinking water refills. Following these super-simple steps you, your staff and your customers will be able to continue to power the #RefillRevolution. And prevent millions of single-use plastic bottles from entering our waste stream, or worse, ending up in our oceans.

We hope this guidance helps you to go forth and Refill safely! If you’re not already signed up as Refill station, you can download the free app, put your tap on the map and get Refilling.

Check list for Refill stations:

Many drinking water systems may have been left stagnant due to premises either being closed or with reduced staff during the recent period of restrictions. Refill Stations reopening after a break should consult the supplier of their filters for guidance on recovering drinking water supplies after prolonged inactivity. Stations should also follow local regulation for the F&B sector.

The following steps can be taken to minimise risk when interacting with the public (e.g. when selling food or drinks) by:

• minimising contact
• creating physical screens
• cleaning the workplace
• providing site guidance on social distancing and hygiene etc.
• Providing the above is followed, it’s safe for Refill Stations to continue to offer free drinking water refills to their customers. Hooray!

Whilst contactless options are preferable – as this means a reduced risk of contamination from surface contact – barriers, hand-washing and increased cleaning can all be effectively utilised to minimise the risks to these methods of offering water refills.

The move is part of Dubai’s continuing efforts to advance sustainability standards in the hospitality and tourism industry and enhance the emirate’s image as a leading sustainable tourism destination. The set deadline is an extension of the original compliance date in 2020, which was pushed to this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

A total of 19 standards have been set by the DST which include sustainable management approaches, performance metrics, energy, food and water management plans, guest education, employee training initiatives, the presence of sustainability committees within hotel establishments and corporate social responsibility programmes for local communities, among others. 

Environmental advocates welcomed the latest development which reflects the emirate’s serious efforts to push environmental sustainability and reduce the negative impact of key industries to the environment. If implemented, the Dubai tourism sector can significantly contribute to the emirate’s targets to achieve the Dubai Carbon Abatement Strategy 2021 and reduce carbon emissions by 16 per cent this year.

Goumbook has been working with various hotels to encourage them to shift to a more sustainable choice when it comes to using water and providing them to guests, which would massively cut on the use of single-use plastic bottles. 

Through its Refill UAE campaign, Goumbook aims to revolutionize the practice of drinking water consumption in the UAE, especially in sectors where there is heavy dependence on bottled water. Providing healthy and sustainable water refilling stations empower consumers and make it easy for them to move away from buying bottled water.

Dubai Tourism has required hotels to resume their monthly submission of carbon emission drivers using the Carbon Calculator. The sustainability tool was conceived in 2017 as part of the Tourism Dirham Platform, providing hotels with a system to measure their carbon footprint and submit monthly their consumption of 11 carbon emissions sources such as electricity, water, district cooling, waste, fuel for transport, fuel for generators, and LPG among others. 

Yousuf Lootah, Vice Chairman of Dubai Sustainable Tourism, said: “We strongly encourage hotels to comply with the 19 Sustainability Requirements set by Dubai Tourism and provide Carbon Calculator submissions by 1 July. We know that with the ongoing support of the relevant government bodies these hotel establishments can play a huge part in achieving the overall carbon emission reduction target over the next year and beyond.”

In 2019, DST has trained a total of 528 hotels on the sustainability standards to help unify Dubai hotels’ environmental practices and thereby further promote the emirate’s tourism economy.

For more information, email us at ask@goumbook.com

Stay hydrated on the go with Adidas and Refill UAE

Refill UAE is on a mission to make plastic pollution caused by single-use plastic a thing of the past. With Adidas, the first retail partner has come on board the global campaign in the UAE, making refilling your water bottle easier and cheaper than buying bottled water while shopping in Dubai Mall. 

The Refill campaign encourages participating cafes, bars, restaurants, banks, galleries, museums, retailers, and other businesses to sign up to the free Refill app and put a sticker in their window alerting passers-by to the fact they are welcome to fill up their bottle with filtered tap water. Goumbook is the local partner of the Refill campaign in the UK, which was created by the UK-based NGO City to Sea, and now boasts a network of 26,000 Refill Points and over 270,000 app downloads. By rolling out the Refill campaign in the UAE, Goumbook works towards curbing the massive amount of over 4 billion plastic bottles consumed by UAE residents each year and simultaneously raises awareness about the quality and safety of UAE tap water as fit for human consumption. 

Tatiana Antonelli Abella, founder of Goumbook, explains why both businesses and their customers should get involved: “Here in the UAE we are rightly proud of the area’s unique landscapes. However, plastics, including single-use bottles, are frequently littering our beaches and desert. Refill UAE gives us all the opportunity to help plastic pollution a thing of the past and help people save money. It’s makes good business sense for Refill Points as well – as customers view businesses that provide free water refills more favourably and are more likely to return to them to make future purchases.” 

“We rely on the support of likeminded partners to turn the tide on single-use plastic pollution”, she added. “We are so excited that Adidas is joining the Refill movement and making a real difference by reducing reliance on single-use plastics for shoppers in the UAE’s biggest mall. Every time we refill a re-usable bottle, we save our own money and the planet’s resources, and all those individual refills add up to a huge impact. It’s great to see an international brand that stands for an active, healthy lifestyle supporting the Refill campaign.” 

With the Adidas Flagship Store in Dubai Mall now on the Refill App, shoppers can easily access the drinking fountain to refill their reusable bottles with filtered tap water free of charge. By coming on board Refill UAE, Adidas continues its partnership with Goumbook that has started when Adidas Originals announced its new, more sustainable version of the iconic Stan Smith sneaker made with sustainable materials to help end plastic waste. As part of the campaign, Adidas covers the cost of planting and nurturing one Ghaf tree seed through Goumbook, for each purchase of the new SS21 Stan Smith sneakers from March 28th to the 28th of April. By planting one tree for each pair of shoes sold and now offering water free of cost and free of plastic, the brand takes bold steps to give back to the community and the planet. 

The Adidas Refill Station is available for anyone to come and re-fill their water bottles, free of charge. It can be found inside the MakerLab, on the ground floor of Dubai Mall opposite the ice rink and near Cinema Parking.

Polyester fibres that injure marine life were found in sea water across region

The Arctic is “pervasively” polluted by microplastic fibres that most likely come from the washing of synthetic clothes by people in Europe and North America, research has found.

The most comprehensive study to date found the microplastics in 96 of 97 sea water samples taken from across the polar region. More than 92% of the microplastics were fibres, and 73% of these were made of polyester and were the same width and colours as those used in clothes. Most of the samples were taken from 3-8 metres below the surface, where much marine life feeds.

Other recent analysis estimated that 3,500tn plastic microfibres from clothes washing in the US and Canada ended up in the sea each year, while modelling suggested plastic dumped in the seas around the UK was carried to the Arctic within two years.

The researchers found plastic fibres at the north pole. With plastic recently discovered at the deepest point on Earth, the Mariana Trench, and the peak of Mount Everest, it is clear humanity’s litter has polluted the entire planet. It is known to injure wildlife that mistake it for food. People also consume microplastics via food and water, and breathe them in, although the health impact is not yet known.

Much more water flows into the Arctic from the Atlantic than the Pacific, and the new research found higher concentrations of the microplastic fibres nearer the Atlantic, as well as longer and less degraded fibres.

“We’re looking at a dominance of Atlantic inputs, which means sources of textile fibres in the North Atlantic from Europe and North America are likely to be driving the contamination in the Arctic Ocean,” said Peter Ross, at Ocean Wise Conservation Association in Canada, who led the study. “With these polyester fibres, we’ve essentially created a cloud throughout the world’s oceans.”

“The Arctic is, yet again, at the receiving end of pollutants from the south,” he said. Toxic chemical pollutants including mercury and PCBs are well known at the pole. “It’s certainly cause for concern, when we realise that the Inuit people rely very heavily on aquatic foods.”

The 3-8m layer of sea water is “a biologically important area where we find phytoplankton, zooplankton, small fish, big fish, seabirds and marine mammals, foraging looking for food”, said Ross. Large animals such as turtles, albatross, seals and whales are known to be killed by plastic and he said there was no reason to think it was different for the smaller ones.

This article originally appeared on theguardian.com

We won’t be able to stem the tide of plastic waste until manufacturers are held accountable for their products.

We’re all culprits in the plastic pollution crisis — and that’s by design.

I was reminded of this recently when I ordered a set of carbon filters for my countertop compost bin. (Like most people, I don’t care for smelly kitchens.) The package arrived in a layered-plastic bubble envelope. Inside I found another clear plastic bag encasing the filters. Finally, adding insult to injury, each filter was wrapped individually in plastic. That made at least three layers of plastic for each filter.

Frustratingly, in an effort to reduce waste, I had created more. And I’m not alone. A recent landmark study confirmed that the United States is the most plastic-polluting country in the world. Every 16 hours Americans throw away enough plastic to fill a football stadium.

Adding to my frustration was a sense of helplessness. There was no way I could have known or changed the fact that these products were shrouded in layer upon layer of disposable plastic packaging.

I know millions of Americans feel the same way. We want to reduce our waste, particularly our use of disposable plastic, but we’re rarely given the opportunity. Even when sustainable products are minimally packaged or designed for reuse, they often must be purchased online (delivered in more packaging, often disposable) or at specialty stores (rarities). Countless times I’ve wished that I could have avoided buying things that created so much trash.

But what if, in demanding better of ourselves, we’re missing the point? The companies that design our products and packaging to be disposable not only created this system but are rewarded by it. Waste equals profit through cost avoidance.

Disposable products are cheap for industry, but costly to the rest of us. As taxpayers we have to pay for trash collection and recycling. As citizens we’re exposed to pollutants from excessive manufacturing and microplastics shed from disposable products into our drinking water and food.

Meanwhile our oceans and waterways are being bombarded with millions of tons of plastic every year, killing wildlife and spreading disease.

The cost to the companies making these wasteful products? Zero. In a shareholder profit-maximizing world, making disposable junk wins every time.

But what if these companies were held responsible for their products? Would it prevent the onslaught of plastic junk filling up our landfills and too often ending up in the ocean? History suggests manufacturers would design products to be more reusable, repairable and resilient, because they’d want to limit the waste they would have to manage.

Which brings us to an idea known as producer responsibility.

Producer responsibility programs have existed around the world for decades and have successfully increased collection, recycling and reuse for the products they cover. For the most part these programs regulate hazardous, hard-to-dispose-of products such as batteries, paint, mercury thermostats, carpet, pesticides, tires and pharmaceuticals. Dozens of states already have programs in place for these items.

For example, thermostat makers are required to finance and sometimes run convenient recycling programs to keep mercury, a potent neurotoxin, from escaping and causing damage. Not all programs require producers to collect their own trash, but they all require adequate financing for safe collection. Producers that redesign their products to be less dangerous or more reusable can often avoid higher fees.

Unfortunately we don’t have programs in place for single-use packaging and foodware, despite the fact that those products are also hazardous and hard to dispose of. That’s why we need to create them. British Columbia has already implemented producer responsibility legislation, and a handful of U.S. states — from Washington to Maine — are considering similar programs. If implemented, these programs would create jobs, generate revenue streams for local municipalities to further reduce waste and, in the long run, improve human health and help fight climate change.

With support and pressure from residents, we could see laws pass as early as 2021, forcing our product-makers to either be better or pay out.

The idea is even gaining support at the federal level, as members of Congress respond to growing calls from constituents to address the plastic pollution crisis. Even the remote possibility of a federal program may push states to establish their own programs first.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, industry groups that represent manufacturers of these products have already opposed efforts to hold their clients responsible, which is why we must continue to push our legislators to support these programs now and into the future. In other words, the jig is up — but only if we say so.

This article originally appeared on therevelator.org

They’re flowing into the natural environment every day at an unprecedented rate

My entry into the ocean plastics crisis began when our organization, SoulBuffalo, ran the first ever activist-to-industry ocean plastics summit in May of 2019. To imagine the summit, picture 165 senior leaders from Coca-Cola, Dow, Greenpeace, the American Chemistry Council, the World Bank, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and representatives of some of the world’s 15 million informal waste pickers all stuck on a boat together in the middle of the Atlantic Garbage Patch for four days.

These stakeholders have wildly different strategies, visions and objectives. Our mission was to bring them together in the heart of the crisis to ignite new relationships and accelerate action. We snorkeled together in a sea of plastics and hosted boundary-pushing conversations between leaders that don’t usually sit in the same room.

We saw up close the paradox of plastic, part wonder material, part environmental scourge. Lightweight and strong, plastic preserves food like no other material. Yet it breaks down into microplastics and nanoplastics, which can now be found everywhere in the world—from the deepest oceans to our very own bodies.

Every day plastic is flowing into our natural environment at an unprecedented rate—a dump truck’s worth every minute into our oceans alone. As I wrote in Scientific American in August, the pandemic has made it worse. Enough masks are being made per year to cover the entire country of Switzerland.

Confronting this reality together in the Atlantic Garbage Patch built bridges between the plastic industry and environmental NGOs. Five of the ideas workshopped during the summit are funded and up and running today (including the Plastic Pickers Operational Working Group). The summit made a powerful impact, but the crisis is far from resolved. The need for a complete overhaul of our broken system for managing waste is clear. The growing consensus is that the most effective way to do this is through a U.N. Global Treaty on Plastics. In 14 months at United Nations Environmental Assembly’s Fifth Session (UNEA-5), the U.N. will decide on whether to move a treaty forward.

The 70-plus-member Ocean Plastics Leadership Network, the activist-to-industry network dedicated to the plastics crisis that was born on that ship in the middle of the Atlantic, is committed to accelerating the work towards a “Paris Agreement” for plastics.

We are currently at work on a yearlong series of virtual dialogues during the 14-month groundwork period leading up to the UNEA5 decision in February 2022 on whether to develop a global plastics treaty. Our role is to help map consensus amongst major stakeholders to accelerate a plastics treaty.

Traditionally, negotiations on global treaties are incredibly hard, and the vast number of stakeholders in the global plastics crisis only adds to the complexity of the task.

Among the stakeholders for a new global agreement on plastic pollution are 193 U.N.-recognized governments; thousands of companies dependent on plastic; trade and advocacy groups; activists and industry-facing nonprofits; waste pickers in the developing world who are responsible for picking plastic out of landfills and off beaches; and seven billion consumers who recycle on average 14 percent of the total amount of plastic they consume.

We’re under no illusion about the scope of this challenge. We must create a safe forum for tough conversations to take place among this vast and varied group in advance of the February 2022 decision to inform negotiators at the U.N. and help advance the treaty. In the words of Costa Rican diplomat Christiana Figueres, who was central to the realization of the Paris Agreement, we must employ “relentless optimism,” coupled with “radical collaboration.”

Despite this complexity, we believe a meaningful global agreement can be reached and that we must make it happen faster than any treaty before. There are good reasons for optimism. In 1988, the International Maritime Organization ratified a global agreement titled MARPOL Annex V making it illegal for ships to dump plastic in the ocean anywhere in the world. It is still in effect today, proving there’s precedent for global agreements to preserve our oceans.

All of the Caribbean nations, the Nordic countries and the Pacific Island states have called for a new global agreement. Sixty-eight countries have publicly expressed interest in a plastics treaty, as have a broad coalition of African countries, and the European Union. While the U.S. has been notably silent on the topic, the groundswell of worldwide support is encouraging.

In November, the U.K.’s environmental minister declared the time to start negotiating a plastics treaty is now. “We have a chance now to tackle plastic pollution in the way that the Paris agreement has done for climate change.” said Lord Zac Goldsmith. There is also hope across the environmental community that the recently elected Biden administration will be a meaningful force on the plastics treaty, as the Obama administration was for climate.

Major reports released in 2020 from industry, NGOs and government also provide a useful blueprint to ground discussions. WWF, Ellen MacArthur Foundation and Boston Consulting Group laid out the business case for a global treaty, and 30 major companies have signed onto a “Business Call for a U.N. Treaty On Plastic Pollution.” They urged others to join them in advocating for an international response that aligns businesses and governments and offers a clear approach to addressing the plastic crisis.

Environmental NGO groups also voiced their support for a plastics treaty in a report from the Center for International Environmental Law, the Environment Investigation Agency and GAIA (Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives). The report has the backing of the Break Free from Plastic movement and Greenpeace. Finally, just a few weeks ago, the Nordic Council of Ministers rolled out a 148-page report that provides a suggested framework and positioning for a future treaty.

These reports reveal that there is already alignment on some fundamental points. First, they all call for harmonized reporting on plastics throughout their life cycle, making it possible to account for everything that is being made and how it is handled. This requires a standardization of terms for all things plastic, so regions and stakeholders all speak the same language.

Second, all the reports recommend national action plans, where each country sets up its own plans to manage waste based on minimum requirements, much as nations do with greenhouse gas emissions under the Paris accord. Finally, the reports agree that scientific panels should monitor progress globally, and a financial mechanism must support developing countries and distribute funds internationally.

BRIDGING THE ACTIVIST-INDUSTRY DIVIDE

While environmental organizations (like OPLN member Greenpeace) and industry groups (like OPLN member American Chemistry Council) may agree on some of the basic structures of a global agreement there are still challenging issues to address.

Environmental groups call for mandatory plastic reduction goals and enforceable mechanisms in the treaty, as well as limits on new fossil fuel–derived virgin plastic production.

Meanwhile, many industry groups believe a treaty can be successful without mandatory reduction goals and heavily emphasize the expansion of advanced recycling or chemical recycling technologies. Many environmental activist groups see the advanced recycling models as a license to continue with the status quo on consumption.

A landmark report from the Pew Charitable Trusts, SYSTEMIQ and various academic partners, titled “Breaking the Plastic Wave,” points toward a way to help bridge this divide: we need to dramatically ramp up both upstream solutions such as reduction goals championed by environmental groups and downstream solutions championed by industry, including fixing our broken mechanical recycling system and investing in new technologies.

SPEEDING UP GLOBAL TREATIES

How long will bridging this divide take? The road to the Paris Agreement actually began in 1991 with the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, and continued with the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, and the failed meetings in Copenhagen in 2009. The Paris Agreement was finally signed in 2016, 25 years after the first framework was agreed upon.

The Montreal Protocol, which has been instrumental in repairing our ozone layer, was signed in 1987, 14 years after CFCs were posited to pose a danger—speedy by U.N. standards. A high seas treaty to conserve marine biological diversity in international waters has been under discussion for 12 years now.

However, there is a precedent for greater speed when the issue is plastic. The Basel plastic amendments included plastic waste in a legally binding framework to make global trade in plastic waste more transparent and better regulated. This was a major accomplishment, and the time between the first proposal and unanimous adoption by governments was just eight months, previously an unheard-of timeframe in which to negotiate an international agreement.

Reports such as “Breaking the Plastic Wave” tell us we’re running out of time. We must rapidly accelerate both upstream and downstream solutions to have any chance of solving this crisis. If we delay dramatic action by just five years and maintain current government and industry commitments, an additional 80 million metric tons of plastic will end up in the ocean by 2040 (or about half of all the plastic that has accumulated from the start of the plastics era up to now).

This article originally appeared on scientificamerican.com

Microplastic particles have been revealed in the placentas of unborn babies for the first time, which the researchers said was “a matter of great concern”.

The health impact of microplastics on the body is as yet unknown. But the scientists said they could carry chemicals that could cause long-term damage or upset the foetus’s developing immune system. The particles are likely to have been consumed or breathed in by the mothers.

The particles were found in the placentas of four healthy women who had normal pregnancies and births. Microplastics were detected on both the foetal and maternal sides of the placenta and in the membrane within which the foetus develops.

A dozen plastic particles were found. Only about 4% of each placenta was analysed, however, suggesting the total number of microplastics was much higher. All the particles analysed were plastics that had been dyed blue, red, orange or pink and may have originally come from packaging, paints or cosmetics, and personal care products.

The microplastics were mostly 10 microns in size (0.01mm), meaning they are small enough to be carried in the bloodstream. The particles may have entered the babies’ bodies, but the researchers were unable to assess this.

“It is like having a cyborg baby: no longer composed only of human cells, but a mixture of biological and inorganic entities,” said Antonio Ragusa, director of obstetrics and gynaecology at the San Giovanni Calibita Fatebenefratelli hospital in Rome, and who led the study. “The mothers were shocked.”

In the study, published in the journal Environment International, the researchers concluded: “Due to the crucial role of placenta in supporting the foetus’s development and in acting as an interface with the external environment, the presence of potentially harmful plastic particles is a matter of great concern. Further studies need to be performed to assess if the presence of microplastics may trigger immune responses or may lead to the release of toxic contaminants, resulting in harm.”

The potential effects of microplastics on foetuses include reduced foetal growth, they said. The particles were not found in placentas from two other women in the study, which may be the result of different physiology, diet, or lifestyle, the scientists said.

Microplastics pollution has reached every part of the planet, from the summit of Mount Everest to the deepest oceans. People are already known to consume the tiny particles via food and water, and to breathe them in.

Their effect in the body is unknown but scientists say there is an urgent need to assess the issue, particularly for infants. In October, scientists revealed that babies fed formula milk in plastic bottles are swallowing millions of particles a day. In 2019, researchers reported the discovery of air pollution particles on the foetal side of placentas, indicating that unborn babies are also exposed to the dirty air produced by motor traffic and fossil fuel burning.

The Italian researchers used a plastic-free protocol to deliver the babies in order to prevent any contamination of the placentas. Obstetricians and midwives used cotton gloves to assist the women in labour and only cotton towels were used in the delivery room.

Andrew Shennan, professor of obstetrics at King’s College London, told the Daily Mail it was reassuring that the babies in the study had normal births but “it is obviously preferable not to have foreign bodies while the baby is developing”.

Elizabeth Salter Green, at the chemicals charity Chem Trust, said: “Babies are being born pre-polluted. The study was very small but nevertheless flags a very worrying concern.”

A separate recent study showed that nanoparticles of plastic inhaled by pregnant laboratory rats were detected in the liver, lungs, heart, kidney, and brain of their foetuses.

More than 400 million tons of plastic are produced worldwide every year, a figure making heads spin. On the occasion of its brand-new campaign Break The Plastic Wave, Surfrider Europe, in cooperation with Rethink Plastic alliance, is warning us against plastic fake outs often displayed as solutions to fight against this modern times plague and is highlighting true solutions to plastic solution. 

#1 Relying on recycling to eliminate all our plastic waste

Here is the most widespread fake out: recycling is THE solution. Don’t be mistaken, recycling is a good idea. It would be counter-productive to say otherwise. However, it will not save our planet from all the plastic wastes thrown away every day. The main reason: it is today impossible to recycle all plastic products. Why? First, there are too many kinds of plastics, mixed with all kinds of other materials, recycling them is then too complex. Secondly, recycling certain types of plastics is unfortunately not profitable… That is why lots of manufacturers like virgin plastic better as it is less costly. In addition, recycling doesn’t allow a full material recovery, is not always harmless, and is certainly not infinite. Finally, and foremost, because plastic quantities have become too big… Sent across the world by Western countries, most of their waste is piling up in Asia.

The true solution? Limit plastic production and consumption above all. Indeed, “recycling everything” is not the solution to plastic pollution. However, act at the source by limiting plastic consumption is to be paired up with Manufacturer plastic production reduction. And that can really change things. Ocean’s Zero is there to help you.

Marketing campaigns from certain manufacturers want us to believe that bioplastics would deteriorate more easily and have a low impact on the environment. False! First, it is good to know that bioplastics cover 2 types of plastics: bio-based plastics and biodegradable plastics. Bio-based plastics do not mean without fossil fuels and organic materials used partly for their production are mostly dependent on intensive agriculture, particularly harmful for the environment. Then, biodegradable plastics, are neither deteriorated in the environment nor in the ocean, but only in very specific conditions, and of course, not in a snap. Meanwhile, they have enough time to impact marine life.

Surfrider Europe shines a light on these misleading practices and encourages not to be fooled by marketing. Rather than replacing single-use plastic with another, as a consumer, we reduce at the source and favor reusable or bulk. We also ask for strong measures from our decision-makers to limit misleading messages and single-use plastics, including bio-based and biodegradable plastics.

Plant-Based Plastics – Perfect Solution Or Problem?

Following what has been called the ‘Attenborough effect’, consumers are abandoning plastic due to a growing awareness of its impact on the environment.

Consumers are making easy swaps to plastic-free products – so businesses are responding by changing the materials they use.

So-called ‘eco-friendly plastics’ are popping up everywhere – from compostable, to plant-based, to biodegradable – But what are they; how are we supposed to dispose of them; and are they too good to be true?

Plastic – miracle material or dangerous litter?

When plastic was first invented in the late 19^th century, it was celebrated as a miracle material. It has helped us preserve and transport food; it has reduced the spread of disease; and it has brought us light-weight, more fuel efficient transport.

But the problem isn’t the material itself. It’s the way we use it. We waste finite fossil fuels to produce items that are used just once, sometimes for a few minutes – or just seconds.

When these items end up in the environment – whether in oceans or in landfill – they leach harmful chemicals and cause further damage to our ecosystem.

It’s no surprise that plastic is at the top of the sustainability agenda. With mounting pressure from consumers, conscious competitors and environmental groups, companies are scrambling for alternatives.

“Environmentally-friendly” plastic?

Have you heard of ‘bioplastics’ before? While it may sound eco-friendly, the meaning is quite ambiguous. If a material is a bioplastic, it means that it’s either:

• Plant-based (made in part or completely from organic matter, e.g. sugar cane or corn starch). These plastics are not necessarily biodegradable.
• Is biodegradable (biodegradable plastic can sometimes be made entirely from fossil fuels)
• Is both plant-based and biodegradable

It’s important that as we move into using alternatives, we are aware of what we are consuming and how we should be discarding it. To find out more about bioplastics, check out City to Sea’s blog.

So, what exactly are plant-based plastics?

Plant-based plastic is a type of bioplastic that is created from agricultural scraps, often from corn, sugarcane, wheat or food waste. The term ‘plant-based’ refers to the source of the material itself, not how the resulting plastic will behave after it’s been thrown away.

But, there’s a catch! Only 20% of the ingredients need to be from renewable, organic materials in order for a plastic to be labelled ‘plant-based’. This means the resulting plastic could still be non-biodegradable and be made from up to 80% fossil fuels!

Not so green after all…

The future of plastic

Plant-based plastics seem attractive at first glance – but in order to not dig ourselves further into the hole of global plastic pollution, it’s important that we examine all of the options carefully. As demand grows, we hope that businesses, local councils, and individuals support the options that are best for people and for the planet.

This article originally appeared on natracare.com