My First Blog

Why fast fashion needs to slow down: This piece was first published by Food Tank Have you ever thought about what your clothes are made of? About who makes your clothes, or what happens after you donate them or throw them away? The truth about the fashion industry is actually pretty ugly. A recent study by the Ellen McArthur Foundation found that  one garbage truck of textiles is wasted every second . And the Copenhagen Fashion Summit reported that fashion is responsible for  92 million tons of solid waste dumped in landfills each year . First, it’s up to apparel brands to take responsibility for the waste they’re creating. Brands need to address chemicals, use of textiles waste and synthetic fabrics that don’t break down, and unfair working environments in the clothing industry head-on. Big brands are starting to take notice: Nike, H&M, Burberry, and Gap have all recently signed up to the Make Fashion Circular initiative. It aims to improve the industr...

Latin America and the Caribbean bids good-bye to plastic bags: On 30 May, Chile became the first South American country to approve a nationwide ban on single-use plastic bags, garnering congratulations from around the world for its efforts to beat plastic pollution ahead of World Environment Day on 5 June. In 2017, under the presidency of Michelle Bachelet, the country banned the use of plastic bags in 100 coastal communities. But the government of current President Sebastián Piñera decided to take things one step further, proposing to the Congress to extend the measure nationwide. “Today we are more prepared to leave a better planet to our children, grandchildren and the generations to come,” said Piñera. It is estimated that the world consumes each year up to 5 trillion plastic bags, mostly made of polyethylene, a low-cost polymer derived from petroleum, which takes at least 500 years to degrade. Only 9 per cent of all plastic waste is recycled. Plastic pol...

Meet the Samoan businesswoman who’s making sanitary products more sustainable: Salele : The issue surrounding menstrual hygiene and access to products differs with different groups of women and girls. Higher-income women for example, are more concerned with convenience, time and associated environmental impacts. Those who expressed concern about the environment had a background or career relating to conservation or environmental protection and advocacy. Those who did not express concern considered it only after information on environmental impacts were shared. For middle- to low-income women, the concern is about cost and access. These women were less aware of the environmental impacts, and a large majority did not consider the environment at all when it came to menstruation. This could be linked with the high use of cloth rags, and a lack of education on the topic of plastic waste and its link to menstrual hygiene products. Reproduction and menstruation are taught in some Samoan...

Backpack ponchos: Peru’s solution to plastic pollution: Trash is not garbage. This is the motto of one of Peru’s most innovative recycling campaigns, one that has already turned a million plastic bottles into thousands of ponchilas. And ponchilas have one other important benefit: Each item is made out of 80 recycled plastic bottles. “With this initiative, we are recovering a lot of plastic that could end up in landfills, dumps or in the oceans,” says Miguel Nárvaez, head of social and business responsibility at Cencosud, a supermarket chain and one of the companies that leads the campaign. The ponchilas project started in 2016 when Cencosud, Agua San Luis (owned by Coca-Cola) and Pacífico Seguros set out to collaborate to reduce school dropouts in the Andes highlands because of extreme temperatures and the long distances that children must travel to get to school. In 2017, the projected produced 6,000 ponchos; another 7,000 have already been made this yea...

Olympic movement joins CleanSeas campaign and commits to #BeatPlasticPollution: Nairobi, 4 June 2018  – Today, the International Olympic Committee announced an ambitious plan to eradicate single-use plastics from the organisation and its events around the world with seven major sporting bodies and representatives from over 20 National Olympic Committees taking action in support of the UN’s CleanSeas campaign. The sports bodies that will be joining the initiative to cut plastic waste include World Sailing, the International Association of Athletics Federations, the International Triathlon Union, the International Ice Hockey Federation, World Rugby, World Golf and the International Surfing Association. Erik Solheim, the Executive Director of UN Environment and a member of the IOC Sustainability and Legacy Commission, said: "This is the biggest commitment ever made from sport to address plastic pollution. The International Olympic Committee's Clean Seas pledge will tran...

Plastic pollution: how humans are turning the world into plastic: STORIES : Modern life would be impossible without plastic – but we have long since lost control over our invention. Sources :

Powering ships with plastic in Amsterdam: STORIES : In the Port of Amsterdam, a new factory is being built that could revolutionize the way we dispose of plastic waste. Utilizing groundbreaking technology, the facility will use previously unrecyclable plastic to create fuel for diesel powered cargo ships. Thanks to a partnership with the Port of Amsterdam and a grant from the Dutch government, the plant is expected to begin operations by the  end of 2018 . If all goes well, this will be the first of four such ‘plastic to fuel’ factories to be built near the port. In the initial year it’s estimated that 35,000 tonnes of garbage will be converted into 30 million litres of fuel, giving value to materials that would otherwise go to waste. The project provides a multitude of environmental benefits across the entire value chain. The Port of Amsterdam estimates an annual  57,000 tonnes  reduction of CO2 emissions. The most obvious benefit is in waste...