Latest news with #plasticpollution
Yahoo
19 hours ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Scientists make concerning discovering about hidden dangers lurking in recycling bins: 'This is the main obstacle'
Scientists make concerning discovering about hidden dangers lurking in recycling bins: 'This is the main obstacle' Recycling is a core defense against plastic pollution, but that does not mean it is a perfect solution. In fact, a team led by researchers from the University of Gothenburg found some real concerns lurking within recycled plastics. Addressing them is crucial to fulfill the potential of recycling, according to the school's press release. What's happening? To understand global plastic waste better, the scientists collected samples of recycled polyethylene plastic from various parts of the world. They let them soak in water for two days, and when they analyzed the water afterward, they found over 80 different chemicals leached from the plastic. Some were expected ingredients, but others were not supposed to be there, like pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and other toxic substances. These harmful compounds are often added to plastic but are not declared. Some may have also tainted the plastic during its life before it was recycled, the press release explained. Sounds nasty? Unfortunately, there's more. The aim of the new study was to explore the consequences of ingesting all of those chemicals on living organisms. The researchers put zebrafish larvae in the contaminated water for five days. That brief exposure was all it took to disrupt the organisms' hormones and metabolism, per the university. "This is the main obstacle with the idea of recycling plastic," Bethanie Carney Almroth, professor at the University of Gothenburg and project lead, said in a statement. "We never have full knowledge of what chemicals will end up in an item." Why is contaminated recycling important? The prevalence of plastic products in everyday human life was already a concern. Prior research shows that as they slowly break down, they wind up in the environment and our bodies, where they pose serious health risks. The research team's findings offer more evidence of why this plastic is so dangerous, even after it has been recycled. Much like the zebrafish in the study, exposure to the toxic chemicals they found also poses risks to humans' hormones, reproductive health, and metabolism, per the press release. "This work clearly demonstrates the need to address toxic chemicals in plastics materials and products, across their life cycle," Almroth affirmed in the statement. Do you worry about having toxic forever chemicals in your home? Majorly Sometimes Not really I don't know enough about them Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. What's being done to clean up plastic recycling? A global plastics treaty is in the works as a result of United Nations efforts. The presence of toxic chemicals in plastics and the lack of transparency in production lines are priorities in the negotiations. However, you do not need to wait for regulators and politicians to start minimizing your plastic use. Making easy switches from single-use products to reusable ones can save money and help you avoid some of the scary things that end up hiding in plastics. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet. Solve the daily Crossword
The Guardian
2 days ago
- General
- The Guardian
Young, educated and knee deep in rubbish: the recyclers cleaning up in Cairo's Garbage City
When Mina Nedi graduated with a nursing degree last year, his friends and family expected him to start working in one of Egypt's overstretched hospitals. Instead, the 25-year-old decided to join his father's recycling business in Manshiyet Nasr, a neighbourhood on Cairo's eastern outskirts known as Garbage City. Every day, he sorts through thousands of plastic bottles, collected by a team of men who roam the city at night to pick up rubbish, separating them by colour and compressing them into large bundles with the help of a machine, ready to be sold for recycling and reuse. Mina Nedi, 25, has been working as a plastic collector for five years and funded his university education with it What motivated Nedi was not family pressure, but a genuine determination to help the environment. 'Climate change, plastic pollution, microplastics. Awareness is growing among young people in Egypt,' he says. 'Cairo has a waste problem, and I know I can make a difference here. 'To me, it's not garbage, it's income,' says Nedi, 'and an opportunity to keep my city clean.' Manshiyet Nasr, home to about 200,000 people, is known as Cairo's 'Garbage City' Manshiyet Nasr is home to about 200,000 people, many of whom migrated from southern Egypt as early as the 1940s. As Cairo has been growing – it is now home to about 23 million people – so has Manshiyet Nasr. Today the community, often referred to as zabaleen, meaning 'garbage people', handles up to 80% of the city's waste, as well as up to two-thirds of rubbish in the greater Cairo area. Nedi recalls that when a priest in the predominantly Coptic Christian neighbourhood died a few years ago, the community paused work for several days to mourn, and Cairo was quickly 'drowning' in rubbish. Many people in Cairo avoid Manshiyet Nasr due to the piles of stinking rubbish on the streets But despite playing a vital role in keeping Cairo clean, Manshiyet Nasr has long been stigmatised. Most Cairo residents avoid the area, put off by the overwhelming stench of rubbish piled in homes, on rooftops and along the streets, full of rats and cockroaches scavenging for food. Nedi is part of a new, young generation eager to break the stigma his community has been facing for decades. Slowly, it seems to be working. Egypt generates up to 100m tonnes of solid waste annually. And while the country has made refuse a political priority – setting up the Waste Management Regulatory Authority to oversee it – implementation is still difficult due to limited institutional capacity. Families work together as waste collectors in Manshiyet Nasr This, Nedi explains, is where Manshiyet Nasr steps in – and opinions of the area have started to shift. Nedi educates his university friends about recycling being a positive action against plastic pollution 'While I was studying, I worked in recycling part-time to help pay my tuition,' Nedi says, adding that his friends were curious and asked lots of questions. They wanted to learn more and started thinking about reducing their plastic consumption and environmental footprint. 'Recycling is becoming the cool thing to do here in Egypt,' he says. In Manshiyet Nasr, more young people are beginning to share that mindset; seeing recycling not just as a job, but as a way to drive change. Rubbish collectors in Manshiyet Nasr load bags of waste on to pickup trucks 'The climate crisis is intensifying across the globe, including in Egypt, worsening water scarcity, heatwaves and food shortages,' says Will Pearson, co-founder of Ocean Bottle, a London-based startup that sells reusable bottles and funds the removal of plastic equivalent to 1,000 bottles in weight for each one sold, with Manshiyet Nasr among its partner communities. 'Global plastic production emits greenhouse gases equivalent to the world's sixth-largest economy – it's in every way a growing and interconnected part of the problem,' he says. According to the World Bank, the Middle East-north Africa region has the highest per capita footprint of plastic leakage into the marine environment, with the average resident releasing more than 6kg (13lb) of plastic waste into the ocean every year. Irini Edel, 29, is proud of her work as a rubbish collector This is what Irini Edel, 29, who also lives in Manshiyet Nasr, is afraid of. 'We're polluting our planet and that's why I see my work as important. It's for the environment, and I'm proud of it,' she says. She has recently joined Plastic Bank, a social fintech working in Manshiyet Nasr, and with a small team she has hired, she is processing up to 130kg of waste a day. Edel considers herself part of a growing movement of environmentally conscious Egyptians pushing for change. Top: Irini Edel is able to send her daughter, Justia, to school with money earned collecting rubbish; bottom: Emana Mohammed, 28, works as a rubbish collector and Korollus Foad, 21, is a recycler 'I have two young children, and my work is also for them, so they can have a cleaner future,' she says, sitting in her cozy and carefully decorated home. Outside, children play football in the narrow alleys, darting between mounds of rubbish. Pickup trucks constantly arrive, with collectors lifting large bags into their garages and homes to sort through and sell on to companies that will reuse it. Michael Nedi, Mina's 20-year-old brother, says he does not mind living in Manshiyet Nasr. Fathy Rumany, 38, with his wife, Mary, 40 and three children. One of the families working in recycling in Manshiyet Nasr He is studying computer science at university, but outside class, he often talks to friends about recycling and the plastic crisis. 'They respect me for what I do,' he says. 'Young people are more open now, more accepting.' Just upstairs from where he sorts plastic after lectures, the family is renovating their apartment, investing in Manshiyet Nasr for the long run. The ceilings are beautifully decorated; the rooms spacious and bright. 'This is our community and we are proud of it,' he says. Children play outside amid the piles of rubbish
The Independent
2 days ago
- Science
- The Independent
The ‘biodegradable' product that can be terrible for the environment
Have you felt disgust when taking a walk along the riverside or plunging into the sea to escape the summer heat, only to spy a used wet wipe floating along the surface? Or shock at finding out that animals have died choking on plastic products or that the seafood we eat may be contaminated with microfibres? These pollutants are common in our waterways because of the mismanagement of sewage and inappropriate disposal that flush hygiene products and microfibres into rivers and oceans. In the UK alone, more than 11 billion wet wipes are thrown away annually. Wet wipe litter was found on 72% of UK beaches in 2023. They persist because they're made of plastic, a durable material that won't easily degrade. Plastic can last for decades to hundreds of years. Therefore, governments and manufacturers are eagerly encouraging the use of non-plastics as more 'sustainable' alternatives, with the UK banning plastic in wet wipes in 2024. These textiles can be made from plant or animal fibres such as cotton and wool, or they may be chemically and physically modified, such as rayon or viscose. They are often labelled 'biodegradable' on product packaging, suggesting they are environmentally friendly, break down quickly, and are a safe alternative to plastics. But is this really the case? My research focuses on investigating the environmental impact of these non-plastic textiles and their persistence in waterways. My colleagues and I have found that some non-plastic microfibres can be just as problematic or even more harmful than plastic. While non-plastic textiles are not as long-lived as plastics, with many composting within weeks to months, they can last long enough to accumulate and cause damage to plants, animals and humans. Studies by scientists at the University of Stirling show that biodegradable wet wipes can last up to 15 weeks on beaches, where they can act as a reservoir for faecal bacteria and Other studies have highlighted non-plastic textiles lasting for two months or more in rivers and oceans, where they break up into hundreds of thousands of microfibres. These microfibres are so prevalent in waterways that they have contaminated animals across the food chain, from filter-feeding mussels and oysters to top predators such as sharks and the seafood we eat. They are also found in remote locations as far away as the Arctic seafloor and deep sea, thousands of miles from civilisation. These discoveries highlight that non-plastics last longer than we think. The dangers of non-plastics Once exposed to aquatic life, non-plastic microfibres can be easily ingested or inhaled, where they can become trapped in the body and cause damage. During their manufacture, textile fibres can be modified with various chemical additives to improve their function, such as flame retardants, antibacterials, softeners, UV protection and dyes. It is known that several toxic synthetic chemicals, including the plastic additive bisphenol A (BPA), are used for this purpose. These additives can be carcinogenic, cause neurotoxic effects or damage hormonal and reproductive health. Researchers like me, have only just begun to explore the dangers of non-plastics. Some have shown that non-plastic microfibres and their additives can damage the digestive system, cause stress, hinder development and alter immune responses in animals such as shrimp, mussels, and oysters. However, other studies have shown little to no effect of non-plastic microfibres on animals exposed to them. We do not yet know how much of a threat these materials are to the environment. Only the manufacturers know exactly what's in the textiles we use. This makes it hard to understand what threats we are really facing. Nevertheless, assumptions that non-plastics are environmentally friendly and an easy alternative to plastic materials must be challenged and reconsidered. To do this, we need to push for greater transparency in the contents of our everyday items and test them to make sure that they are truly sustainable and won't harm the world around us. So next time you are browsing the supermarket aisles and come across a pack of 'biodegradable' or 'environmentally friendly' wet wipes, just question, are they really?
The Guardian
2 days ago
- General
- The Guardian
Young, educated and knee deep in rubbish: the recyclers cleaning up in Cairo's Garbage City
When Mina Nedi graduated with a nursing degree last year, his friends and family expected him to start working in one of Egypt's overstretched hospitals. Instead, the 25-year-old decided to join his father's recycling business in Manshiyet Nasr, a neighbourhood on Cairo's eastern outskirts known as Garbage City. Every day, he sorts through thousands of plastic bottles, collected by a team of men who roam the city at night to pick up rubbish, separating them by colour and compressing them into large bundles with the help of a machine, ready to be sold for recycling and reuse. Mina Nedi, 25, has been working as a plastic collector for five years and funded his university education with it What motivated Nedi was not family pressure, but a genuine determination to help the environment. 'Climate change, plastic pollution, microplastics. Awareness is growing among young people in Egypt,' he says. 'Cairo has a waste problem, and I know I can make a difference here. 'To me, it's not garbage, it's income,' says Nedi, 'and an opportunity to keep my city clean.' Manshiyet Nasr, home to about 200,000 people, is known as Cairo's 'Garbage City' Manshiyet Nasr is home to about 200,000 people, many of whom migrated from southern Egypt as early as the 1940s. As Cairo has been growing – it is now home to about 23 million people – so has Manshiyet Nasr. Today the community, often referred to as zabaleen, meaning 'garbage people', handles up to 80% of the city's waste, as well as up to two-thirds of rubbish in the greater Cairo area. Nedi recalls that when a priest in the predominantly Coptic Christian neighbourhood died a few years ago, the community paused work for several days to mourn, and Cairo was quickly 'drowning' in rubbish. Many people in Cairo avoid Manshiyet Nasr due to the piles of stinking rubbish on the streets But despite playing a vital role in keeping Cairo clean, Manshiyet Nasr has long been stigmatised. Most Cairo residents avoid the area, put off by the overwhelming stench of rubbish piled in homes, on rooftops and along the streets, full of rats and cockroaches scavenging for food. Nedi is part of a new, young generation eager to break the stigma his community has been facing for decades. Slowly, it seems to be working. Egypt generates up to 100m tonnes of solid waste annually. And while the country has made refuse a political priority – setting up the Waste Management Regulatory Authority to oversee it – implementation is still difficult due to limited institutional capacity. Families work together as waste collectors in Manshiyet Nasr This, Nedi explains, is where Manshiyet Nasr steps in – and opinions of the area have started to shift. Nedi educates his university friends about recycling being a positive action against plastic pollution 'While I was studying, I worked in recycling part-time to help pay my tuition,' Nedi says, adding that his friends were curious and asked lots of questions. They wanted to learn more and started thinking about reducing their plastic consumption and environmental footprint. 'Recycling is becoming the cool thing to do here in Egypt,' he says. In Manshiyet Nasr, more young people are beginning to share that mindset; seeing recycling not just as a job, but as a way to drive change. Rubbish collectors in Manshiyet Nasr load bags of waste on to pickup trucks 'The climate crisis is intensifying across the globe, including in Egypt, worsening water scarcity, heatwaves and food shortages,' says Will Pearson, co-founder of Ocean Bottle, a London-based startup that sells reusable bottles and funds the removal of plastic equivalent to 1,000 bottles in weight for each one sold, with Manshiyet Nasr among its partner communities. 'Global plastic production emits greenhouse gases equivalent to the world's sixth-largest economy – it's in every way a growing and interconnected part of the problem,' he says. According to the World Bank, the Middle East-north Africa region has the highest per capita footprint of plastic leakage into the marine environment, with the average resident releasing more than 6kg (13lb) of plastic waste into the ocean every year. Irini Edel, 29, is proud of her work as a rubbish collector This is what Irini Edel, 29, who also lives in Manshiyet Nasr, is afraid of. 'We're polluting our planet and that's why I see my work as important. It's for the environment, and I'm proud of it,' she says. She has recently joined Plastic Bank, a social fintech working in Manshiyet Nasr, and with a small team she has hired, she is processing up to 130kg of waste a day. Edel considers herself part of a growing movement of environmentally conscious Egyptians pushing for change. Top: Irini Edel is able to send her daughter, Justia, to school with money earned collecting rubbish; bottom: Emana Mohammed, 28, works as a rubbish collector and Korollus Foad, 21, is a recycler 'I have two young children, and my work is also for them, so they can have a cleaner future,' she says, sitting in her cozy and carefully decorated home. Outside, children play football in the narrow alleys, darting between mounds of rubbish. Pickup trucks constantly arrive, with collectors lifting large bags into their garages and homes to sort through and sell on to companies that will reuse it. Michael Nedi, Mina's 20-year-old brother, says he does not mind living in Manshiyet Nasr. Fathy Rumany, 38, with his wife, Mary, 40 and three children. One of the families working in recycling in Manshiyet Nasr He is studying computer science at university, but outside class, he often talks to friends about recycling and the plastic crisis. 'They respect me for what I do,' he says. 'Young people are more open now, more accepting.' Just upstairs from where he sorts plastic after lectures, the family is renovating their apartment, investing in Manshiyet Nasr for the long run. The ceilings are beautifully decorated; the rooms spacious and bright. 'This is our community and we are proud of it,' he says. Children play outside amid the piles of rubbish
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Never before seen photos of six-tonne find on Aussie coast exposes growing crisis
More than six tonnes of rubbish were hauled off an Australian coastline recently, and authorities are warning it's only a drop in the ocean when it comes to how huge the growing pollution problem has become. Everything from fishing nets, bottles, toothbrushes, food packaging and vapes was removed from eight kilometres of the Northeast Arnhem Land coastline in the Northern Territory, with dead wildlife also caught up in the debris. Footage captured during the annual clean-up effort by Dhimurru Rangers and Sea Shepherd Australia in May, shows mountains of litter on the beaches, with 274,288 individual pieces removed. The majority of the discarded waste was plastic (96 per cent), while the remaining rubbish was made up of ropes — all of which contain plastic pieces. Authorities made up of 31 environment and First Nations groups are urging the federal government to finalise a Global Plastic Treaty in a desperate bid to address the devastating impact of pollution on native wildlife and the environment. Australia at 'tipping point' with plastic pollution More than 130,000 tonnes of plastic leak into Australia's oceans every year, according to the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW), and the issue is only being exacerbated without a global action plan to tackle the problem. Cip Hamilton from the Australian Marine Conservation Society said Australia is well and truly in a plastic crisis now, with the most recent clean-up effort serving as a reminder that we're at a "tipping point". "Without global action, plastic production is projected to triple by 2060, which would send plastic pollution spiralling out of control," she said. "The time for compromise is over. Plastic pollution is choking our oceans, killing marine life, and threatening ecosystems from coast to coast." "Australia must use all diplomatic means to finalise a strong, legally binding plastics treaty at international negotiations next month." The third UN Ocean Conference kicked off last month in France, with 95 countries, including Australia, in support of a global action plan. However, it remains to be seen whether the momentum will carry into next month when the second half of the negotiations are held in Switzerland. Indigenous Australians suffering from plastic pollution crisis Indigenous Australians are speaking out about how painful the issue is to their communities, with intense connections to the land and water being compromised. The clean-up mission, which has been an annual event for over two decades, has seen Dhimurru Rangers remove countless ghost nets and marine debris from Yolŋu Sea Country. 🚮 Simple bin mistake forces entire truckloads to be dumped in landfill 😲 Incredible transformation after grim 7.6 tonne find in river 👀 Dangerous discovery made 30cm under Aussie garden "The ocean is our law, our food, our stories, and our future. When plastic floods our coastline, it damages more than the environment — it damages who we are," a spokesperson for the Dhimurru Rangers said. "Don't let the tide of plastic rise. Finalise a strong plastics treaty now." Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@ You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube.
