Negotiators have been given a broad mandate to target plastic trash in all its forms — not just bottles and straws in the ocean, but invisible microplastics polluting the air, soil and food chain.
A report due to be presented to the UN Human Rights Council is urging action against pollution that is causing widespread violations of the human right to a clean environment.
A new rule at San Francisco International Airport will be banning the sale of single-use plastic bottles as part of a five-year plan to lower landfill waste, net carbon emissions and net energy use to zero.
The isthmus nation of roughly 4 million people joined more than 60 other countries that have totally or partially banned single-use plastic bags, or introduced taxes to dissuade their use, including Chile and Colombia in the region.
On a recent expedition to Greenland, TRT World correspondent Andrea Sanke saw how some countries and landscapes are suffering as global temperatures rise, and makes a very personal plea.
"I am very pleased to announce that as early as 2021 Canada will ban harmful, single-use plastics from coast to coast," says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
"Today, 13,000,000 tonnes of plastic leak into the oceans every year, what among other damage, kill 100,000 marine animals annually," the UN says.
TRT World visited one of Argentina’s most contaminated cities, Palpala, where 70 years of poor or a non-existent environmental policy and rampant corruption have had a deadly impact on the local population.
Ever since China banned imports of almost all recycled waste, piles of trash have begun appearing around big cities in South Korea.
Behavioural change is essential to mitigate the effects of climate change, but sustainable change will only come when governments and corporations change their behaviour.
Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger once dismissed Bangladesh as a "basket case." After a second look now, he may want to take his words back.
Supermarket workers bear the brunt of an angry consumer backlash over moves to ban single-use plastic bags in Australia. More than eight million tonnes of plastic ends up in the world's oceans each year.
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