September 2026 : Environment news round-up

by Fayrouz on 29/09/2026 No comments

Our round-up of the month’s most important stories.

McDonald’s must switch to reusable cups in the Netherlands

Acting on an enforcement request from an environmental NGO, Dutch authorities found that the chain had been breaking plastic packaging laws in place since 2024. They must now provide reusable cups for dine-in customers by January 2027, or face fines of up to €3.75 million.

Almost 900 pieces of plastic found inside a single seabird

A 15-year study tracking plastic in shearwaters in Australia has found a record-breaking 894 pieces of plastic in one young bird – the equivalent of finding 12kg of plastic inside an 80kg human. The birds’ plastic consumption has increased dramatically over the last 5 years.

Why are plastics companies writing school lesson plans?

US industry groups are supplying teachers with free learning resources that cast plastic as safe, essential and recyclable, according to a new report, which also finds this happens most in school districts near petrochemical facilities. Senior educators have described the industry curricula as propaganda masquerading as science.

Microplastics in soil act like a Trojan horse to spread toxins

A five-year project found particles in all 227 agricultural fields tested across 11 countries, and warns their surfaces create a hotspot for interactions between plastic chemicals, microbes, pesticides and veterinary drugs, causing serious harm to the soil microbiome.

UN experts call for a blanket ban on non-essential use of forever chemicals

A report presented to the Human Rights Council says we cannot wait for conclusive proof of toxicity before acting to reduce PFAS exposure. Tracking long term accumulation is highly complex, but there is already enough evidence of harm for states to take action.

New species and old litter found 4,000 metres under the sea

Scientists exploring the Mar Del Plata canyon floor were able to document 40 previously unknown species, but on more than half their dives also found plastic pollution, including bags, fishing gear and snack wrappers.

Every month we round up the top stories from the world of plastic pollution – and the work being done to stop it. From aquatic pollution to zero waste, you’ll always be up to date with the latest research, trends and greenwashing tactics.

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Microplastics in ultra-processed food: a toxic relationship on our plate

by Fayrouz on 24/09/2026 No comments

We already know ultra-processed food isn’t good for us. Instant noodles, packaged snacks, ready meals and sugary drinks: more than 75 long-term studies have now linked these foods to a long list of harms, from heart disease and diabetes to cancer and poor mental health. Unhealthy diets, in which ultra-processed foods play a major role, are tied to one in five deaths worldwide.

But there’s a second problem hiding in the same packaging, and it’s one we talk about far less. Ultra-processed foods and plastic are, in the words of one recent scientific review, in a “toxic relationship”: a co-dependent pair that generates enormous profits for both the food and petrochemical industries, at a growing cost to our health and the planet.

Why the two go hand in hand

Cheap, light and endlessly versatile, plastic is what makes ultra-processed food possible. It wraps it, preserves it, and carries the bright branding that sells it. It lets manufacturers stretch supply chains across the world, extend shelf life and reach even the poorest consumers, all at very low cost. Around 83% of flexible food packaging and nearly half of all rigid food packaging is plastic, and ultra-processed products are commonly encased in it.

But the link runs deeper than convenience: the two industries need each other.

Ultra-processed foods generate large and reliable profits for big food corporations: made from low cost and often addictive ingredients, portioned up, and sold as widely as possible. Cheap plastic is what makes that business model work.

Meanwhile ultra-processed foods give the petrochemical industry a vast and growing market for its plastic, at a time when the world is decarbonising and the energy and transport sectors are increasingly moving away from fossil fuels. The result is a profitable partnership, that neither side has much reason to give up, whatever the cost to our health or the environment.

Photo by Nico Smit on Unsplash

What’s the problem with the packaging?

That close contact also comes at a price. Plastic contains upwards of 16,000 chemicals, at least a quarter of which are known to be hazardous, like BPA, phthalates and PFAS “forever chemicals”, with the majority of the rest untested. It is also constantly shedding micro- and nanoplastics, through simple friction, heat or fragmentation.

Chemicals can migrate out of plastic packaging and into the food inside through surface contact, or through particles shedded during manufacturing and use. They migrate most efficiently in exactly the conditions ultra-processed foods supply: long storage times, small packet sizes, in contact with oily or acidic contents, or with food that is heated up in the pack.

You can see this in the food itself. In a 2024 study by Ocean Conservancy and the University of Toronto, researchers tested 16 common protein products and found microplastics in more than 90% of them, with the more processed items carrying more. Chicken nuggets, for example, contained roughly 30 times more microplastic particles per gram than plain chicken breast. And heat makes it worse: the chemicals and particles in plastic leach into food more readily at higher temperatures – one reason not to pack, microwave or serve hot food in plastic.

Adding plastic chemicals to the existing health burden of ultra processed foods, with their high calories, low nutritional value and artificial additives, is unlikely to be good news.

What we don’t know yet

That microplastics and plastic chemicals get into our food is well established. What they do to human health over a lifetime is not. The evidence on microplastics’ health effects is, as the researchers themselves put it, “not yet conclusive.” Animal studies point strongly to possible risks for digestive, reproductive and respiratory health, hormone disruption and cancer. But there are limitations on human studies, due to the complexities of the chemicals involved, their interaction and accumulation, as well as the ethics of testing and available funding. The European Food Safety Authority, the EU’s official food-safety body, says it cannot yet draw firm conclusions, and its full risk assessment isn’t expected until the end of 2027. So we don’t yet have the proof to panic about our dinner, but we should still be paying attention to what’s on our plate.

The unpackaged alternative

The food that carries the least plastic tends to be the food that’s better for us anyway: fresh, whole, minimally packaged ingredients, cooked from scratch.

None of this requires a special shop or a big budget: buy loose fruit and vegetables where you can, never heat or microwave food in plastic. Keep leftovers in glass, steel or ceramic instead of plastic tubs. Each of these small choices lowers your exposure to both microplastics and packaging chemicals, and nudges your diet in a healthier direction at the same time.

It’s a reminder that traditional ways of eating, built around unpackaged, local, whole foods, had something right long before “ultra-processed” was ever a word. Less plastic in, less plastic out.

The real fix: cut it at the source

Individual choices help, and they’re genuinely worth making. But as the researchers behind the “toxic relationship” review put it plainly, consumers don’t have the power to solve a problem of this scale. That responsibility lies with policymakers.

The long term solution is to redesign the industrialised system that ties food and plastic together in the first place. That means shifting towards fresh, whole and minimally processed foods that need shorter supply chains and far less packaging; scaling up reuse and refill systems in place of single-use wrapping; and holding companies accountable for the true costs of the products they sell, rather than leaving those costs to fall on our health and our environment. It also means a strong Global Plastics Treaty that limits plastic production at source and takes a full life-cycle approach, alongside proper testing and transparency for the chemicals allowed near our food. The EU has already shown that regulation can work, restricting intentionally added microplastics in products and forever chemicals in food contact materials.

Caring about what’s on our plate and caring about plastic pollution were never two separate issues. They’re the same fight: for our health and for the health of the planet.

***

Yates, J., Kadiyala, S., Deeney, M., Carriedo, A., Gillespie, S., Heindel, J.J., Maffini, M.V., Martin, O., Monteiro, C.A., Scheringer, M., Touvier, M., & Muncke, J. (2024). “A toxic relationship: ultra-processed foods & plastics.” Globalization and Health, 20:74. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-024-01078-0

Baechler, B.R., Granek, E.F., Mazzotta, M., et al. (Ocean Conservancy & University of Toronto) (2024). “Microplastic concentrations in commonly consumed proteins.” Environmental Pollution. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0269749123022352

European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). “Microplastics and nanoplastics in food.” https://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/topics/microplastics-and-nanoplastics-food

European Commission. “Global action on plastics.” https://environment.ec.europa.eu/topics/plastics/global-action-plastics_en

August 2026 : Environment news round-up

by Fayrouz on 27/08/2026 No comments

Our round-up of the month’s most important stories.

Forever chemicals now banned from EU food packaging

The landmark ruling is an important step in protecting public health and the environment from these harmful and unnecessary chemicals; further measures being introduced include bans on certain single-use items and support for reuse and refill.

One year on, the plastics treaty is “going backwards”

A year after talks collapsed, a new document resulting from closed-door discussions reads like the same industry wishlist that was roundly rejected in Geneva. Key measures addressing production, chemicals and human health are still missing.

New study links microplastics to ALS

Italian researchers found nearly twice the level of micro- and nanoplastics in the spinal fluid of ALS patients as in people without the disease, suggesting the particles may be a risk factor or potential trigger.

Malaysia returns over 3,000 tonnes of e-waste

Following a ban on e-waste imports in April, Malaysian authorities have uncovered 100s of falsely declared containers, and shipped them back to their countries of origin; but enforcers admit that this is just a drop in the ocean of the illegal waste trade.

Massive plastic pellet spill devastates English coast

The preventable spill of 17 tonnes of “nurdles” at Port of Tyne provoked an incredible volunteer cleanup response after authorities were slow to act. Calls for regulation of pellet transport have intensified following the disaster.

Plastic has infiltrated Amazonian wildlife

Microplastics have been found in fish, tapirs, crabs and bats deep in the Amazon, far from any city. In one lake, eight in ten fish had plastic inside them, and birds are now building nests from plastic instead of twigs.

Every month we round up the top stories from the world of plastic pollution – and the work being done to stop it. From aquatic pollution to zero waste, you’ll always be up to date with the latest research, trends and greenwashing tactics.

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One Year Since the Plastics Treaty Talks Collapsed. Has Anything Changed?

by Fayrouz on 26/08/2026 No comments

In August 2025, negotiators gathered in Geneva for INC-5.2, the session meant to deliver the world’s first legally binding treaty on plastic pollution. After 10 tense days of talks, more than 80 countries rejected the Chair’s final proposed draft as “unacceptable”: it set no limits on plastic production and barely addressed the chemicals of concern that make plastic pollution hazardous. The talks collapsed without agreement, no new date was set, and two months later the Chair resigned.

A year on, has the process actually moved forward, or simply moved rooms?

A new Chair, and a series of closed-door meetings

Julio Cordano of Chile was elected the new Chair of the INC in February 2026. Since then, negotiators have held several virtual meetings and one in-person gathering of Heads of Delegation. All were closed-door: no observers or press in the room.

For a treaty intended to affect every person in the world, that absence is significant. Civil society groups, scientists, Indigenous Peoples, waste pickers and other rights holders who have engaged with the process since its start have been systematically excluded from the sessions where the substance is being decided.

The new text

This closed-door process produced its first tangible output this month: an “Aid to Negotiations” text, which the Chair described as an informal reference document meant to facilitate future talks and hold “no surprises” for delegations.

The response from those who have reviewed it was critical: Break Free From Plastic members called the text a step backward that undermines the credibility of the negotiating process, arguing it fails to reflect the input gathered from member states over the past year. France described it as “disappointing” and Micronesia said it was a “lowest common denominator” document.

The Center for International Environmental Law said it had weakened ambition rather than building on the political will for strong measures already shown.

Independent legal and scientific reviewers say the new text closely resembles, and in some areas is significantly weaker than, the draft rejected a year ago. In other words, a year of private consultations has not moved the needle in any significant way.

The unresolved question

Beneath this stasis sits the dispute that sank INC-5.2: should the treaty address plastic production, or only “mismanaged” plastic waste?

The majority of states align with the treaty’s mandate to address harms across the full life cycle of plastic. They argue that a credible treaty must include production limits, on the grounds that plastic pollution starts at extraction, and downstream cleanup cannot keep pace with continued growth in production.

A smaller bloc, led by major oil- and petrochemical-producing states, wants the treaty’s scope limited to downstream measures: waste management, recycling, and litter reduction. They claim that plastic brings immense benefits to society and is essential for “development”, while denying the science on microplastics, toxicity and human health impacts.

With this “like-minded” group also exercising their veto power at every opportunity, it is hard to see a way out of this impasse within the UN process, unless a vote (allowed in the rules of procedure) is called at the next talks.

Why production is the central issue

Global plastic production is projected to nearly triple by 2060 under current trends, by which time its emissions would be eating up almost a third of the global carbon budget designed to limit climate breakdown. Recycling plastic is inefficient and problematic, and no realistic expansion of waste infrastructure can keep up with production, nor mitigate the harms of the material itself on ecosystems and human health.

A treaty that only addresses waste management, without tackling the source of the problem – the amount and toxicity of what is produced in the first place – would be failing the world. The “Aid to Negotiations” text is on course to do just that.

What’s next

The calendar for the coming months is already set:

27–30 September 2026: Heads of Delegation closed-door talks in Bangkok
25 January – 2 February 2027: various closed-door informal consultations
13–24 March 2027: INC-5.4, the next formal negotiating session

This gives negotiators roughly six months to break the deadlock.

The bottom line

A new Chair, months of private meetings, and a text that resembles the one states already rejected. One year later, the process is still being undermined by the plastics industry.

Ambitious countries must continue to insist that the central question of whether the treaty should tackle production or just waste management, is answered by the UN mandate: to end plastic pollution “based on a comprehensive approach that addresses the full life cycle of plastic”.

Sources: Break Free From Plastic, “BFFP members denounce plastic treaty Chair text” (Aug 2026); Center for International Environmental Law, “Chair’s Latest Global Plastics Treaty Draft is a Lowest-Common Denominator Text” and “What to Watch for in the New ‘No Surprises’ Plastics Treaty Draft” (Aug 2026); Environmental Investigation Agency via Oceanographic Magazine; Climate Home News, “‘We’ve gone backwards’ – new plastics treaty text dims hopes for production curbs” (Aug 2026); Geneva Environment Network / UNEP INC meeting notifications.

Meet the businesses refusing to sell plastic bottled water

by Fayrouz on 07/08/2026 No comments

Safe, drinkable tap water is a privilege much of the world doesn’t have. While solutions like refillable purified water tanks or simply boiling water exist for households and businesses, consuming water while out and about usually involves single-use plastic. After picking up thousands of these bottles on beaches, we decided to create the Trash Hero Water Refill Network in 2014: a simple way to prevent plastic bottle waste, by bringing together businesses willing to offer free water refills to customers.

We encourage businesses to sign up to the network by offering a free listing on our online refill map and promoting their efforts on local social media channels. To support the move to refill for both the businesses and their customers, Trash Hero optionally provides high quality stainless steel water bottles at cost price. By selling the bottles to customers with a small profit, the cost of providing the water is covered. Customers benefit from having a cool reusable bottle and free refills through the network for life.

But who are the businesses to agree to support this scheme? And what motivated them to join?

Meet our refill point partners

Four business owners in Indonesia with four different entry points. For Tiwi at Toko Organis in Bandung, West Java, it started after experiencing frustration as a thirsty customer. “Why do we provide a refill point? Because we ourselves felt helped when refill points started showing up around Bandung,” she says. She’d felt the gap firsthand.

For Berdhi, offering a refill point was a statement of his principles. When he opened Massida Café in Ende, Flores, he built a no bottled water rule into the business from day one. To him, it was never optional. “This actually shows that our business also cares about environmental issues, especially plastic waste,” he says.

Lidya found Trash Hero organically, through Bali’s environmental community, and the fit was immediate. “We happened to meet people from the activist community in Bali, and that’s how we were introduced to the refill point concept, which happened to match our vision exactly, the vision of Bali Refill Station to reduce plastic waste, especially in the Bali area.”

And as for Ilham in Bandung, reuse was a habit long before his business even existed . Years of hiking and outdoor activities had already made washing his own gear second nature. So when he opened a restaurant, Dapur CPH, single-use plastic never quite made sense to him. “First, I’m not really a take-away user myself. Second, because I exercise and move outdoors almost every day, especially back when I used to hike mountains, I was already used to washing things myself. In terms of product cost, we didn’t want extra cost from using plastic, so we chose to wash everything instead. I’d feel guilty if there was a lot of waste.”

All feel that the choice they made is having an impact. At Massida Café, the proof came from some visiting customers from Korea. “When they saw the Trash Hero concept, they were pretty happy because it reminded them of the restaurant system back home, where free drinking water is almost always available,” Berdhi says. At Dapur CPH, Ilham reflects, “some customers have started to bring their own food containers, and I think, with the trend of aesthetic tumblers or whatever, people have also started getting used to refilling water.” He isn’t stopping at the kitchen door either. “Recently I’ve even thought about starting a movement for refillable detergent, because that’s such a waste generator too.”

Berdhi put the case for joining simply: “For other business owners out there, I don’t think there’s anything to lose by trying to become a Trash Hero refill point partner. Sometimes big change comes from small changes made by a lot of people.”

Ilham agrees. “For the greater good, we have to, because there’s really no downside, I mean, the impact is only getting bigger. The waste emergency in Indonesia is getting worse too. Plus, from a business standpoint, plastic prices keep rising, packaging prices keep rising, so there’s no harm in taking dine-in tableware and reusable containers more seriously. To business owners out there, let’s shift to zero waste so the earth gets cleaner and free of plastic waste, and join the Trash Hero refill network so more people can refill their bottles.”

Through the Water Refill Network, we’ve sold 113,328 bottles through our refill partners since the end of 2014. We assume that one bottle sold saves an average of 365 plastic water bottles, one per day for a year, and, from 2023 onward, that each refill partner provides 5 refills a day. That means we’ve avoided an estimated 44.9 million single-use plastic bottles through this project so far. Right now, there are 605 refill points in the network, and we’re open to any business who would like to join us – big or small. There is no cost to join, other than the water you provide.

So next time you’re heading out the door with your bottle in hand, check the map and find a refill point near you. If you run a business or organize events yourself, you already know what to do. 💛

July 2026 : Environment news round-up

by Fayrouz on 29/07/2026 No comments

Our round-up of the month’s most important stories.

Destroying unsold clothes and shoes is now illegal in the EU

New regulation forces fashion brands to face and account for their overproduction problem, with resale, donation, repair, recycling or simply more thoughtful output.

Emerging link between microplastics and heart disease

A new study by a leading journal has found people with plastic particles in their arteries are more likely to suffer a heart attack or die in the following years than those without – and the most likely carrier of the particles? Cigarette smoke.

This World Cup is the most polluting in the tournament’s history

The highly criticised event managed to generate almost 3 times the amount of trash of the previous tournament in Qatar and double the average amount of CO2 emissions.

Reusable packaging is on the rise

A survey of the global reuse landscape finds positive signs, with a new reuse symbol and standards; increasingly supportive legislation and incentives; and business-led innovation and cooperation all creating momentum for change.

The Ocean Cleanup hasn’t worked. So what happened?

Seven years after its glitzy launch, the viral project has made millions, but fallen short of its promised impact. Experts had been warning of this all along: their story is now being told.

As Europe turns away from incineration, its companies are selling it to the Global South

The EU has cut funding for waste-to-energy and Germany now taxes it, so European and Japanese firms are expanding elsewhere, backed by international finance and the carbon credits market.

Every month we round up the top stories from the world of plastic pollution – and the work being done to stop it. From aquatic pollution to zero waste, you’ll always be up to date with the latest research, trends and greenwashing tactics.

To sign up to receive the newsletter, click here.

170 million people are doing this, have you heard of it yet?

by Fayrouz on 04/07/2026 No comments

Every July, a global movement takes over kitchens, cafes, schools, and offices in 190 countries. The challenge is simple: refuse single-use plastic for one month. The impact, it turns out, is anything but small.

That is the idea behind Plastic Free July, a global movement that has grown into one of the most widely recognised environmental campaigns in the world, and if you have never heard of it before, this is your introduction.

Where it started

Plastic Free July began in 2011 with one woman in Western Australia. Rebecca Prince-Ruiz, who had spent years working in waste management, had grown concerned about the sheer volume of plastic heading into landfill. So she asked forty of her friends to try something simple: avoid single-use plastic for the month of July.

Forty became four hundred, four hundred became four thousand and more. In 2017, the Plastic Free Foundation was registered as an Australian charity to support what had clearly outgrown a grassroots experiment.

Rebecca herself has spent over three decades working in environmental management, waste reduction, and behaviour change, and has taken part in plastic pollution research expeditions across the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans. She co-authored a book on the movement she built and in 2023 was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for her contribution to conservation. But she still describes the work in simple terms: changing our relationship with plastic, one choice at a time.

The idea is simple

Photo credit: Plastic Free July – Pawai Bebas Plastik, Indonesia

For one month, you commit to avoiding single-use plastics. The things we are handed on a daily basis, like the cups, plastic bags, straws, sachets, and cutlery that get thrown away after one meal. Once you start noticing them, you can choose differently.

You also get to decide your own level of commitment: Plastic Free July does not ask everyone to go zero waste overnight. Some people take on the full challenge, avoiding all single-use plastic across the whole month and others can start with what the campaign calls the “Big 4” or plastic bags, disposable coffee cups, plastic straws, and plastic water bottles. Both approaches are valid.

The point in this campaign is not perfection, but attention. When you start looking for plastic, you see it everywhere – and that is the beginning of doing something about it.

Why July, specifically?

There is nothing special about July as the month itself is not magic! But having a shared, fixed moment in the calendar creates collective momentum.

When millions of people are trying the same thing at the same time, the conversation spreads naturally. Colleagues challenge each other, families compare notes, cafes put signs on their counters, schools run campaigns, communities organise events which make individual action start to look, and feel, like something much bigger than one person making a swap.

A full month allows for discoveries – that your local coffee shop is happy for you to bring a reusable cup or there is a bulk store near your work. These discoveries tend to stick, making the habits formed often outlast the month itself.

What you can actually do

Photo credit: Plastic Free July – Party Kit Network; The Ballina Library Reusable Party Kit

Taking part in Plastic Free July is free. You go to the Plastic Free July website, make your pledge, and decide what level you are committing to. From there, the campaign gives you a huge range of practical ideas and resources, from swaps for your kitchen, tips for eating out, guides for workplaces, toolkits for schools, to the countless ideas for running community events.

Some of the most common starting points include bringing a reusable bag every time you shop, carrying a water bottle so you never need to buy a plastic one, choosing loose produce over wrapped, and saying no to a straw before one lands in your drink. None of them require a special shop or a significant budget.

Why single-use plastic, specifically?

Trash Hero Yogyakarta

Of all the plastics in the world, why does Plastic Free July focus on single-use items?

Because single-use plastic is the most visible, the most avoidable, and the most absurd part of the crisis. As filmmaker Jeb Berrier put it: “Why would you make something that you’re going to use for a few minutes out of a material that’s basically going to last forever, and then just throw it away? What’s up with that?”

A plastic straw is used for approximately twenty minutes, a plastic water bottle for perhaps an hour, a plastic bag often for less time than it takes to walk home from the shop, and yet all of them will outlast every person alive today. They will break into smaller and smaller toxic pieces, entering soil, water, food chains, and bodies. They will turn up in the stomachs of sea turtles, in the lungs of birds, and increasingly in human blood, breast milk, and placentas. Their production – from fossil fuels – is accelerating climate breakdown and destroying entire communities and ecosystems.

At Trash Hero cleanups every single week the same items turn up again and again: plastic bottles, sachets, straws, bags, food packaging. In 2025 alone, our volunteers collected 115.2 metric tons of waste across 2,074 cleanups, and single-use plastic made up the overwhelming majority of it. You can read the full picture in our 2025 Annual Report.

Every bottle and wrapper we pick up tells the same story: something used briefly, then left behind for someone else to deal with, often decades or centuries later. Single-use plastic is not a convenience. It is a cost that gets pushed onto the environment, onto communities without the infrastructure to deal with it, and onto future generations who never asked for it.

What about the bigger picture?

Photo credit: Plastic Free July – bRU Coffee

We know that individual action alone cannot solve a system-level problem, and the Plastic Free July campaign does not pretend otherwise. The companies producing billions of single-use plastic items each year carry responsibility that no amount of personal reusable cups can fully offset.

But individual awareness is where systemic pressure often begins. When enough people start asking why their salad comes in a single-use plastic container, or why their shampoo cannot be bought in a refillable bottle, those questions eventually reach the people with the power to answer them differently. Consumer behaviour sends signals, campaigns create visibility, visibility creates pressure, and pressure, over time, changes what gets made and how it gets sold.

Plastic Free July sits at that junction between personal habit and public accountability. It does not ask you to fix the system on your own, but it asks you to be part of the culture shift that makes fixing the system more likely.

What this means for Trash Hero

Trash Hero Gili Meno

At Trash Hero, we start by cleaning up the plastic that is already in the environment. We also know, better than most, that cleaning up is not the answer on its own. The plastic keeps coming because production keeps going, and because communities around the world are left to manage waste that was never designed to be managed safely.

Plastic Free July connects to our year-round work on behaviour change. Every piece of single-use plastic refused in July is one less piece that ends up on a beach, in a river, or in a landfill fire. Every person who takes the challenge can carry that habit into August, September, and beyond. Every conversation the campaign starts is a conversation about what we are actually producing, why, and whether there is a better way.

This July, we are encouraging our community to do both: clean up what is there, and cut down on what is coming. Join a Trash Hero cleanup near you, and take the Plastic Free July challenge while you are at it.

Because the plastic crisis is not going to be cleaned away. It needs to stop being made in the first place.

How to get started

Taking part is free and takes about two minutes to set up. Head to plasticfreejuly.org, make your pledge, and choose your level. The website is full of practical ideas for every context: at home, at work, at school, at events, and in your community.

If you want to go further, share the challenge with someone else. The campaign is always more powerful when it is something people do together rather than alone.

More to explore this Plastic Free July

Break Free From Plastic’s Asia-Pacific network is running their #FalseSolutionsExposed campaign throughout Plastic Free July, exposing the harms of plastic pollution, debunking false solutions like waste-to-energy and incineration, and celebrating real solutions like reuse and zero waste.

The campaign includes a free weekly webinar series, covering everything from building plastic-free campuses to the stories of women waste workers on the frontlines of toxic exposure.

Beyond the beach: How Trash Hero chapters are changing their communities

by Fayrouz on 21/05/2026 No comments

When most people think of Trash Hero, they picture volunteers on a beach, bags in hand, collecting what the tide and the streets have left behind. And yes, that is where it all started, and where it still shows up every single week, in communities across the world.

But the weekly cleanup has always been more than a cleanup; it is a gathering point and a starting place, and for many Trash Hero chapters, it is where the question gets asked: what else can we do?

The stories below come from chapters in many regions; they are different in scale, in method, and in context, but they share the same instinct: that real change happens in communities, built slowly, by people who show up.

Your favourite supermarket was audited, it didn’t do great

Trash Hero chapters in multiple countries took part in a first-of-its-kind pilot project to audit supermarket packaging practices worldwide. The project from Break Free From Plastic, follows on from their successful six year brand audit campaign. This time, the spotlight is being turned on supermarket chains and their significant role in plastic pollution. Trash Hero volunteers in Thailand, Malaysia, Switzerland and the UK supplied 35 audits for the report, which shows most stores are ignoring easy measures to reduce waste.

Growing farmers’ income with waste

Trash Hero Bayan in Lombok, Indonesia engaged local cashew nut farmers in a community composting project. Over several months, the team taught them how to separate and compost their food scraps using simple methods. The farmers were able to improve soil quality, grow healthier cashew trees, and nearly double the value of their harvest. To date 30 households and 40 farmers have joined the project, and village chiefs have expressed interest in making this type of food waste management mandatory in the district.

The Big Plastic Count, Swiss edition

Trash Hero Switzerland took part in the country’s first ever Big Plastic Count. The citizen science campaign that started in 2022 in the UK asks people to record the number of plastic items they throw away during one week. 11,586 people in Switzerland took part, logging 215,463 pieces of plastic. The resulting report highlighted that 95% of this waste was burned or exported and called for more investment in reusable packaging and refill infrastructure.

Reuse fit for a king

Trash Hero Chumphon took their reusable tableware to a Street Art Festival in the city. It was used to cater for more than 1,000 workers and visitors who came to see the new mural honouring the late King Bhumibol – all without single-use plastic. The team’s “community tableware bank” has been lending reusable cups, cutlery and dishes to event organisers free of charge for the last 4.5 years. In 2025, it was used at seven events in total, avoiding an estimated 23,350 pieces of single-use plastic, and strengthening the case for all types of gatherings to be zero waste.

All aboard for a lesson on waste

Trash Hero Lübeck in Germany held a two-hour workshop on cigarette butts in an unusual venue – on board the historic Fehmarnbelt, a floating lighthouse on the Untertrave river. Participants learned about the toxicity of plastic filters and their impact on soil and water when they are discarded. At the end, they were also treated to a special tour of the boat from Captain Holger!

Think global, act local

Trash Hero Ende were invited by the local government to give input at their “100 days of strategy” meeting. The volunteers shared their insights into the root causes of waste with the Regent and Vice Regent, highlighting the need for waste separation and urging strict regulation of illegal dumping, burning and single-use plastic. Enforcement was a key issue and Trash Hero supported the Regent’s call for better application of the Environment Agency’s existing rules, with education and community engagement.

Change this big rarely starts with a grand plan. More often it starts with a small group of people who care, a problem they can see right in front of them, and the decision to do something about it. That is what Trash Hero has always been at its heart. Not a campaign or a movement with a grand manifesto, but neighbours showing up for each other, week after week, in ways big and small.

This is just a small window into what our chapters have been up to this year. There are many more stories like these in our latest Annual Report, from communities all over the world.

If something in these stories felt familiar, or made you wish you had something like it where you live, come find us or your nearest chapter, and if there is not one near you yet, well, that is exactly how every single one of these stories began.

April 2026 : Environment news round-up

by Fayrouz on 30/04/2026 No comments

Our round-up of the month’s most important stories.

56 countries meet in Colombia to plan the end of fossil fuels

For the first time, 56 governments gathered in Santa Marta, Colombia to begin planning a fossil fuel phaseout – outside the usual UN process. Notably, calls to reduce petrochemicals were also on the table, with GAIA and others pushing for declining caps on plastic production as part of the transition. A second conference is already planned – in Tuvalu.

Gaza’s waste crisis: illegal dump sites and no end in sight

With Gaza’s waste infrastructure destroyed, 2,000 tonnes of rotting garbage is piling up daily next to camps of displaced families. The health consequences are only just beginning.

AI data centres are creating heat islands affecting 340 million people

A global survey of 6,000 data centres found they are warming the land around them by up to 9C – and the problem is largely underreported, even as they boom in number.

Breast implants to baby toys: the surprising sources of microplastics

A new report maps microplastic exposure across five areas of daily life – from children’s toys and household paint to hospital equipment and breast implants. Premature babies in neonatal units are estimated to receive up to 115 microplastic particles in just 72 hours. If you want to reduce your own exposure at home, the BBC has a practical guide on where to start.

Plastic is entering wheat and tomato plants – and stunting their growth

Microplastics in the soil are being absorbed by roots, and spread through the plant; polyester clothing fibres from laundry were found to be most harmful – and also the most prevalent in the sewage sludge used as fertiliser.

Sea levels are higher than we thought – and the land is sinking faster too

Two major new studies have found that 80 million people are already living on coastal land below sea level – and in many river deltas, the land is sinking faster than the sea is rising.

Every month we round up the top stories from the world of plastic pollution – and the work being done to stop it. From aquatic pollution to zero waste, you’ll always be up to date with the latest research, trends and greenwashing tactics.

To sign up click here.

When the System Fails, the Fire Starts

by Fayrouz on 28/04/2026 No comments

What would you do if your waste was not promptly collected in your area?

One day passes, and it starts to smell. One week passes, and it begins attracting pests and stray animals. When the rain comes, it blocks the drains and spreads disease. You cannot keep storing it indefinitely. You cannot simply ignore it.

So, what would you do?

For millions of people around the world, this is not a hypothetical question. It is a daily reality they face, and with all the limitations of the system around them, the easiest answer is to burn it.

Make the waste disappear

In many communities, burning waste is a daily routine, as ordinary as cooking or sweeping the front porch. Around 2.7 billion people in the world have no waste collection service at all. When there is no bin to fill, when no trash truck comes, when there is no system ready to take the problem away, waste piles up quickly – and that pile brings its own very real, very urgent consequences: rotting food, insects, blocked drains, the spread of disease. Burning solves those problems quickly, at least on the surface. This is not careless behaviour or ignorance. It is the reality of having to choose the least bad option from a very short list.

A global problem

Open burning is not limited to one region or one type of community. It is a global response to a global problem: too much plastic, most of it single-use, with no plan for where it ends up.

According to the Lloyd’s Register Foundation 2024 World Risk Poll, open burning is most widespread in Eastern Africa, where 41% of households use it as their primary method of waste disposal, followed by Central and Western Africa at 34%, and South-East Asia at 32%. In Indonesia, the number sits even higher than all of these regional averages, with 48% of households reported to burn their waste, despite open burning being prohibited by law. In rural communities across Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nepal, and Thailand, open burning is documented as a common household practice. In rural Thailand alone, more than half of all household waste is burned.

It also happens in places we would not expect. Open burning has been documented in Hungary, South Korea, and the United States, a reminder that this is not simply a problem of developing nations. In fact, the wealthiest countries in the world have not solved this problem either – they have largely exported it. High-income countries including Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, France, the US, Japan, and Australia have for years been shipping plastic waste abroad under the claim that it will be recycled. In 2023, Germany was the world’s largest plastic waste exporter at over 693,000 metric tons, with the UK close behind at around 615,000 metric tons. Much of that waste ends up in countries that lack the infrastructure to process it safely, where it is dumped or burned at the household and community level. Enforcement of regulations remains a major problem, with many waste exporters taking advantage of inadequate monitoring and poor border controls. The countries producing the most plastic have the least interest in dealing with where it ends up.

What actually happens when waste is burned

Photo credit: Abhinay Tharu/Unsplash

Burning waste does not make it disappear. It just makes it less visible, and out of sight is not the same thing as gone.

Burning waste, especially plastic, releases a toxic mix of pollutants into the air and into the soil through ash: heavy metals, styrene gas, dioxins and furans, chemicals that persist in the body and in the environment long after the fire goes out. A 2014 study published in Environmental Science & Technology found that open burning of household waste is one of the largest global sources of certain hazardous air pollutants, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and fine particles.

That last point is worth paying attention to. Fine particles known as PM2.5 are small enough to pass through the nose and throat and travel deep into the lungs and bloodstream. The WHO classifies outdoor air pollution, of which open burning is a significant contributor, as a leading environmental cause of death globally, responsible for around 3.2 million premature deaths every year.

The health impact, in numbers

The health data on open burning is difficult to read, and even harder to ignore.

One study estimated that open burning of waste is linked to between 270,000 and 920,000 deaths per year globally. Beyond that, open burning of plastics is linked to increased risks of heart disease and neurological disorders, while emissions including dioxins have been connected to skin lesions, cancer, immunological issues, and birth defects.

Sadly, this burden is not shared equally. The elderly, pregnant women, and children are among the most vulnerable. So too are the people tending the fires, and the neighbours living downwind. Harm also enters through the food chain: when toxins from burning settle into soil and water, they make their way into locally grown food and into the bodies of people who never stood near a fire at all.

The exposure does not look dramatic, but it keeps happening.

This is not large-scale burning as seen in factories or industrial incinerators. There is no towering smokestack, no warning sign, no obvious signal that something harmful is happening. There are only small fires, burning close to where people sleep, eat, and play, repeated every day, familiar enough to feel normal – and that familiarity is precisely what makes it so dangerous.

This gap is not simply a story of missing lorries and underfunded councils. It is the direct result of a production system that keeps making more plastic than the world can handle, and concentrating the consequences in the places with the least power to push back. At least 2 billion people worldwide have no access to any waste collection, treatment, or disposal services. For these communities, burning is not a choice. It is an inheritance.

The packaging problem makes everything worse. For most of human history, there was no need for large-scale waste collection. Most waste was organic, and what could be reused, reused. But single-use plastic packaging flooded markets far faster than any infrastructure could keep up, especially in island communities and rural areas where collection systems are expensive to build and even more expensive to maintain. Global municipal waste generation is projected to grow from 2.3 billion tonnes in 2023 to 3.8 billion tonnes by 2050, almost all of it driven by packaging and single-use materials landing in places that have no system in place to receive them.

And the companies that make that packaging? They have known about the problem they cause for a long time, but the burden of dealing with it has been consistently shifted, first onto public bodies, then onto households: manage it yourselves, find a way to make it disappear.

What can help, for now

There are small changes that can reduce the harm while the larger system gets its act together. Separating organic waste for composting and keeping plastic out of the fire entirely, significantly lowers exposure to dioxins, furans, and heavy metals.

This is not a complete solution, but it is not nothing either. Reducing the most toxic emissions is one small, real part of addressing the harm, even if it cannot address the system that causes it. For someone standing in front of a pile of waste with no bin to fill and no trash trucks coming, it is worth knowing.

The bigger picture

People who burn waste are not choosing pollution. They are not choosing to harm their neighbours, their children, or themselves. They are trapped in a system that was never built for them, one that was flooded with cheap plastic packaging without any consideration of its safety, or the infrastructure available to handle it.

Waste should not be managed at the point of burning. It should be prevented at the point of design. Better collection systems can ease the immediate harm, but they are a temporary fix to a permanent flow. The only real answer is less plastic being made in the first place, and producers being held accountable for every piece they release into the world.

Until products and systems change, the harm will keep being pushed onto the people with the fewest choices, and they have already been carrying it long enough.