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By Martin ABBUGAO Agence France-Presse SINGAPORE, Singapore (AFP) — Visitors to the island hosting Singapore’s only landfill might expect foul odors and swarms of flies, but instead they are greeted with stunning views of blue waters, lush greenery and wildlife. Welcome to Pulau Semakau, the land-scarce city’s eco-friendly trash island, where ash from the incinerated garbage of its nearly six million people is dumped. With just over a decade to go until the site is […]
London, United Kingdom (AFP) – More than £60 million ($72 million) worth of food went to waste in Britain in the first half of the year for want of people to pick it, the National Farmers’ Union said Monday. “It’s nothing short of a travesty that quality, nutritious food is being wasted at a time when families across the country are already struggling to make ends meet because of soaring living costs,” said NFU deputy […]
by Bhuvan BAGGA Agence France Presse NEW DELHI, India (AFP) — India imposed a ban on many single-use plastics on Friday in a bid to tackle waste choking rivers and poisoning wildlife, but experts say it faces severe headwinds from unprepared manufacturers and consumers unwilling to pay more. The country generates around four million tonnes of plastic waste per year, about a third of which is not recycled and ends up in waterways and landfills […]
by Matthew Walsh Agence France-Presse BEIJING, China (AFP) — Hazmat-suited workers poke plastic swabs down millions of throats in China each day, leaving bins bursting with medical waste that has become the environmental and economic levy of a zero-Covid strategy. China is the last major economy wedded to stamping out infections no matter the cost. Near-daily testing is the most commonly used weapon in an anti-virus arsenal that includes snap lockdowns and forced quarantines when […]
A world severely blighted by plastic pollution is on track to see the use of plastics nearly triple in less than four decades, according to findings released Friday. Annual production of fossil-fuel-based plastics are set to top 1.2 billion tonnes by 2060 and waste to exceed one billion tonnes, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Even with aggressive action to cut demand and improve efficiencies, plastic production would almost double in […]
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AFP) – Sri Lanka shipped out to Britain on Monday the last of several hundred containers filled with thousands of tonnes of illegally imported waste, officials said. Several Asian countries have in recent years been pushing back against an onslaught of refuse from wealthier nations and have started turning back unwanted shipments. The waste from Britain arrived in Sri Lanka between 2017 and 2019 and was listed as “used mattresses, carpets and […]
PARIS, France (AFP) – Less than 10 percent of the plastic used across the world is recycled, the OECD said Tuesday, calling for “coordinated and global solutions” ahead of expected talks on an international treaty on the issue. A new report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development report found that 460 million tonnes of plastics were used last year, the number nearly doubling since 2000. The amount of plastic waste had more than doubled […]
by Véronique DUPONT Agence France-Presse BRIDPORT, United Kingdom (AFP) – From facial scrubs using coffee grounds to clothes made from plastic bottles and furniture decorated with agave fibres, efforts to upcycle or repurpose waste products are gaining traction in Britain. Every day a bike courier for the skincare brand Upcircle visits 25 cafes in London and collects some 100 kg (220 pounds) of coffee grounds that would otherwise be thrown away. Set up six years […]
TUNIS, Tunisia (AFP) – Tunisia will return more than 280 containers of waste illegally imported from Italy in 2020, the north African country’s environment ministry said Monday. The containers were brought in by a Tunisian company that falsely claimed that the household waste — barred from import under Tunisia law — was in fact plastic scrap to be recycled. The importation had sparked widespread anger, resulting in protests in Tunisia as people demanded that Italy […]
by Robin MILLARD Agence France-Presse GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) – The World Health Organization warned Tuesday that the vast amount of waste produced in tackling the Covid-19 pandemic posed a threat to human and environmental health. The tens of thousands of tonnes of extra medical waste had put a huge strain on healthcare waste management systems, the WHO said in a report. The extra waste is “threatening human and environmental health and exposing a dire need […]
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AFP) – Sweden’s government on Thursday announced it was approving a plan to provide a final storage place for radioactive spent nuclear fuel by burying it in metal containers deep in bedrock. The site of the final storage will be a facility in Forsmark, which is also the home of one of Sweden’s three nucelar power plants, about 130 kilometres ( 81 miles) north of Stockholm. “We are doing this to take responsibility, […]
by Aymen Jamli and Amal Belalloufi Agence France-Presse MGHIRA, Tunisia (AFP) – “When I see plastic, I see money,” says Tarek Masmoudi, owner of one of the few recycling companies in Tunisia, where a waste crisis is threatening widespread social unrest. Recycling is almost non-existent in the North African country, which produces 2.6 million tonnes of waste each year. Some 85 percent of that ends up in landfills, while much of the rest winds up […]
