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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

The small island nation vetoed a proposal to ship in 900,000 tonnes of trash annually from across the region and burn it in a vast incinerator near the tourism gateway of Nadi. The plan was branded “waste colonialism” by local villagers. It is a strong reminder that waste-to-energy is not the clean fix it is often sold as, and that the communities asked to host it are increasingly fighting back.

The kits were made through the “advanced chemical recycling” of textiles, a technology heralded as the future of “circular fashion”, but experts say it’s far messier than it sounds. Chemical recycling is expensive, difficult to scale and only works with clean industrial scraps, not the mixed material, dyed, zip-and-label reality of used clothes.  Even the most optimistic industry targets are a drop in the ocean next to the 169 million tonnes of polyester being churned out each year, making it more of “an excuse to keep producing plastic clothes” than a silver bullet to textile waste.

Supporters at Malmö FF’s stadium are taking part in an unusual experiment: their urine is being collected, treated, and turned into fertiliser, as an alternative to synthetic petrochemical feeds. The aim is to cut dependence on fossil-fuel-based fertilisers, which globally generate around 1.13 billion tonnes of CO2E a year, more than the entire aviation sector. Researchers estimate urine could theoretically replace up to 30% of the synthetic fertilisers used in Sweden, turning something we flush away into a genuinely circular resource.

UK environmental lawyer Paul Powlesland has been charged for removing trash without permission, by the very government agency whose duty it is to keep the river clean. He and a group of volunteers cleared a heavily polluted stretch of the River Roding in East London, filling over 200 bags with rubbish including packaging, needles, household appliances and even weapons. Shortly after, the Environment Agency opened an investigation into him for operating without a licence, an offence carrying a maximum penalty of two years in prison.

The “completely unnecessary” single-use plastic-and-metal cup, used by trendy cafés for iced drinks, is not accepted in return schemes and can’t be easily recycled – what a waste. The best packaging award, by contrast, went to a refillable milk keg system that has replaced an estimated 4.5 million single-use plastic milk bottles since 2021, proof that reuse already works when businesses choose it.

Is air con the solution to human-caused heat waves or part of the problem? The dilemma is real in French politics, as the need to protect the vulnerable is being pitched against tackling the root causes of climate breakdown. Only 25% of French households have air-conditioning, compared to 50% in Spain and Italy and 90% in the US and Japan, partly because environmentalists argue that la clim treats the symptoms of climate change while worsening its causes. But with schools closing and hospital staff describing intolerable conditions, even France’s Greens now concede it may be unavoidable.

A new Greenpeace report has found up to 99 plastic particles per gram in Nestle and Danone baby food pouches, along with a range of plastic chemicals, prompting calls for stronger regulations to protect infants from harm, as well as for brands to go “beyond compliance” when it comes to food safety.

Plastic packaging and fishing gear is hampering hundreds of thousands of Olive Ridley turtles as they lay eggs along the Odisha coast in India – one of the handful of such sites in the world – and endangering the hatchlings as they return to the sea.

The news comes as food and drink packaging is found to be the “world’s most common coastal litter” – found on all seven continents – and shows why beach cleanups are still so important.

An excellent visual explainer from Reuters shows how it’s not just transport costs that are affected by the rising price of oil, but the cost of chemicals and plastics used in everyday products too.

Prices have risen particularly quickly in Asia, exposing our over-dependence on this fossil fuel material. Many, including the UN, have questioned the trade barriers blocking the use of alternative materials, and pointed to the resilience that local reuse infrastructure could provide in these times.

The dubious honour of world’s biggest dumpers leaves recipient nations like Turkey and Malaysia unable to cope with the sheer volume of incoming trash, while legal loopholes allow these exports to count towards official recycling rates.

The EU has promised an end to non-OECD exports by November of this year. However this will not cover Turkey, nor another loophole that will allow waste to be exported to the UK (not covered by the regulations), before being shipped on to countries in the Global South.

Groundbreaking research on 587 patients using urinary catheters in the UK has found reusable versions to be just as safe as single-use. If the findings are adopted, it would lead to huge reductions in both cost and waste in public hospitals, as well as pave the way for further studies into other potential reusable items in healthcare.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Acid rain, air pollution, oil spills and multiple countries falling back on dirty fuels are just some of the catastrophic health and environmental costs of the conflict – costs that will be borne long after the financial markets restabilise and the news cycle moves on.

Criminal prosecutors in the Vosges region allege the world’s largest bottled water company illegally polluted soils and water with discarded plastic from their plants for decades, exposing ecosystems and millions of residents to unprecedented and “immeasurable” microplastic contamination.

A new Netflix documentary, The Plastic Detox, follows six couples with unexplained infertility over six months as they lower their exposure to plastics: will it finally help them conceive?

Spoiler alert: Netflix has also published an article to share what happened after the cameras stopped rolling.

The second fatal waste disaster this year in Southeast Asia, at Bantar Gebang – Indonesia’s biggest landfill – triggers calls for system reform and better protections for waste pickers.

A new report from Clean Creatives analysing over 1800 ads documents Big Oil’s shift from making green promises to framing fossil fuels as essential to society and quietly abandoning plans to a clean energy transition.

A new study published in Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry claims adults ingest a dinner plate’s worth of microplastics annually and identifies five key biological pathways for the plastic particles to harm the brain and increase the risk of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

In 2021, the Canadian government included a statement in the Environmental Protection Act to recognise all manufactured plastic items as toxic. In 2023, after vociferous protests from the plastics industry, the wording was ordered to be removed by a Federal Court judge.

But now, a unanimous ruling from the Federal Court of Appeal has overturned that decision, paving the way for single-use plastics bans in Ottawa and beyond.

Early research on rats in Japan suggests a common foodstuff – dietary fibre – could help to prevent ingested microplastics from entering the bloodstream, as well as helping to remove them entirely from the gut.

Scientists are now working to identify the exact type of fibre that has these effects. Until more is known, the best policy remains avoidance.

On 7 February in Geneva, countries elected Julio Cordano, Chile’s climate COP chief negotiator, to revive the talks that have been stalled since August 2025. Although discussions at that meeting were limited to procedural matters, the outcome shows that progress is possible if parties move beyond consensus and use all available decision-making tools.

The Tox Free Life For All project found all 81 models (both in-ear and over-ear), including those from major brands like Bose, Samsung and Panasonic, contained toxic additives; and the migration from plastic to skin was found to increase with heat, sweat and daily use.

The cocktail of chemicals in plastic have been linked to the global rise in rates of cancer, obesity and infertility.

A new AP report focusing on American consumers, says the result would be more than 90 million metric tons less greenhouse emissions in the USA, a remarkable reduction for small lifestyle changes in just 10% of the population.

Now, let’s hear about the impact of 1 in 10 polluting companies changing their ways! That would likely have an even greater impact.

A thought provoking essay suggests that to effectively address climate breakdown and environmental pollution we should spend less time worrying about emissions mitigation and more on fixing the power asymmetry between green and fossil asset owners. Read the full analysis here.