Minderoo-Monaco Commission: plastics harm health at every stage of their life
The first full-lifecycle medical review found plastics cause disease from oil extraction through manufacturing, use and disposal.
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More than 16,000 chemicals are used in plastics, and a quarter are of concern
The PlastChem report found far more chemicals in plastics than regulators assumed, with over 4,200 hazardous and fewer than 6% regulated internationally.
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EU cuts the ‘safe’ dose of bisphenol A (BPA) 20,000-fold and then bans it in food packaging
The European Food Safety Authority concluded that dietary BPA exposure exceeds the new safe level by hundreds of times in every age group.
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Sewage sludge fertiliser leaves farmland with microplastics for decades
A 25-year field study found sludge application raised soil microplastic levels by up to 1,445%, persisting for at least 22 years.
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Making virgin plastic emits 5.3% of global greenhouse gases outside farming and land use
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found plastic production emitted 2.24 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases in 2019, measured as the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2)…
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Plastics’ carbon footprint doubled in 20 years as production moved to coal power
ETH Zurich researchers found plastics accounted for 4.5% of global emissions in 2015, with coal-based emissions quadrupling since 1995.
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Global plastics treaty: still no agreement, next formal round March 2027
Four years after the UN mandate, negotiations have collapsed twice over production caps and chemicals, and a new chair is trying to restart them.
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EU Single-Use Plastics Directive: bans, tethered caps and bottle targets
The EU’s 2019 directive banned ten single-use items, made tethered caps mandatory from 2024 and set 90% bottle collection by 2029.
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EU Packaging Regulation applies from August 2026: all packaging recyclable by 2030
The Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) sets binding reuse targets, bans single-use plastic for small fresh produce and hotel miniatures from 2030, and…
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England’s plastic bag charge cut single-use bag sales at the main supermarkets by 98%
The main 7 supermarkets sold 126 million single-use bags in 2025/26, down from 7.6 billion in 2014, before the charge. All 94 reporting retailers…