<
https://www.positive.news/society/has-plastic-pollution-reached-its-tipping-point/>
"It’s all over our homes, in the clothes on our backs, and is vital to the
operation of global trade, including the food system. Yet plastic – once hailed
as a miracle material – is now causing enormous damage to the environment, not
only through the carbon required to produce it, but also via the pollution it
creates.
On 25 November, members of the United Nation’s environment committee will meet
in South Korea to finalise the Global Plastic Treaty, with the document due to
be signed in 2025. This legally binding agreement follows on from the end
plastic pollution resolution, which was adopted in 2022, and will cover all
stages of plastic production, use and waste management.
The treaty’s focus on better product design, comprehensive recycling and
eliminating all non-essential single-use plastics will require innovative
solutions. Luckily, many new ideas developed by scientists, designers and
engineers are already in the pipeline.
Novel technologies that rely on unlikely ingredients such as food waste, fungus
and friendly bacteria have the potential to revolutionise industries such as
packaging and textiles. Which is fortunate, because there’s no time to waste –
the world currently produces around 435m metric tonnes of plastic each year,
according to a recent report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD), with production projected to rise to 736m metric tonnes by
2040 if we continue at current rates. Of this total, around half are
single-use."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
