PORTLAND, OREGON—More trees mean cleaner air, right? Not necessarily, suggests a new study looking at the wooded areas next to roadways. Instead, lines of trees known as “greenbelts” might actually trap a common pollutant from vehicle exhaust—nitrogen dioxide (NO2)—boosting on-the-ground levels of the gas up to 21%. That could make breathing Read more…
LONDON: Commonly used antibiotics may be harming the good microbes that are essential to a healthy environment, a study warns. When people take antibiotics, their bodies break down and metabolise only a portion of the drugs. The rest is excreted and enters wastewater. As wastewater treatment plants are not designed to fully remove antibiotic Read more…
When John Sauven, executive director at Greenpeace UK, heard a woman complain on the radio that supermarket croissants were cheaper to buy wrapped in plastic than paper, he was so startled he went straight to his local Co-op “It was true,” Sauven said at a recent Guardian roundtable discussion on the future Read more…
Hiding in the back of garages and garden sheds all over the country are tins of old paint. And while some of that paint is saved for future touch-up jobs around the house, much of it ends up in landfill. Annually, Australians throw away around 7.3 million litres of unused Read more…
The World Plastics Council (WPC) applauded the Marine Litter Action Plan released by the G20 and commended states for “their commitment to substantially reduce marine litter and its impacts by 2025.” “This urgent issue requires all of us working together and we look forward to further collaboration with G20 member Read more…
Recycling the durable materials used for foodservice packaging into new fiber sources represents an untapped potential market, say manufacturers in the space. The bulk of these products are wasted because municipalities don’t realize they are recyclable, says Lynn Dyer, president of the Foodservice Packaging Institute (FPI). Yet most material recovery Read more…
Sri Lanka Sri Lanka disposes of the majority of its solid waste in landfills. This practice is cheap, but it comes with hidden costs, the most recent example being the landslide at Meethotamulla. Many low-income and developing countries use landfills in favor of recycling or incinerating garbage, since it is Read more…