📣 The new Chair leading #PlasticsTreaty talks has been elected: Julio Cordano of Chile.
@enb.iisd.org’s Noémie Laurens breaks down the three main issues that the new Chair will have to face this year at INC 5.4. 👇
07.02.2026 17:52 — 👍 7 🔁 8 💬 0 📌 0
A stone statue surrounded by objects made of plastic stands outside as part of an art installation. Text overlaid reads, "Where the Global Plastics Treaty Talks Stand"
After two failed attempts to finalize the global #PlasticsTreaty, effective leadership is widely seen as critical for restoring momentum.
On Feb 7, governments will meet to select a new chair.
Learn where talks stand and why this meeting matters: https://bit.ly/45QnL5v
06.02.2026 11:51 — 👍 9 🔁 5 💬 0 📌 0
The first meeting of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Panel on Chemicals, Waste, and Pollution ended in paralysis.
Obstruction and geopolitics blocked agreement on basic rules needed for the Panel to function.
Read our full statement 👇
www.ciel.org/news/isp-cwp...
06.02.2026 21:28 — 👍 7 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 1
📢 New publication:
How should we communicate about scientific uncertainty - especially around environmental & health risks like microplastics? 🗣️💬
We ran an online experiment with 1,126 participants in Austria and found:
01.02.2026 13:35 — 👍 8 🔁 6 💬 1 📌 1
Quote from Abi Awomosu's substack, describing a response to seeing GenAI images 'as if the smell of burnt plastic was a feeling'
'The feeling of the smell of burnt plastic'.... absolutely capture the synasthesia of GenAI overwhelm
01.02.2026 13:12 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Interesting photo to illustrate that article, as the plastic produced for all those water bottles is part of what is keeping the fossil fuel industry alive.
Finding ways to provide safe drinking water that doesn’t use single-use PET bottles should be a bigger priority.
31.01.2026 16:59 — 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Plastic Pollution Promotes Hazardous Water Conditions, New Study Finds
A new UC San Diego study reveals that fossil fuel-based plastic pollution may be promoting toxic water conditions by removing animals that keep water at safe levels. Biologically based plastics had a ...
🔬 NEW STUDY "In the new study, which compared different types of plastics across 30 experimental pond ecosystems, researchers found that fossil fuel plastics can lead to 'top down' effects by killing off the animals that eat algae." #PlasticPollutes #BreakFreeFromPlastic
30.01.2026 20:35 — 👍 5 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 1
Europe’s supermarket shelves packed with ‘misleading’ claims about recycled plastic packaging
Manufacturers use method that labels plastic as ‘circular’ and climate-friendly, despite being mostly fossil-based
have a few papers in review that examine this issue, and the reality is that ‘circular’ claims often camouflage a reliance on chemical recycling technologies that are toxic and unproven
these claims should be understood as a strategy by corporate interests to distract and delay meaningful action
27.01.2026 17:15 — 👍 11 🔁 6 💬 0 📌 1
Biodiversity collapse threatens UK security, intelligence chiefs warn
Ecosystem destruction will increase food shortages, disorder and mass migration, with effects already being felt
Biodiversity collapse threatens UK security, intelligence chiefs warn
- “It is unlikely the UK would be able to maintain food security if ecosystem collapse drives geopolitical competition for food”
Story by @fionaharvey.bsky.social
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
21.01.2026 09:47 — 👍 56 🔁 33 💬 2 📌 2
Burning Plastic Waste for Household Fuel Endangers Millions - Inside Climate News
People in low-income urban communities in the Global South without access to reliable energy sources are burning the toxic plastic waste inundating their communities to cook and heat their homes.
New research reveals an unappreciated public health crisis: people living in slums in the developing world are increasingly burning the toxic plastic trash that surrounds their communities as a last-resort fuel to cook and heat their homes.
10.01.2026 00:16 — 👍 32 🔁 20 💬 3 📌 1
Q How pervasive are micro and nanoplastics, really? A. Not yet known.
Sensible advice: ."..squabbles in science can... throw out common-sense policies that curtail plastic use... we do not know what the future of microplastics research holds. We will have to keep doing it to find out."
14.01.2026 13:28 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
‘A bombshell’: doubt cast on discovery of microplastics throughout human body
Exclusive: Some scientists say many detections are most likely error, with one high-profile study called a ‘joke’
Interesting to see the Guardian's @dpcarrington.bsky.social weighing in on this. My take, as someone covering microplastics heavily for the past year (and currently sitting at a 200+ person conference with many of the scientists in question):
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
13.01.2026 20:53 — 👍 176 🔁 78 💬 9 📌 15
Four bar charts from Fig. 3: “Plastic waste burning as a household fuel, according to the World Bank country income category and region” showing in the bottom two charts, “Plastic fuel use by income group”, which shows that burning waste plastic in traditional stoves is common, particularly among the lowest income groups; and “Plastic fuel use by regions”, which shows that the use of waste plastics is relatively high in all regions of Africa, followed by South Asia.
Source: Bharadwaj, B., Gates, T., Rose, S. et al. Prevalence of plastic waste as a household fuel in low-income communities of the Global South. Nat Commun 17, 50 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-67512-
⚠️ A new study, based on information collected through a survey of 1,018 informants from cities in 26 countries in the Global South, finds that the use of waste plastics as fuel (for heat or cooking) by low-income households is much more prevalent than previously thought.
rdcu.be/eYJWj
12.01.2026 18:21 — 👍 7 🔁 5 💬 0 📌 1
Microplastics are making it harder for oceans to absorb greenhouse gases, study warns
Researchers say tackling plastic pollution is now part of fight against global warming
Microplastics interfere with photosynthesis in phytoplankton & impair zooplankton metabolism - both are central in ocean carbon cycling
Oceans absorb about 1/4 of CO2 released by human activity
If you're against climate change, you have to be against plastic
www.independent.co.uk/climate-chan...
08.01.2026 12:58 — 👍 38 🔁 19 💬 3 📌 0
Plastic pollution requires urgent action, says author Judith Enck
Judith Enck is a former regional administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, appointed by President Barack Obama, and the founder of Beyond Plastics, an organization dedicated to…
[PODCAST]
Plastic pollution is no longer abstract.
Microplastics are now found in our brains, blood and breast milk — and across all parts of the planet.
On the Mongabay Newscast, Judith Enck explains why governments can’t wait, and how they can act now to cut plastic at the source.
07.01.2026 22:21 — 👍 16 🔁 12 💬 1 📌 0
An approaching tropical storm as viewed from a causeway bridge
Plastic hasn’t just polluted the land and oceans. Research has found microplastics in cloud water, which are influencing how clouds form by acting as seeds for ice crystals, thereby accelerating the formation of storms and increasing their strength. #WetTribe #TidetotheOcean #MicroplasticMonday
05.01.2026 15:53 — 👍 16 🔁 9 💬 0 📌 2
Independent reporting on #environment and #sustdev negotiations.
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Senior Lecturer in Environmental Systems, Faculty of STEM, Open University, UK. Sustainability science for resilient and just coastal places. Scotland - Japan - Taiwan. Future Earth Coasts Fellow. Big Raith Rovers fan.
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is this the one that wins
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Posting the latest discoveries in human evolution and primatology. We also spotlight the broader field of biological anthropology—from the history of our discipline to talks, conferences, and job opportunities.
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A silent majority of people cares about #climate but hasn't yet come together. Working across the political spectrum for systems change, and for a future with wholesome values.
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She/her, 1st gen, Canadian who's at Harvard but isn't OF Harvard-posts mainly about books (w/ cats & flowers thrown in for good measure). Now writing an itty-bitty book that aims to be a literary & media history of scrap.
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I write mostly about the intersection of tech & art/culture which these days means I spend nearly all my time trying to address the exploitation underlying current AI models. A secular humanist interrogating modern religions.
Wildfire and climate change - Arctic geographies, permafrost and de-extinction - subterranean and holey stuff - environmental history of bird scaring
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