Plastics pollution exacerbates the impacts of all planetary boundaries (2024) Published: 22 November 2024 Report Through a review of the scientific literature on the environmental impacts of plastics, the research team shows that plastic pollution is now altering some major processes at the scale of the entire Earth system. This impact extends to global issues like climate change, biodiversity loss, ocean acidification, and the use of freshwater and land.
The Arctic's Plastic Crisis (2024) Published: 1 August 2024 Report A new report from Alaska Community Action on Toxics and IPEN finds that chemicals, plastics, and climate change are interrelated and threaten Arctic Peoples and lands. These forces have combined to poison lands, waters, and traditional foods of Arctic Indigenous Peoples, with ongoing health effects that threaten their cultures and communities.
Clean-ups or cleanwashing? How plastic pollution cleanup technology can actually harm the environment and obstruct policy progress (2023) Published: 5 December 2023 Briefing Paper Plastic clean-ups have proliferated in response to the growing plastic crisis. Such clean-ups may involve large-scale unsupervised methods of plastic collection that do not discriminate between aquatic life, plastic and organic matter. As a result, the rise of these plastic cleanup technologies has raised red flags in civil society and academia.
Oceans - The Mystery of the Missing Plastic (2016) Published: 16 October 2023 Film Plastic never deteriorates, it simply breaks down into smaller and smaller particles that are invisible to the human eye. In this investigation, scientists search for the microplastic in the ocean. Small, mostly invisible, toxic, it has found a new home: the plastisphere.
Underwater dumps: the plastic siege on biodiversity (2022) Published: 14 October 2023 Report This report reviews the damage to various types of biogenic habitats, lists international obligations to protect those with the greatest biodiversity or fragility, and outlines actions that can be taken locally to complement policies aimed at stemming the flow of waste at the source.
Convention on Plastic Pollution - Plastic Treaty Essential Elements: Reporting and Monitoring (2022) Published: 28 July 2023 Position Paper This part of the Plastic Treaty Essential Elements series explains why a good reporting and monitoring framework is so important for the new international legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution, and what it should look like.
UNEA Resolution 5/14 entitled “End plastic pollution: Towards an international legally binding instrument” (2022) Published: 28 July 2023 UNEP-Programme The official document of resolution 5/14 "End plastic pollution: towards an international legally binding instrument", adopted by the United Nations Environment Assembly on 2 March 2022.
Neglected: Environmental Justice Impacts of Marine Litter and Plastic Pollution (2021) Published: 26 July 2023 Report This report directly responds to the UNEA resolution 2/11. It aims to clarify the interlinkages between environmental justice and plastic pollution, and also examines impacts of plastic pollution on people’s rights and health.
Unpacked! Plastic, waste, & me Published: 27 December 2022 Book The digital edition of the book includes all infographics, facts, and stories on a website.
Plastic Atlas Published: 21 October 2019 Atlas The Plastic Atlas provides facts and figures about the world of synthetic polymers. ➢ Download or order now!