Tagged: plastic

How should we manage the harm caused by tobacco product waste? - Public Health Expert

Public Health Expert • Jun 14, 2019 •

• cigarette butts,
• cigarettes,
• plastic,
• rubbish,
• Smoking,
• waste

Professor Janet Hoek and Emeritus Professor Philip Gendall Annual consumption of cigarettes now exceeds five trillion, with around four trillion butts littered every year. These cigarette butts cause major environmental damage and impose significant clean-up costs on local authorities. Although tobacco companies have framed smokers as responsible for butt litter, recent debate has focused on the tobacco industry’s role … Read More

The Dawn of the Age of Plastics - Guest Work

Guest Author • Feb 28, 2019 •

• consumer,
• history of science,
• plastic

David Taylor The 1939 World’s Fair was a testament to cork’s primacy in consumer packaging. But a little-known substance called plastic was waiting in the wings. In the closing months of World War II, Americans talked nonstop about how and when the war would end, and about how life was about to change. Germany would fall soon, people … Read More

Recycled rubbish - The Dismal Science

Michael Reddell • Sep 15, 2018 •

• landfill,
• plastic,
• plastic bags,
• waste

That’s the title of my former colleague Ian Harrison’s response to the government’s consultative document on getting rid of (some types of) plastic bags.  The consultation itself closed yesterday, but nobody supposes the consultation itself was remotely serious –  the irrational ban is going to happen anyway.  Having dug fairly deeply into the material used to support/underpin the consultative … Read More

A simple landfill calculation - The Dismal Science

Eric Crampton • Aug 21, 2018 •

• landfill,
• plastic,
• rubbish,
• waste

That this one comes up so often speaks poorly of our basic numeracy and sense of scale. There’s basically no chance that landfills expand to take up any substantial part of the country. This is the kind of back-of-the-envelope thing that everybody should be able to do in their head. Kate Valley services Christchurch. It has 1000 hectares … Read More

Plastic bags - The Dismal Science

Michael Reddell • Aug 13, 2018 •

• bags,
• compostable,
• Eugenie Sage,
• marine life,
• plastic,
• plastic bags

There is a reason why we do not let primary school children make policy or vote.  They are children, precious and growing but prone to all the enthusiasms of children, easily influenced, and not responsible (as taxpayers or anything else) for their expressed preferences.   And yet, as the Prime Minister was reported, it seemed that the fact that lots … Read More

Why compostable plastics may be no better for the environment - Guest Work

Guest Author • Aug 03, 2018 •

• compostable plastics,
• consumer action,
• Environment,
• plastic

Thomas Neitzert, Auckland University of Technology As companies move to get rid of single-use plastic bags and bans on microbeads are coming into force, new biodegradable or compostable plastic products seem to offer an alternative. But they may be no better for the environment. Recently, European scientists argued that existing international industry standards are insufficient and … Read More

Plastic poses biggest threat to seabirds in New Zealand waters, where more breed than elsewhere - Guest Work

Guest Author • Jul 19, 2018 •

• ecology,
• ocean,
• plastic,
• plastic bags,
• plastic pollution,
• seabirds

Stephanie B. Borrelle, Auckland University of Technology Plastic pollution has the potential to cause the worst damage to seabirds in the seas around Aotearoa New Zealand, where many of them come to feed and breed. Aotearoa boasts the greatest diversity of seabirds in the world. Of the 360 global seabird species, 86 breed here and 37 are … Read More

Compostable packaging - Guest Work

Guest Author • Jul 12, 2018 •

• biodegradable,
• compostable,
• packaging,
• plastic

Lou Sherman People say there is too much plastic packaging in today’s global marketplace. But packaging protects the product through the supply chain and prevents product waste. Plastic is an attractive material to use for packaging as it is lightweight and has the right properties to enable products to survive long supply chains such as overseas exports. Many consumers do … Read More

How plastic-eating bacteria actually work – a chemist explains - Guest Work

Guest Author • May 01, 2018 •

• absorb,
• bacteria,
• bio reactors,
• chemical,
• crisis,
• digestion,
• enzymes,
• maine life,
• PETase,
• plastic,
• protein,
• rubbish

Emily Flashman, Research Fellow in Enzymology, University of Oxford This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. The plastic bottles we throw away today will be around for hundreds of years. It’s one of the key reasons why the mounting plastic pollution problem, which is having a deadly effect on … Read More

Pristine Paradise to Rubbish Dump - Guest Work

Guest Author • Jul 20, 2017 •

• ecology,
• Henderson Island,
• microbeads,
• plastic,
• Plastic Island,
• rubbish,
• waste

Jennifer Lavers, University of Tasmania and Alexander Bond, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds A few weeks ago, the world woke to the story of Henderson Island, the “South Pacific island of rubbish”. Our research revealed it as a place littered with plastic garbage, washed there by ocean currents. This was a story we … Read More