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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/recycling/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Sun, 23 Aug 2026 02:57:31 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<title>News on Recycling</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/recycling/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>From Mardi Gras to marsh: Glass Half Full turns party glass into Louisiana coastline</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/from-mardi-gras-to-marsh-glass-half-full-turns-party-glass-into-louisiana-coastline/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/from-mardi-gras-to-marsh-glass-half-full-turns-party-glass-into-louisiana-coastline/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Jul 2026 20:06:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/16182043/GHF_FranKDV_Bottle-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=323746</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[North America and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Coastal Ecosystems, Ecosystems, Environment, and Recycling]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[NEW ORLEANS, U.S. — On a cold Saturday in late January, a parade floats rolls down Royal Street painted with the image of the Louisiana coastline, eroding away. The next float displays Lady Liberty gagged and locked behind a chain-link fence. This is Krewe du Vieux, the raunchy, mule-drawn satirical parade that has rolled through [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[NEW ORLEANS, U.S. — On a cold Saturday in late January, a parade floats rolls down Royal Street painted with the image of the Louisiana coastline, eroding away. The next float displays Lady Liberty gagged and locked behind a chain-link fence. This is Krewe du Vieux, the raunchy, mule-drawn satirical parade that has rolled through New Orleans’ French Quarter for 40 years, making political jokes few others dare to make in public. Its 2026 theme is “Save the Wet Glands,” a play on “save the wetlands.” This year’s Krewe du Vieux Queen is Franziska Trautmann, the pink-haired co-founder and CEO of Glass Half Full, a business that takes the city’s glass bottles and turns them into sand used to rebuild Louisiana’s dwindling coast. Growing up here, the coastal erosion crisis is “like the boogeyman,” Trautmann told me outside the Glass Half Full facility in Chalmette, Louisiana. “It’s this overwhelming thing looming in the distance.” Krewe du Vieux is a satirical parade that has rolled through New Orleans for 40 years. Its 2026 theme is “Save the Wet Glands,” a play on “save the wetlands.”  Photo by Liz Kimbrough for Mongabay. A Krewe du Vieux float depicts Louisiana&#8217;s eroding coastline and current Louisiana governor during their February 2026 parade. Photo by Liz Kimbrough for Mongabay. Most locals have heard the statistics: roughly a football field of Louisiana is lost to the sea every hour. Large areas of grassy marshes and tree-laden swamps that once knit the coast together have succumbed to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/from-mardi-gras-to-marsh-glass-half-full-turns-party-glass-into-louisiana-coastline/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-323746</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Sri Lanka bans single-use plastic bottles at government events, charges for plastic bags</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/sri-lanka-bans-single-use-plastic-bottles-at-government-events-charges-for-plastic-bags/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/sri-lanka-bans-single-use-plastic-bottles-at-government-events-charges-for-plastic-bags/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Jun 2026 19:09:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malaka Rodrigo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Dilrukshi Handunnetti]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/08190037/1-Single-use-plastic-bottle-c-Pearl-Protectors-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320781</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, South Asia, and Sri Lanka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Consumption, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Governance, Plastic, Pollution, Recycling, Sustainability, Waste, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — Sri Lanka banned the purchase and use of single-use plastic water bottles in all government institutions effective May 31, under a new government circular that targets reduction of wasteful plastic consumption within the state sector. The move is the latest in a long line of attempts by the island nation to reduce plastic [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — Sri Lanka banned the purchase and use of single-use plastic water bottles in all government institutions effective May 31, under a new government circular that targets reduction of wasteful plastic consumption within the state sector. The move is the latest in a long line of attempts by the island nation to reduce plastic pollution — a crisis that clogs waterways, pollutes beaches, harms marine life, and overwhelms the country’s fragile waste management systems. But environmentalists say the real question is not whether Sri Lanka can announce another ban, but whether it can be enforced. The new directive applies to public institutions and is expected to reduce the routine use of disposable plastic water bottles during government meetings, events, offices and official functions. Authorities are encouraging reusable alternatives and better drinking water infrastructure within public institutions, says Kapila Rajapaksha, the director-general of the Central Environmental Authority (CEA), the state agency mandated to address plastic pollution. Sri Lanka’s plastic problem is growing exponentially. The National Plastic Waste Inventory (NPWI) published in 2024 has estimated the island’s municipal plastic waste generation to be approximately 250,000 metric tons per year. Sri Lanka recycles only about 27,000 metric tons of plastic waste annually, roughly 11% of total plastic waste generated. An estimated 68,000 metric tons, or 27% of plastic waste, remain uncollected and are often burned, buried or illegally dumped. Approximately 101,000 metric tons or 41% of the plastics go unaccounted from the waste management system during collection, transport, sorting and disposal. According&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/sri-lanka-bans-single-use-plastic-bottles-at-government-events-charges-for-plastic-bags/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320781</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The digital graveyard: Is Bangladesh becoming China’s e-waste back door?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/the-digital-graveyard-is-bangladesh-becoming-chinas-e-waste-back-door/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/the-digital-graveyard-is-bangladesh-becoming-chinas-e-waste-back-door/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 May 2026 13:34:50 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sajibur Rahman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abu Siddique]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/05110841/2-recovered-wires-from-dismantled-ships-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318733</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Bangladesh, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[E-waste, Environment, Environmental Law, Health, Law, Public Health, Recycling, Trade, and Waste]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As the world turns its attention to China’s increasingly stringent waste import ban, a dangerous stream of electronic waste is entering Bangladesh. Despite the enactment of the Hazardous Waste (e-waste) Management Rules 2021, weak regulatory systems and illegal trade routes are making the country a major destination for global “e-waste.” Electronic waste (e-waste), which includes [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As the world turns its attention to China’s increasingly stringent waste import ban, a dangerous stream of electronic waste is entering Bangladesh. Despite the enactment of the Hazardous Waste (e-waste) Management Rules 2021, weak regulatory systems and illegal trade routes are making the country a major destination for global “e-waste.” Electronic waste (e-waste), which includes discarded computers, laptops, phones, refrigerators and medical equipment, has become a growing crisis. According to the Bangladesh Mobile Phone Importers Association, about 35 million mobile handsets are sold every year in Bangladesh. With an average lifespan of just 2-4 years, about 30 million devices enter the local waste stream every year, most of which go unmonitored. The crisis is exacerbated by a massive increase in electronics imports. Bangladesh Bank (BB) data show that more than $2.47 billion was spent on imports of electrical appliances and accessories in the 2024-25 fiscal year. A significant portion of this was coming from China worth $1.8 billion. However, experts warn that a growing black market in refurbished products is hiding the true extent of the environmental threat. Refrigerator compressors stored and dismantled in unsafe ways. Image by Abdullah Zahid Osmani, TIB. Escalating electronics imports and the e-waste shadow The influx of electronics into Bangladesh has reached staggering proportions, raising significant concerns over the nation’s potential role as an unwritten “dumping ground” for global waste. A latest Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) study, using import and export data from the customs department, has revealed that Bangladesh imported e-waste materials worth around&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/the-digital-graveyard-is-bangladesh-becoming-chinas-e-waste-back-door/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318733</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Indonesia, a schoolboy moves mountains on waste as government targets reform</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/in-indonesia-a-schoolboy-moves-mountains-on-waste-as-government-targets-reform/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/in-indonesia-a-schoolboy-moves-mountains-on-waste-as-government-targets-reform/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Apr 2026 14:34:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gafur Abdullah]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/30142106/WhatsApp-Image-2026-02-13-at-17.46.13-1-1200x800-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318477</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Conservation leadership, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Recycling, and Waste]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JEMBER, Indonesia — Syazwan Luftan Riady traces his environmental campaigning to school holidays spent at his grandmother’s riverside home in a rural part of Indonesia’s East Java province. “Throw that trash in the river, the basket’s full!” Luftan said, mimicking the levity with which his grandmother, like millions of others on the world’s most populous [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JEMBER, Indonesia — Syazwan Luftan Riady traces his environmental campaigning to school holidays spent at his grandmother’s riverside home in a rural part of Indonesia’s East Java province. “Throw that trash in the river, the basket’s full!” Luftan said, mimicking the levity with which his grandmother, like millions of others on the world’s most populous island, handled household waste in the absence of government services. While still a schoolboy in Jember, East Java, Luftan learned from his parents and developed his interest in the environment further after joining Sekolah Alam Raya. At just 12 years old, Luftan went on to co-found an organization of his own, Wiskomunalian, a grassroots association of youngsters working on achievable measures to effect environmental change. “It was about making friends aware about the environment, especially the issue of waste,” said Luftan, now in his second year of an undergraduate degree at Brawijaya University in Malang, a four-hour drive from Jember. Some of the Wiskomunalian youth in January 2026. Image by Gafur Abdullah/Mongabay Indonesia Child star A goal of Luftan and his colleagues is that “every child must be supported with adequate knowledge and experience grounded in their local realities,” Wiskomunalian wrote last year. But converting that vision into cleaner rivers and streets is a tall order, amid population growth and limited fiscal space with which to build waste treatment facilities. The United Nations Environment Programme records Indonesia as generating around 3.2 million metric tons of plastic waste every year, making it the world’s second-largest plastic&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/in-indonesia-a-schoolboy-moves-mountains-on-waste-as-government-targets-reform/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318477</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia escalates ‘war on waste’ with criminal probe into Jakarta landfill disaster</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/indonesia-escalates-war-on-waste-with-criminal-probe-into-jakarta-landfill-disaster/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/indonesia-escalates-war-on-waste-with-criminal-probe-into-jakarta-landfill-disaster/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Apr 2026 01:00:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Achmad Rizki MuazamLuh De Suriyani]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/28142847/Bantargebang-landfill-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318274</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Jakarta, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Crime, Disasters, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Law, Recycling, and Waste]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesian authorities are pursuing a criminal investigation into two senior public health managers over the most recent tragedy and alleged mismanagement at two of the country’s largest landfill sites. The investigations were announced two months after President Prabowo Subianto publicly declared a “war on waste,” and just weeks after a fatal avalanche of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesian authorities are pursuing a criminal investigation into two senior public health managers over the most recent tragedy and alleged mismanagement at two of the country’s largest landfill sites. The investigations were announced two months after President Prabowo Subianto publicly declared a “war on waste,” and just weeks after a fatal avalanche of garbage at Southeast Asia’s largest dump. On March 8, seven sanitation and support workers were killed after being buried under a landslide of solid waste following structural failure at the Bantargebang site east of Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital city. A further six people were injured. Bantargebang, the country’s largest landfill, spans an area the size of 200 football fields and reaches more than 50 meters (167 feet) high at its peak, taller than the Statue of Liberty. Indonesia’s environment minister at the time said Asep Kuswanto, the former head of the Jakarta Environmental Agency, responsible for operating Bantargebang, had been charged on April 20 under the country’s 2008 environment law. Excavators atop a mountain of garbage in Bantargebang. Image by Achmad Rizki Muazam/Mongabay Indonesia. “We conducted an environmental audit, which found that required standards had not been met,” Hanif Faisol Nurofiq told Mongabay Indonesia on April 21. (On April 27, Hanif was removed from his post in a cabinet reshuffle.) If convicted, Asep could face up to five years’ imprisonment and a fine of up to 15 billion rupiah (around $870,000). Hanif added that environmental investigators would continue to investigate the Bantargebang tragedy, and did not&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/indonesia-escalates-war-on-waste-with-criminal-probe-into-jakarta-landfill-disaster/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318274</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Open dumping &#038; failed reforms bury Sri Lankan cities in waste problem</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/open-dumping-failed-reforms-bury-sri-lankan-cities-in-waste-problem/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/open-dumping-failed-reforms-bury-sri-lankan-cities-in-waste-problem/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Apr 2026 12:12:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malaka Rodrigo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Dilrukshi Handunnetti]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/23114935/1-Sri-Lanka-Air-Force-pictures-of-Meethotamulla-Garbage-dump-disaster--768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318011</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, South Asia, and Sri Lanka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Air Pollution, Disasters, Environment, Environmental Policy, Food Waste, Governance, Habitat, Law Enforcement, Pollution, Recycling, and Waste]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — As Sri Lankans celebrate the traditional New Year on April 14 each year, a period marked by family gatherings and renewal, there are no celebrations at Keerthirathna Perera’s home anymore. In 2017, the Perera family was in celebration mode in their two-level home in Meethotamulla, in western Sri Lanka. But their festive lunch [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — As Sri Lankans celebrate the traditional New Year on April 14 each year, a period marked by family gatherings and renewal, there are no celebrations at Keerthirathna Perera’s home anymore. In 2017, the Perera family was in celebration mode in their two-level home in Meethotamulla, in western Sri Lanka. But their festive lunch was interrupted around 2 p.m. by a faint tremor. Moments later, a neighbor shouted that the stairway was suddenly cracking. Alarmed, the family rushed outside, only seconds before a deafening roar engulfed the area as a massive wave of garbage and earth surged upward. Houses shifted, some collapsed instantly, while others were simply thrust aside. When the noise eventually faded, the neighborhood found itself reduced to a chaotic field of rubble. In this confusion, Keerthirathna searched desperately for his family. He found his wife trapped waist-deep in debris and saw only his granddaughter’s hand nearby, while there was no trace of his daughter and son-in-law. Rescue teams worked through the night, pulling his wife to safety around 10 p.m. and recovering the bodies of his granddaughter and son-in-law. After continuous digging through the unstable waste mound, four days later, his daughter’s lifeless body was finally recovered. The disaster killed at least 32 people, displaced hundreds and destroyed more than 140 homes, leaving more than a thousand homeless. The collapse of the mount at Meethotamulla exposed the catastrophic consequences of unmanaged urban waste accumulation and Sri Lanka’s repeated institutional failure to tackle the solid waste problem.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/open-dumping-failed-reforms-bury-sri-lankan-cities-in-waste-problem/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318011</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Plastic, from home and abroad, spills into Türkiye’s waters</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/plastic-from-home-and-abroad-spills-into-turkiyes-waters/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/plastic-from-home-and-abroad-spills-into-turkiyes-waters/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Mar 2026 16:59:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Guia BaggiUtku Kuran]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/11152022/4377-compressed-plastic-waste-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315550</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Europe, Mediterranean Sea, Middle East, and Turkey]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Economics, Environment, Environmental Law, Fish, Global Environmental Crisis, Industry, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Microplastics, Oceans, Plastic, Pollution, Recycling, and Waste]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[ADANA, Türkiye — Along the final stretch of the Seyhan River, in southern Türkiye, plastic bits in various colors dot the water and sediment. When the river bends, shredded plastic, degraded by the elements, forms large gray patches. Downstream, where the Seyhan flows into Mersin Bay, debris large enough to display clues to its origin [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[ADANA, Türkiye — Along the final stretch of the Seyhan River, in southern Türkiye, plastic bits in various colors dot the water and sediment. When the river bends, shredded plastic, degraded by the elements, forms large gray patches. Downstream, where the Seyhan flows into Mersin Bay, debris large enough to display clues to its origin lies scattered across the wetland: wrinkled German-labeled packages of Thai-style chicken noodles, unopened single-use cutlery from the U.K., an empty margarine box from Spain, among many others. Between the small village of Baharlı and the sea, fishing barracks stand at the juncture of a large canal and the river. A fisher uses a wooden oar to lift the anoxic black sediments and show how plastic fragments have become ubiquitous across the riverbed. They are everywhere, his colleague Halil Balıkçıoğlu told Mongabay, along with sewage and chemical waste from big factories. “It wasn&#8217;t like this 30 years ago,” Balıkçıoğlu said. “We used to make tea with this water.” Fishing barracks at the juncture of a large canal and the Seyhan River. Image by Utku Kuran for Mongabay. In recent years, there’s been a rapid evolution in the local recycling industry largely fed by imports of foreign waste. According to U.N. Comtrade data, 677,663 metric tons of plastic scraps traveled to Türkiye in 2024 alone, 77% of it from the U.K. and the EU combined. Since China closed its doors to plastic waste imports in 2018, Türkiye has become a major destination. Most of this scrap heads&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/plastic-from-home-and-abroad-spills-into-turkiyes-waters/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/plastic-from-home-and-abroad-spills-into-turkiyes-waters/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315550</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Recycling startups test limits of private solutions to deluge of waste in Lagos</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/recycling-startups-test-limits-of-private-solutions-to-deluge-of-waste-in-lagos/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/recycling-startups-test-limits-of-private-solutions-to-deluge-of-waste-in-lagos/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Feb 2026 14:26:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abdulwaheed Sofiullahi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/20142553/HawkerWithDrinks2017_LagosNigeria_RobinUtrechtUNSGFlickrBYNCND2.0-BANNER.2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314521</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Nigeria, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Environment, Governance, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Human Rights, Illegal Trade, International Trade, Plastic, Pollution, Recycling, Trade, and Waste]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[OJUELEGBA, Nigeria — On the bustling streets of this central Lagos neighborhood, it’s easy to buy a drink. Hawkers weave between buses and motorcycles with wheelbarrows of bottled water and canned beverages. Finding a bin for the empty container is much harder. Many end up on the ground. Glass, cardboard, aluminum and — most commonly [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[OJUELEGBA, Nigeria — On the bustling streets of this central Lagos neighborhood, it’s easy to buy a drink. Hawkers weave between buses and motorcycles with wheelbarrows of bottled water and canned beverages. Finding a bin for the empty container is much harder. Many end up on the ground. Glass, cardboard, aluminum and — most commonly — plastic collect in piles at busy junctions and in open gutters, mixed with food waste and refuse from nearby shops and homes. Drains clog, and stagnant water lingers. Bayo Adeolu, proud holder of a degree in plant biology from the University of Lagos, spent months tramping these same streets in search of work. He endured rejection after rejection, then tried selling used phones with a friend, but competition in this saturated market beat them back. One afternoon, scrolling through social media, a post caught his eye. &#8220;Earn-As-You-Waste,&#8221; it read, advertising an information session for Pakam, a company promoting recycling as a source of income. At the session, Pakam’s staff explained how participants could earn money by collecting recyclable waste from the company’s clients. Registered collectors, they said, would be trained to sort and weigh the waste, record this shabby bounty digitally, and transport the recovered materials to aggregation points. The state of Lagos state generates nearly 5.5 million metric tons of solid waste every year, according to the state waste management authority — or roughly 15,000 metric tons a day. A 2024 World Bank study estimated that nearly 40% of this rubbish is recyclable&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/recycling-startups-test-limits-of-private-solutions-to-deluge-of-waste-in-lagos/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/recycling-startups-test-limits-of-private-solutions-to-deluge-of-waste-in-lagos/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314521</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Can two Amazons survive? Invisible e-waste is poisoning the world</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/can-two-amazons-survive-invisible-e-waste-is-poisoning-the-world/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/can-two-amazons-survive-invisible-e-waste-is-poisoning-the-world/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Dec 2025 21:18:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gerry McGovernSue Branford]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/03083255/10-Abogbloshie-dump-in-Ghana-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310477</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, Ghana, Global, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, Business, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Footprint, Climate Change, Consumption, E-waste, Emission Reduction, Energy, Environment, Environmental Policy, Global Environmental Crisis, Globalization, Health, Industry, Mining, Overconsumption, Planetary Health, Pollution, Public Health, Recycling, Research, Water, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[“I live in Accra, Ghana,” says Isaac Dinwe, who works for Closing the Loop, a Dutch company that works with the electronics industry to increase global recycling. “The e-waste problem in my country is so huge we are unable to manage it. Most of our e-waste ends up in city centres. Informal workers extract what [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[“I live in Accra, Ghana,” says Isaac Dinwe, who works for Closing the Loop, a Dutch company that works with the electronics industry to increase global recycling. “The e-waste problem in my country is so huge we are unable to manage it. Most of our e-waste ends up in city centres. Informal workers extract what they can sell and burn the rest. It causes a lot of pollution,” Dinwe writes in an email to Mongabay from the group. Dinwe is one of a handful of Ghanaians tackling a public health and environmental crisis brought on by the global consumer economy and a lack of legislation and infrastructure around the globe. Dinwe heads a team trained to properly handle e-waste and travels to repair shops, villages and churches to buy “dead” phones that would otherwise end up landfilled or burned. “We are careful not to pay too much, as we want the phones to be used right up to the end of their life,” explains Closing the Loop CEO Joost de Kluijver. Isaac Dinwe, a Ghanaian, heads a team of 16 people who buy &#8216;dead&#8217; phones cheaply from repair shops and elsewhere in Accra, Ghana, to prevent them from being tossed into landfills. But, despite the team&#8217;s work, a lot of e-waste ends up in waste dumps where scavengers extract salvageable bits, then burn the rest, causing pollution that threatens public health. Image courtesy of Closing the Loop. Closing the Loop has joined with phone makers and sellers in Europe to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/can-two-amazons-survive-invisible-e-waste-is-poisoning-the-world/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/can-two-amazons-survive-invisible-e-waste-is-poisoning-the-world/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310477</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Tony Pritzker’s patient strategy for the planet</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/tony-pritzkers-patient-strategy-for-the-planet/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/tony-pritzkers-patient-strategy-for-the-planet/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Oct 2025 01:28:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/05222902/tony-pritzker-06-header-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307076</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Nature conservation Influencers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Education, Environment, Environmental Policy, Green, Green Design, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, philanthropy, Recycling, Sustainability, Waste, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Tony Pritzker approaches environmental philanthropy like a patient strategist. A scion of one of America’s best-known business families, he has spent decades moving between boardrooms, laboratories, and community meetings, applying the training of an engineer to problems that range from stormwater treatment in Los Angeles to packaging waste in global supply chains. Guided less by [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Tony Pritzker approaches environmental philanthropy like a patient strategist. A scion of one of America’s best-known business families, he has spent decades moving between boardrooms, laboratories, and community meetings, applying the training of an engineer to problems that range from stormwater treatment in Los Angeles to packaging waste in global supply chains. Guided less by ideology than by pragmatism, he insists that “science is science and it’s fact-based,” and that durable solutions come from setting clear goals, gathering evidence, and persisting until results are visible. Growing up in northern California and later raising a family in Los Angeles, he was never far from the state’s landscapes—from Lake Tahoe’s ski slopes to Santa Monica Bay. “I’m also a swimmer,” he says, recalling the moment when his love of the ocean turned into action. “I wanted the bay to be super clean because I swam there.” That instinct brought him to Heal the Bay two decades ago, where he joined the board under the leadership of Mark Gold. What began as an effort to keep a beach swimmable became a lesson in how to harness science, advocacy, and civic partnerships. Gold, he says, “really was my mentor.” The template endures. For Heal the Bay the goals were simple: gather the science, train teachers, bring children to the ocean, and press policymakers. Out of such apparently modest steps came infrastructure investments such as stormwater treatment at Hyperion, which now filters hundreds of millions of gallons of runoff a year. Along the way the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/tony-pritzkers-patient-strategy-for-the-planet/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/tony-pritzkers-patient-strategy-for-the-planet/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307076</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New coalition focuses on ‘reuse’ to tackle top polluter Indonesia’s plastic waste problem</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/new-coalition-focuses-on-reuse-to-tackle-top-polluter-indonesias-plastic-waste-problem/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/new-coalition-focuses-on-reuse-to-tackle-top-polluter-indonesias-plastic-waste-problem/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Aug 2025 14:47:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/08074624/SAMPAH-GANGGU-NELAYAN-TRADISIONAL-1-1-2048x1536-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304756</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Business, Environment, Green, Plastic, Pollution, Recycling, Sustainability, Waste, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Thirteen organizations and businesses have launched the Indonesian Reuse Association, or AGUNI, a coalition dedicated to building a sustainable reuse system to curb the country’s worsening waste crisis. AGUNI serves as a collective hub for pioneering businesses offering reuse-based solutions for everyday needs, ranging from micro-enterprises to tech-based startups. Collectively, its members already [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Thirteen organizations and businesses have launched the Indonesian Reuse Association, or AGUNI, a coalition dedicated to building a sustainable reuse system to curb the country’s worsening waste crisis. AGUNI serves as a collective hub for pioneering businesses offering reuse-based solutions for everyday needs, ranging from micro-enterprises to tech-based startups. Collectively, its members already operate more than 1,000 refill and reuse access points nationwide. The launch coincides with a global push toward a circular economy — an economic model where materials are kept in use for as long as possible — and growing consumer awareness of the need for more responsible lifestyles. A member of AGUNI, YAGI Natural, provides beauty products with returnable packaging, meaning customers can return empty containers to be reused. “With the establishment of AGUNI, we hope to invite more consumers to embrace a social norm that aligns with nature,” YAGI Natural co-founder Zulfikar said. Another AGUNI member, TAKSU Reuse, provides reusable cups, forks and plates for events. “With AGUNI, we are moving together to mainstream reuse as part of everyday life,” said Ni Luh Sri Junantari, chief operating officer of TAKSU Reuse. Other members include enterprises offering returnable takeaway containers and bulk distribution systems. Visitors practice reuse during a music festival in Bali, Iklim Fest, in 2023. Image courtesy of Dietplastik Indonesia. A mounting waste crisis Indonesia’s waste crisis continues to worsen, with millions of tons of garbage left unmanaged, clogging rivers and polluting the ocean. The issue of plastic waste is particularly dire as&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/new-coalition-focuses-on-reuse-to-tackle-top-polluter-indonesias-plastic-waste-problem/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/new-coalition-focuses-on-reuse-to-tackle-top-polluter-indonesias-plastic-waste-problem/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304756</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Air quality study of East Java waste-to-energy plant sparks dispute, health warnings</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/air-quality-study-of-east-java-waste-to-energy-plant-sparks-dispute-health-warnings/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/air-quality-study-of-east-java-waste-to-energy-plant-sparks-dispute-health-warnings/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Aug 2025 03:31:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Petrus Riski]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/14103558/PLTSa-Benowo-Proyek-Berisiko-WALHI-Jatim-Tagih-Keterbukaan-Pemkot-Surabaya-EPOCHSTREAM-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304282</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, East Java, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Alternative Energy, carbon, Carbon Emissions, Conservation, Development, Emission Reduction, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Environment, Environmental Law, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Industry, Politics, Pollution, Recycling, Renewable Energy, and Waste]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A 54-day monitoring by Indonesia’s largest environmental group around a waste-to-energy plant in East Java revealed frequent air quality levels breaching World Health Organization safety limits, raising concerns for public health. Indonesian NGO Walhi has recently published its findings from stationary and mobile monitoring of the air quality at five locations in the vicinity of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A 54-day monitoring by Indonesia’s largest environmental group around a waste-to-energy plant in East Java revealed frequent air quality levels breaching World Health Organization safety limits, raising concerns for public health. Indonesian NGO Walhi has recently published its findings from stationary and mobile monitoring of the air quality at five locations in the vicinity of the Benowo waste-to-energy plant in Surabaya city between November 2024 and January 2025. The results show exceeding safety levels of PM2.5 and PM10, which are tiny air pollution particles about the size of dust or smoke, which can slip into the lungs, with the former being so small it can enter the bloodstream and affect the whole body. “The most dramatic spikes occurred between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., when the incinerator was running,” said Wahyu Eka Setyawan, the executive director of Walhi East Java. The Benowo waste-to-energy plant in Surabaya turns trash into electricity. Image by Petrus Riski/Mongabay-Indonesia. Inaugurated by former President Joko Widodo on May 6, 2021, the Benowo plant is Indonesia’s first and largest, processing 1,000 tons of waste daily to generate 12 MW of electricity. The facility houses two power plants: a 1.65 MW sanitary landfill system operating since Nov. 30, 2015, and a 9 MW gasification system that began running on March 10, 2021. Using data from AirBeam3 air quality monitor devices, Walhi found that the average PM2.5 concentration across all stations was 26.78 µg/m³, with the highest recorded level reaching 78 µg/m³. Meanwhile, at some stations, PM10 concentrations exceeded&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/air-quality-study-of-east-java-waste-to-energy-plant-sparks-dispute-health-warnings/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/air-quality-study-of-east-java-waste-to-energy-plant-sparks-dispute-health-warnings/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304282</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Burning, burying and banning: Indonesia’s cities struggle to manage their garbage</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/burning-burying-and-banning-indonesias-cities-struggle-to-manage-their-garbage/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/burning-burying-and-banning-indonesias-cities-struggle-to-manage-their-garbage/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jul 2025 00:23:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeff Hutton]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/22070704/bamban-heru-zgd-5yJIsb8-unsplash-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302916</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Bali, Indonesia, Java, South Sumatra, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Cities, Corruption, Crime, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Plastic, Pollution, Recycling, and Waste]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Haryanto surveys a sandy patch the size of roughly half a soccer field. Overlooked by a 40-meter (130-foot) lighthouse, the clearing is a stone’s throw from the Pacific Ocean, where the surf pummels Pandansari Beach — a pristine stretch lined with casuarina trees about an hour’s drive south of the Indonesian city of Yogyakarta. But [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Haryanto surveys a sandy patch the size of roughly half a soccer field. Overlooked by a 40-meter (130-foot) lighthouse, the clearing is a stone’s throw from the Pacific Ocean, where the surf pummels Pandansari Beach — a pristine stretch lined with casuarina trees about an hour’s drive south of the Indonesian city of Yogyakarta. But here, directly under the 66-year-old’s feet: 1,800 cubic meters of garbage — nearly 200 dump truck loads — of household, industrial and even hospital waste, Haryanto says. According to Haryanto, a one-time manager with the state electricity monopoly PLN, the garbage appeared unannounced last December. Some 18 months prior to that, 10 times that amount landed on a second, bigger site about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) away in a similar manner. “This is a tourist area. There was no warning. It just appeared,” Haryanto tells Mongabay. Haryanto now heads a local group called Forum Peduli Gadingsari, named after his village in the district of Bantul and intended to “watch out for government mismanagement,” as he puts it. “There was no environmental review. There were no permits. What if there was a tsunami? How do they manage the leachate? This is an environmental crime,” he says. For at least two decades, Indonesian governments have struggled to come to grips with their growing mountains of waste, with much of it dumped illegally. More than 35% of all of Indonesia’s garbage — some 11 million metric tons last year — was deemed unmanaged, finding its way into rivers,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/burning-burying-and-banning-indonesias-cities-struggle-to-manage-their-garbage/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/burning-burying-and-banning-indonesias-cities-struggle-to-manage-their-garbage/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302916</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Open burning of plastic is an escalating public health threat, say experts</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/open-burning-of-plastic-is-an-escalating-public-health-threat-say-experts/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/open-burning-of-plastic-is-an-escalating-public-health-threat-say-experts/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Jul 2025 16:19:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/16132324/Image_9-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302653</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, Central America, Ghana, Guatemala, Malawi, Southeast Asia, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, Carbon Emissions, Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Fires, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Health, Microplastics, Planetary Health, Plastic, Pollution, Public Health, Recycling, Toxicology, and Waste]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When Tiwonge Mzumara-Gawa was a child, her mother sent her to market with a basket woven from grasses. “But now we don&#8217;t do that,” she says, because plastic has taken over most utilitarian purposes in today’s Malawi. “You go and you get a plastic carrier, and they&#8217;re usually not reusable plastics.” In many Malawi communities, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When Tiwonge Mzumara-Gawa was a child, her mother sent her to market with a basket woven from grasses. “But now we don&#8217;t do that,” she says, because plastic has taken over most utilitarian purposes in today’s Malawi. “You go and you get a plastic carrier, and they&#8217;re usually not reusable plastics.” In many Malawi communities, and across poorer nations worldwide, there is no waste collection or proper disposal. Instead, families faced with an onslaught of cheap plastic products — including single-use bags, bottles and diapers — commonly burn the waste in pits beside their homes. With a growing number of developing-world communities living beneath a pall of toxic petrochemical plastic smoke, Mzumara-Gawa is sounding the alarm. Now an ecologist at the Malawi University of Science and Technology and an environmental advocate with the NGO Tearfund, she says the widespread open burning of plastics is taking an increasingly heavy public health and environmental toll that is largely being ignored. Experts warn that many communities are resorting to the burning of plastic waste in households as fuel, while burning by industry to make energy is also becoming common. Add to this the vast volume of plastic waste dumped by the Global North on the Global South — waste that often ends up being incinerated without pollution controls. A dump site in Malaysia, a nation that recently blocked U.S. plastic waste exports. Shipments of plastic products and plastic waste from the Global North to the Global South are creating a flood of plastics&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/open-burning-of-plastic-is-an-escalating-public-health-threat-say-experts/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/open-burning-of-plastic-is-an-escalating-public-health-threat-say-experts/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302653</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia bets on ‘reuse’ to curb plastic waste and build a circular economy</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/indonesia-bets-on-reuse-to-curb-plastic-waste-and-build-a-circular-economy/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/indonesia-bets-on-reuse-to-curb-plastic-waste-and-build-a-circular-economy/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Apr 2025 11:24:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/10105656/T2A0590-scaled-1-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=297385</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Circular Economy, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, Marine, Oceans, Plastic, Pollution, Recycling, Waste, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — With the Islamic month of Ramadan now over, a familiar sight has returned to the streets of daytime Jakarta: street vendors serving up chicken porridge, and everyone from office workers to delivery drivers perched on plastic stools around the steaming carts, digging into a bowl of the congee-like breakfast staple. As with most [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — With the Islamic month of Ramadan now over, a familiar sight has returned to the streets of daytime Jakarta: street vendors serving up chicken porridge, and everyone from office workers to delivery drivers perched on plastic stools around the steaming carts, digging into a bowl of the congee-like breakfast staple. As with most other street food in the bustling Indonesian capital, bubur ayam, as it’s known, is served in a ceramic bowl with a stainless steel spoon, which are washed after use for the next customer. Get it to go, however, and it’s ladled into a Styrofoam container lined with a plastic sheet, bundled into a plastic bag with a plastic spoon. Played out countless times every morning throughout the country, this familiar vignette is a good illustration of how Indonesia has the capacity to go big on the least-practiced aspect of the “3 Rs,” said Tiza Mafira: the “reuse” part of the “reduce-reuse-recycle” mantra. Tiza is the director of the Indonesia Plastic Bag Diet Movement, a civil society initiative that aims to get people to cut back on their plastic use through the 3 Rs. “In reality, reuse is already a part of Indonesia’s traditional wisdom,” she said, pointing to the people who take the time to have their bubur ayam on the sidewalk. Chicken porridge served in a ceramic bowl with a stainless steel spoon from a street vendor in Jakarta in 2024. Image courtesy of David Wadie Fisher-Freberg/Wikimedia Commons. She also cited the example of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/indonesia-bets-on-reuse-to-curb-plastic-waste-and-build-a-circular-economy/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/indonesia-bets-on-reuse-to-curb-plastic-waste-and-build-a-circular-economy/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-297385</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Underwater citizen science reveals the specter of ghost fishing in Thailand</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/underwater-citizen-science-reveals-the-specter-of-ghost-fishing-gear-in-thailand/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/underwater-citizen-science-reveals-the-specter-of-ghost-fishing-gear-in-thailand/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Jan 2025 15:28:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/01/30145915/Banner_Lethrinus-lentjan-Petra-4_Image-courtesy-of-Aow-Thai-Marine-Ecology-Center-ATMEC-scaled-e1738249656854-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=293655</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Oceans]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Citizen Science, Conservation, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Governance, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Invertebrates, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Plastic, Pollution, Recycling, Sustainability, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Marine biologists diving in the Gulf of Thailand were thrilled in 2023 to rediscover several colonies of a rare type of ocean sponge once thought to be extinct in the wild. But their excitement quickly gave way to concern when they realized many of the Neptune’s cup sponges (Cliona patera) were entangled in discarded fishing [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Marine biologists diving in the Gulf of Thailand were thrilled in 2023 to rediscover several colonies of a rare type of ocean sponge once thought to be extinct in the wild. But their excitement quickly gave way to concern when they realized many of the Neptune’s cup sponges (Cliona patera) were entangled in discarded fishing gear. “We rediscovered it conclusively in the Gulf of Thailand, but we’re losing them at a rate that means this could just be a blip in the entire story of this species,” Rahul Mehrotra, research director at the Aow Thai Marine Ecology Center, told Mongabay. Spurred by the sponge’s plight, Mehrotra recently led a study that assessed the scale of the impacts of discarded or “ghost” fishing gear on Thailand’s marine species. The study, published in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin, compiled data from more than 100 underwater surveys conducted between 2021 and 2023 at sites across the Gulf of Thailand and Andaman Sea, to the country’s east and west, respectively. The teams of marine researchers and citizen scientists found 606 pieces of ghost gear across all the dive sites, amounting to more than 1,200 square meters (about 13,000 square feet) of netting and hundreds of meters of rope and fishing line. A wide range of species, from the hard corals that build crucial reef habitats, to crabs, marine snails and schooling and predatory fish, had perished in the abandoned equipment. Among the victims were barracuda, groupers, batfish and porcupinefish, as well as branching corals&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/underwater-citizen-science-reveals-the-specter-of-ghost-fishing-gear-in-thailand/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-293655</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Recycling gold can tackle illegal mining in the Amazon, but is no silver bullet</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/recycling-gold-can-tackle-illegal-mining-in-the-amazon-but-is-no-silver-bullet/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/recycling-gold-can-tackle-illegal-mining-in-the-amazon-but-is-no-silver-bullet/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Dec 2024 09:00:50 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sarah Brown]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/12112252/Typical-ASGM-768x512-1.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=291509</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Emissions, Climate Change, Conflict, Conservation, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Emission Reduction, Environment, Gold Mining, Governance, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Mining, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Recycling, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Researchers suggest that recycling gold could dramatically reduce harmful emissions, along with other solutions such as formalizing mining, adopting clean technologies, and improving gold supply chain transparency.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Decades of artisanal and small-scale gold mining in the Tapajós River Basin have left a heavy environmental legacy in the Brazilian Amazon: rivers contaminated with mercury, and high greenhouse gas emissions. Researchers are now proposing recycling gold as a sustainable alternative, one that could dramatically reduce these impacts and outperform even &#8220;green&#8221; gold mining, which focuses on more sustainable extraction methods. The findings, presented at a sustainability conference in Japan in November, show that recycling used gold, particularly from high-value end-of-life sources like old jewelry, has the lowest environmental footprint, emitting as little as 22-50 kilograms of CO2 per kilogram of gold produced, according to data the researchers published in the journal Nature Sustainability in 2024. In comparison, artisanal and small-scale mining (ASGM) in the Tapajós River Basin generates approximately 16 metric tons of CO2 equivalent per kilogram of gold, but still less than the 21 metric tons produced by industrial operations. “The carbon footprint is a fundamental problem in gold mining, both ASM and industrial mining,” study co-author Mario Schmidt, a professor of environmental management at Pforzheim University in Germany, told Mongabay. “Here, the only solution is recycling, although care must be taken to ensure that primary gold is not illegally mixed with recycled gold.” Despite the carbon efficiency of recycling “scrap” gold, the relentless demand for newly mined gold persists, driven by economic and fashion pressures as well as cultural notions linking gold and wealth. Even small-scale gold mining releases large carbon emissions, up to 16,000 kilograms of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/recycling-gold-can-tackle-illegal-mining-in-the-amazon-but-is-no-silver-bullet/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/recycling-gold-can-tackle-illegal-mining-in-the-amazon-but-is-no-silver-bullet/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-291509</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ever-smarter consumer electronics push world toward environmental brink</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/ever-smarter-consumer-electronics-push-world-toward-environmental-brink/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/ever-smarter-consumer-electronics-push-world-toward-environmental-brink/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Sep 2024 15:15:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gerry McGovernSue Branford]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/09/24083313/Agbogbloshie-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=287749</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Circular economy and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Costa Rica, Global, and Taiwan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Footprint, charcoal, Climate Change, Coal, Consumption, E-waste, Emission Reduction, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Environment, Environmental Policy, Fossil Fuels, Global Environmental Crisis, Industry, Mining, Overconsumption, Pollution, Recycling, Research, Water, and Water Scarcity]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In recent decades, the electronics industry experienced meteoric growth as it swiftly invented and marketed a galaxy of novel products for consumers hungry for the next innovation, better performance and greater convenience. In 2024, the consumer electronics market alone is expected to top $809 billion, exceeding $1.4 trillion by 2034. But there’s a dark side [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In recent decades, the electronics industry experienced meteoric growth as it swiftly invented and marketed a galaxy of novel products for consumers hungry for the next innovation, better performance and greater convenience. In 2024, the consumer electronics market alone is expected to top $809 billion, exceeding $1.4 trillion by 2034. But there’s a dark side to this tech miracle: Our digital age love affair with ever-more-powerful cell phones, smart TVs, laptops, tablets, gaming consoles and other devices comes with a high price. The environmental and social costs of producing the trillions of silicon semiconductor chips needed to run our gadgets and to operate remote data centers is escalating incredibly fast and “fostering an environmental time bomb,” warns Ian Williams, professor of applied environmental science at the University of Southampton, U.K. “The environmental impact of making semiconductor chips is already huge and increasing rapidly,” Williams tells Mongabay. Today, the complex integrated circuitry inside an electronic device is a miracle of miniaturization and nanometer-accurate precision with each millimeter-thick, fingernail-sized silicon chip incorporating 30-100 sandwiched layers of etched interconnected transistors and electronic components. But chip structure and computing power doesn’t stand still: It must keep pace with new tech innovations. “Each new generation requires more energy and water and generates more greenhouse gases than the previous generation,” Williams explains. However, few seem aware of the looming risk. Competition among tech giants to produce faster, more advanced devices is leading to unbridled demand for increasingly sophisticated semiconductors, worsening global impacts. Unless urgent action is&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/ever-smarter-consumer-electronics-push-world-toward-environmental-brink/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/ever-smarter-consumer-electronics-push-world-toward-environmental-brink/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-287749</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Aluminum and steel vital to energy transition, but need circular solutions</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/aluminum-and-steel-vital-to-energy-transition-but-need-circular-solutions/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/aluminum-and-steel-vital-to-energy-transition-but-need-circular-solutions/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Sep 2024 14:53:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/09/18124556/7-A-steel-production-site-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=287556</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Circular economy and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Emissions, Chemicals, Circular Economy, Climate Change, Consumption, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Global Environmental Crisis, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Industry, Infrastructure, Law, Mining, Overconsumption, Pollution, Public Health, Rainforests, Recycling, Renewable Energy, Research, Supply Chain, and Sustainability]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This is the second of a two-part story. Part one deals with aluminum and steel impacts; Part two explores circular solutions. Aluminum and steel have long been hailed for their relatively high recycling rates compared to other materials such as petrochemical-based plastics. But experts point to numerous supply chain faults for these metals — extending [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This is the second of a two-part story. Part one deals with aluminum and steel impacts; Part two explores circular solutions. Aluminum and steel have long been hailed for their relatively high recycling rates compared to other materials such as petrochemical-based plastics. But experts point to numerous supply chain faults for these metals — extending from the mining of ores to finished products — resulting in significant environmental, social and health harms. If the status quo for sourcing and refining these metals continues into the future, experts warn, then these global costs are likely to rise, as production volumes ramp up to meet the needs of the energy transition and global infrastructure expansion. However, some analysts say these industries could be prime candidates for circular economy solutions, though that shift will pose extensive challenges. Both sectors would need to shift from their predominantly “take-make-waste” linear economic models, to embrace the “reduce, reuse and recycle” circular economic model. Those three R’s can be further delineated as refuse, repair, refurbish, remanufacture and repurpose. Circularity aims to turn the cradle-to-grave linear economic model of production and consumption into a closed loop of perpetual renewal. But the push for sustainability is currently going backward, not forward. The global circularity rate, defined as the share of secondary materials consumed by the global economy, declined from 9.1% in 2018 to 7.2% in 2023. This backsliding is due to rising consumption and material use, according to the most recent Circularity Gap report by Circle Economy, an NGO.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/aluminum-and-steel-vital-to-energy-transition-but-need-circular-solutions/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/aluminum-and-steel-vital-to-energy-transition-but-need-circular-solutions/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-287556</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Most ‘compostable’ bioplastics are anything but, says new report</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/most-compostable-bioplastics-are-anything-but-says-new-report/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/most-compostable-bioplastics-are-anything-but-says-new-report/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Jul 2024 14:20:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Alden Wicker]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/31104219/bioplastics-lab-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=285452</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Chemicals, Circular Economy, Environment, Environmental Policy, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Industry, Microplastics, Plastic, Pollution, Recycling, Regulations, Research, Sustainability, and Sustainable Development]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Plastic trash has become one of the most visible global environmental crises of our time. Single-use plastics make up nearly half of all plastics produced, with 15 million metric tons of plastic now entering the ocean annually — equal to two garbage trucks dumping their loads into the sea every minute. Plastics are everywhere: Found [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Plastic trash has become one of the most visible global environmental crises of our time. Single-use plastics make up nearly half of all plastics produced, with 15 million metric tons of plastic now entering the ocean annually — equal to two garbage trucks dumping their loads into the sea every minute. Plastics are everywhere: Found pole to pole, in clouds, drinking water, the stomachs of whales and seabirds, with bigger pieces degrading into centuries-lasting, often toxic micro- and nanoplastic particles that make their way into food and the human body — including our brains, breast milk and testicles. With the next, and hopefully final, U.N. global plastics treaty negotiations set for a year-end meeting in Busan, South Korea, developing nations suffering the brunt of the crisis are calling for limits on plastic production. But industry groups propose a different solution that would allow single-use plastics production to continue apace: compostable and biodegradable bioplastics. But as Mongabay recently reported, emerging research shows that bio-based plastics — made from corn, sugar beet, sugarcane, cellulose and other organics — can be just as toxic as petroleum-based plastics. Now, a new report from Beyond Plastics, an NGO, makes a strong case that “biodegradable” and “compostable” plastics not only fail to live up to their sustainable promise — they could be harming ecosystems, farms that source bioplastic-contaminated compost, and people. A garbage truck prepares to dump its load within view of a beach at Azua, Dominican Republic. There are no legally binding federal standards for&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/most-compostable-bioplastics-are-anything-but-says-new-report/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-285452</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Bangladesh incinerator project sparks row between government &#038; contractor</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/bangladesh-incinerator-project-sparks-row-between-government-contractor/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/bangladesh-incinerator-project-sparks-row-between-government-contractor/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Jun 2024 14:07:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kamran Reza Chowdhury]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abu Siddique]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/06/26130927/waste-excavator-bangladesh-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=283700</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Bangladesh, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Development, E-waste, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Industry, Law, Pollution, Recycling, Sustainable Development, and Waste]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A disagreement between the Bangladesh government and the contractor China Machinery and Engineering Corp. (CMEC) has apparently stalled the implementation of the first-ever waste-to-power project in Bangladesh&#8217;s capital, Dhaka. This has exposed a debate about whether the government should proceed with the controversial incineration project. The contracting authority, Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC), wants to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A disagreement between the Bangladesh government and the contractor China Machinery and Engineering Corp. (CMEC) has apparently stalled the implementation of the first-ever waste-to-power project in Bangladesh&#8217;s capital, Dhaka. This has exposed a debate about whether the government should proceed with the controversial incineration project. The contracting authority, Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC), wants to execute the 42-megawatt electricity project at the Aminbazar landfill site, where the corporation dumps 3,500 metric tons of waste per day. Data show that Bangladesh’s daily per capita generation of solid waste is nearly 35,000 metric tons, and two city corporation areas of the capital produce more than 7,000 metric tons of waste per day. The average solid waste generation per person in 2021 was 520 grams (1.1 pounds), which could shoot up to 800 g (1.7 lbs) in 2030 and 1.19 kilograms (2.6 lbs) by 2041 as the economy grows. The city corporation justifies the project, as it cannot find any new landfill site for the increasing volume of solid waste that generates a huge volume of methane, a potent greenhouse gas 80 times more harmful than carbon dioxide. The government approved the project, and the Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase approved the power purchase deal on Nov. 12, 2020. However, the CMEC has yet to build the basic infrastructure of the $500 million project due to a disagreement with the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. According to the conditions negotiated, the CMEC will build the incineration facility for which DNCC will&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/bangladesh-incinerator-project-sparks-row-between-government-contractor/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/bangladesh-incinerator-project-sparks-row-between-government-contractor/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-283700</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Bioplastics as toxic as regular plastics; both need regulation, say researchers</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/bioplastics-as-toxic-as-regular-plastics-both-need-regulation-say-researchers/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/bioplastics-as-toxic-as-regular-plastics-both-need-regulation-say-researchers/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Apr 2024 19:57:50 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Alden Wicker]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/04/22155723/bioplastic-lab-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=281216</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Circular economy and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Chemicals, Circular Economy, Environment, Environmental Policy, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Industry, Microplastics, Novel Entities, Plastic, Pollution, Recycling, Regulations, Research, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, and Waste]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As negotiators meet this week for the fourth round of global plastics treaty talks, scientists warn that both plant-based and petroleum-based plastics are toxic, with both needing tough regulation to protect public health.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Almost 25 years after their hopeful debut, bioplastics contribute only about 1% of the global plastics market share, mainly for food packaging. But that may soon change. The Biden administration announced an initiative in 2023 to “spur a circular economy” with the goal of replacing 90% of petrochemical-sourced plastics with bio-based materials over the next 20 years. With looming European mandates also aimed at addressing the plastic pollution crisis, analysts expect the bioplastics market to grow to 5 million metric tons by 2025. At first glance this sounds like a good thing, but is it? Motivated by the aggressive marketing of bioplastics as a solution to the plastic crisis, scientists are now peering inside these material innovations, and those doing the research don’t like what they see. “Most people don&#8217;t know about toxins in plastics, period. And even people that do work with plastics don&#8217;t know about toxins in bioplastics,” says Bethanie Almroth, a professor of ecotoxicology and environmental science at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, who has studied bioplastics. These plant-based materials can be just as toxic as petroleum-based ones, she says. That’s not necessarily due to the plant world sourcing of base materials, but because of the chemical processes needed to make bioplastics and the additives required to achieve the many desirable qualities demanded of them (durability, flexibility, color, etc.). A plastics factory worker pours plastic pellets into a tote. A 2020 study looked at bio-based plastic pellets and found they contained a similar number of chemicals as&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/bioplastics-as-toxic-as-regular-plastics-both-need-regulation-say-researchers/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/bioplastics-as-toxic-as-regular-plastics-both-need-regulation-say-researchers/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-281216</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Circular solutions vital to curb enviro harm from cement and concrete</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/circular-solutions-vital-to-curb-enviro-harm-from-cement-and-concrete/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/circular-solutions-vital-to-curb-enviro-harm-from-cement-and-concrete/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Apr 2024 17:12:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/04/18133424/8-Workers-loading-cement-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=281085</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Circular economy and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Air Pollution, carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, Circular Economy, Cities, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Consumption, Development, Environment, Globalization, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Infrastructure, Pollution, Recycling, Sustainability, and Sustainable Development]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The concrete industry is a major carbon emitter and polluter, with severe human health impacts. But circular solutions, including electrifying cement plants, making low-carbon cement, and bio-architecture could offer relief.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Concrete forms the backbone of modern economies and societies: Roads, runways, homes, hospitals, banks, skyscrapers, sewers — just about any infrastructure you can imagine — depend on it. And as the global population grows, with rural people rushing to mega-cities for work, much more will be produced and poured. Consequently, concrete is one of the most widely used materials on Earth, with its outdated linear “take-make-waste” production model making it one of the most environmentally harmful. Manufacturing fresh concrete requires huge sums of extracted material, sucks up colossal amounts of water, creates clouds of unhealthful air pollution, and requires massive amounts of energy — fueling climate change. Cement alone accounts today for as much as 8% of global CO2 emissions. Even more worrisome, scientists warn that concrete is significantly contributing to the destabilization of Earth’s planetary boundaries, helping promulgate a “triple crisistriple crisis” of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss — with the transgression of even just one of these boundaries potentially posing an existential threat to life as we know it. It’s estimated that around 30 billion tons of concrete now gets used each year, already posing huge extraction, pollution and greenhouse gas emission risks, even as production surges in the Global South as the construction industry ramps up. &#8220;That starts looking like quite an enormous pressure on our planetary boundaries,” says Sophus zu Ermgassen, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford. With the bulk of future demand coming from developing countries to improve substandard infrastructure and help&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/circular-solutions-vital-to-curb-enviro-harm-from-cement-and-concrete/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/circular-solutions-vital-to-curb-enviro-harm-from-cement-and-concrete/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-281085</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Communities on troubled Java river mold future from plastic waste</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/communities-on-troubled-java-river-mold-future-from-plastic-waste/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/communities-on-troubled-java-river-mold-future-from-plastic-waste/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Feb 2024 03:55:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Donny Iqbal]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/01/31172312/Sampah-Bogor-3-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=278325</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Circular economy]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Java, Southeast Asia, and West Java]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Cities, Community-based Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Freshwater, Plastic, Pollution, Recycling, Rivers, Waste, Water, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BOGOR, Indonesia — At the age of 60, Siti Salamah started making changes at her family home in the city of Bogor, just south of Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital. “We always put the kitchen waste there,” Siti told Mongabay Indonesia at her home. “I collect the plastic waste separately.” Siti installed a unit for composting perishable [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BOGOR, Indonesia — At the age of 60, Siti Salamah started making changes at her family home in the city of Bogor, just south of Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital. “We always put the kitchen waste there,” Siti told Mongabay Indonesia at her home. “I collect the plastic waste separately.” Siti installed a unit for composting perishable waste around four months ago. Previously she would put all the household waste together for the trash collectors to pick up, typically amounting to 2-5 kilograms (4.5-11 pounds) of garbage per week. This seemingly modest amount of waste adds up at the population level. Data from the municipal environmental department showed that Bogor, a city of more than a million people, produced 2,742 cubic meters (96,833 cubic feet) of waste daily, which is enough garbage to fill more than an Olympic-size swimming pool every day. Much of it ends up in the rivers that run through Bogor. Managing this waste costs Bogor up to 24.1 billion rupiah ($1.5 million) per year in direct expenditure, although other indirect costs to society owing to household and commercial waste are challenging to quantify. Since 2021, Bogor has joined more than 50 cities around the world in the Plastic Smart Cities partnership, which hopes to tackle the mountains of plastic waste that clog rivers and fester on vacant patches of land. The Plastic Smart Cities program was initiated by WWF to reduce plastic waste by 30% before 2025. It’s one of three pillars of WWF’s No Plastic in Nature&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/communities-on-troubled-java-river-mold-future-from-plastic-waste/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/communities-on-troubled-java-river-mold-future-from-plastic-waste/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-278325</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Lessons from Finland’s attempt to transition to a circular economy</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/lessons-from-finlands-attempt-to-transition-to-a-circular-economy/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/lessons-from-finlands-attempt-to-transition-to-a-circular-economy/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jan 2024 17:02:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/01/23151236/7-Tracegrow-a-Finnish-company-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=277923</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Circular economy]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, European Union, and Finland]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Emissions, Circular Economy, Consumption, Development, Economics, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, Globalization, Industry, Infrastructure, Natural Resources, Nature-based climate solutions, Pollution, Recycling, Solutions, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, and Waste]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2016, Finland became the first country in the world to adopt a national circular economy road map, with the ambition to become a world leader in moving away from an unsustainable “take-make-waste” linear model. A circular economy stands in contrast to the linear and throwaway model prevalent around the world today. The Finnish Innovation [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2016, Finland became the first country in the world to adopt a national circular economy road map, with the ambition to become a world leader in moving away from an unsustainable “take-make-waste” linear model. A circular economy stands in contrast to the linear and throwaway model prevalent around the world today. The Finnish Innovation Fund (Sitra), which played an instrumental role in developing the road map, defines the circular economy as “not based on the continual production of more and more goods but on the use of services — sharing, renting and recycling — instead of owning things. Materials are not lost at the end of their useful life but are used to make new products over and over again.” With the world facing increasing pressure on multiple planetary boundaries deemed vital to maintaining Earth’s “safe operating space,” a circular economy is considered one pathway to reduce overconsumption, slash emissions, and move materials in closed loops. In Finland, pursuing circular solutions has the potential to both cut carbon emissions while also reducing pressure on biodiversity, experts say. “We are trying to promote an economy that would fit the limits of natural systems,” says Annukka Berg, a circular economy specialist and senior researcher at the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE). “It would be an economy that consumes a sustainable amount of natural resources, is carbon neutral and is beneficial for nature.” Finland was the first country in the world to develop a circular economy roadmap in 2016. Since then, a government&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/lessons-from-finlands-attempt-to-transition-to-a-circular-economy/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/lessons-from-finlands-attempt-to-transition-to-a-circular-economy/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-277923</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Chemical recycling of plastic not so fantastic, report finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/chemical-recycling-of-plastic-not-so-fantastic-report-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/chemical-recycling-of-plastic-not-so-fantastic-report-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Nov 2023 10:38:59 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/09/28152032/plastic-recycling-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=275853</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, United Kingdom, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Chemicals, Fossil Fuels, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Greenwashing, Industry, Natural Gas, Oil, Plastic, Pollution, Recycling, and Waste]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In today’s industrialized world, avoiding plastic is virtually impossible. Every trip to the grocery store likely means coming home with food and household items packaged in plastic bottles, tubs and packaging. Order something online, and your product may arrive shrink-wrapped in plastic. Not only that, but plastic is often part or all of the product [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In today’s industrialized world, avoiding plastic is virtually impossible. Every trip to the grocery store likely means coming home with food and household items packaged in plastic bottles, tubs and packaging. Order something online, and your product may arrive shrink-wrapped in plastic. Not only that, but plastic is often part or all of the product itself, be it kids’ toys, holiday decorations or one of our ubiquitous electronic devices. So, how does one responsibly dispose of all this plastic? The answer to that simple question is frustratingly complex. Many plastic products are marked with seemingly helpful recycling symbols, leading consumers to believe that most, if not all, plastic can be recycled. But that’s not the case.  Traditional recycling — the process of breaking down, melting and remolding plastic to form new products — is expensive, time-consuming and limited to certain plastic types. In the U.S., for example, only types 1 and 2 are easily recyclable, while 3 through 7 aren’t. Recycling rates are also historically low; in the U.S., it’s estimated that only 5-6% of plastic is recycled. There’s another way to deal with plastic waste, according to the world’s big petrochemical companies: It’s called “chemical recycling,” or “advanced recycling,” an industrial process that the industry claims could recycle more types of plastics and help humanity transition to a circular economy. However, according to a recent report released by Swedish nonprofit International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN) and U.S.-based NGO Beyond Plastics, most chemical recycling claims have yet to be proven, while existing&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/chemical-recycling-of-plastic-not-so-fantastic-report-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/chemical-recycling-of-plastic-not-so-fantastic-report-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-275853</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Colombian wind farm end-of-life raises circularity and Indigenous questions</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/colombian-wind-farm-end-of-life-raises-circularity-and-indigenous-questions/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/colombian-wind-farm-end-of-life-raises-circularity-and-indigenous-questions/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Nov 2023 14:10:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Natalia Torres Garzón]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/11/08145538/ACASCIO_Jepirachi_01-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=275165</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Alternative Energy, Circular Economy, Clean Energy, Community Development, Drinking Water, Energy, Freshwater, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Politics, Recycling, Renewable Energy, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Water, Water Scarcity, Wind, and Wind Power]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[La Guajira, COLOMBIA — On Oct. 9, Colombia’s first wind farm, Jepírachi, officially reached its end of life after running for almost two decades in Uribia, in the northeastern region of La Guajira. After months of uncertainty regarding the project’s future, the wind farm has been disconnected from the national grid and is pending dismantlement. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[La Guajira, COLOMBIA — On Oct. 9, Colombia’s first wind farm, Jepírachi, officially reached its end of life after running for almost two decades in Uribia, in the northeastern region of La Guajira. After months of uncertainty regarding the project’s future, the wind farm has been disconnected from the national grid and is pending dismantlement. But with Colombia’s regulation gaps for disposing of renewable energy projects, experts are worried whether Jepírachi’s phaseout will be circular or create more waste. Indigenous communities in the area are also worried about the economic and environmental legacy of the project. Inaugurated in 2004, Jepírachi, which means “northeast wind” in the Wayuu language, pioneered wind energy in Colombia. For 15 years, not much changed for the project operated by the Medellín Public Companies (EPM), a state-owned utilities company. But in 2019, the Energy and Gas Regulatory Commission updated requirements for solar and wind energy generation, which meant that Jepírachi would have to make technical upgrades in order to continue operating. EPM declared it could not comply due to high costs and “technological dependency” on the manufacturer of the turbines. The wind farm was later allowed to continue operating until October 2023. Goats are part of the Wayuu tradition. Goats provide the main source of meat for the communities, represent a commodity, can be a present for people invited to a funeral and send a message about a person’s socioeconomic status. Image by Antonio Cascio for Mongabay. In July, however, the government made a U-turn on&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/colombian-wind-farm-end-of-life-raises-circularity-and-indigenous-questions/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/colombian-wind-farm-end-of-life-raises-circularity-and-indigenous-questions/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-275165</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>What’s old is new again: Bioarchitects plot route to circular economy</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/whats-old-is-new-again-bioarchitects-plot-route-to-circular-economy/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/whats-old-is-new-again-bioarchitects-plot-route-to-circular-economy/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Oct 2023 19:22:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sandra Weiss]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/10/26151741/ARG-E-BAM-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=274672</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Circular economy]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Global, Latin America, and Mexico]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Emissions, Circular Economy, Consumption, Development, Economics, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, Globalization, Industry, Infrastructure, Natural Resources, Nature-based climate solutions, Pollution, Recycling, Solutions, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, and Waste]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The construction industry, with its intensive use of cement, is a climate killer. But an innovator in Mexico has found one solution: combining traditional adobe construction in a state-of-the art solar-powered public building.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Every morning, when Laura Alba arrives at her office in the Imagina cultural center on the outskirts of León in central Mexico, she feels good vibes — and that’s not only because she loves her job leading a nonprofit that educates the city’s poor children. “This is a beautiful place where I have a lot of magical moments,” she says of the building where she works, despite its being located in one of the most dangerous neighborhoods of León, a city of 1.7 million in Guanajuato state. Imagina is housed in a literally groundbreaking edifice: It’s a big, multistory facility, constructed mostly from locally dug clay adobe, and is the first modern public building in Mexico engineered using bioconstruction techniques. The Imagina cultural centre is located in a poor, high-crime neighborhood outside León, Mexico. The surrounding community was deeply involved in the construction process, and also benefits from the facility&#8217;s many programs. Image by Peter van Lengen. Harmony as a principle The spacious cultural center is an eye-catcher, with its pinkish adobe walls seeming to rise right out of the earth, its two red domes reaching gracefully skyward, and its roof partly covered in solar panels. Its big round windows, open pattern handmade brick walls, and soaring arched entryway all invite natural sunlight, reducing electricity use. It’s a feel-good space inside too, with excellent ventilation and pleasant temperatures maintained without air conditioning year-round. The center is flanked by a kitchen garden, flower garden, and an edible forest. The building also&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/whats-old-is-new-again-bioarchitects-plot-route-to-circular-economy/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/whats-old-is-new-again-bioarchitects-plot-route-to-circular-economy/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-274672</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As companies buy ‘plastic credits,’ are they reducing waste or greenwashing?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/as-companies-buy-plastic-credits-are-they-reducing-waste-or-greenwashing/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/as-companies-buy-plastic-credits-are-they-reducing-waste-or-greenwashing/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Oct 2023 14:43:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Pekow]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/10/19133958/women-washing-plastic-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=274414</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Circular economy, Covering the Commons, and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Global, and Senegal]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Carbon Credits, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, Conservation, Consumption, Corporate Social Responsibility, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Governance, Greenwashing, Industry, International Trade, Marketing, Overconsumption, Plastic, Pollution, Recycling, and Waste]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[With plastic pollution littering the planet, certification organizations are popping up to sell “plastic credits” to companies, allowing them to offset the plastic they make and use with equivalent plastic waste collected and reused. Critics are skeptical.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Pay someone to clean up a ton of plastic fouling the environment in a developing nation and get certified to create another ton. Then call yourself pollution neutral. This system of “plastic credits” is catching on globally, especially among corporations. Several organizations now sponsor a plastic credit certification process in Asia, the Pacific region, Africa and South America. But as of yet, no common standard or regulations govern the accuracy of the data on what is collected or how the collected material gets recycled and reused. In any event, critics note, the system only deals with the downstream issue of plastic already in the environment, and not the issue of the manufacture and use of plastic in the first place. With plastic production rising exponentially, from 2 million metric tons in 1950 to more than 400 million metric tons in 2020, and expected to double by 2040, it’s clear that plastic waste is increasing exponentially too, and credits by themselves can’t possibly keep up with the surge. Plastic credits: As of yet, no common standard or regulations govern the accuracy of the data on what is collected or how the collected waste gets recycled and reused. Image by mali maeder via Pexels (Public domain). “The plastic crisis is too large and imminent to be solved by a single solution or mechanism,” and credits are only part of the problem, according to Verra, a nonprofit that started in 2007 by creating verification systems for carbon credits, and more recently branched into&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/as-companies-buy-plastic-credits-are-they-reducing-waste-or-greenwashing/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/as-companies-buy-plastic-credits-are-they-reducing-waste-or-greenwashing/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-274414</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Rolling car tires into the global circular economy</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/rolling-car-tires-into-the-global-circular-economy/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/rolling-car-tires-into-the-global-circular-economy/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Aug 2023 16:05:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/08/21131401/tires-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=272400</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Consumed, Planetary Boundaries, and Product Lifecycles]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Carbon Emissions, Circular Economy, Climate Change, Consumption, Deforestation, Development, Economics, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, Globalization, Industry, International Trade, Microplastics, Pollution, Recycling, Rubber, Supply Chain, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Transportation, and Waste]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A billion tires enter landfills, are burned, or litter the landscape every year, and more will be dumped as auto use surges planetwide. Industry analysts and entrepreneurs are pressing for circular economy solutions.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Imagine a heap of a billion vehicle tires towering overhead, the total number humanity throws away in just one year — worn-out tires tossed into landfills, burned, or littering the landscape. While that’s a visually distressing image, the harm tires do starts where they’re sourced, with current and future car fleets leaving an environmental trail stretching from tropical rainforests to rubber plantations to global roadsides, along waterways, and even into the atmosphere — impacting global biodiversity and human health. Experts say that applying a circular economy model to tire production and disposal could limit massive resource demand, while simultaneously turning this globally vexing waste stream back into valuable materials. But no matter the solution, the complex composition of the average tire — containing more than 400 chemicals and compounds — means there’s no single silver-bullet solution to this persistent problem. As much as 75% of global waste tires — roughly 750,000 tires annually — currently end up in landfills, according to some estimates, while others place the figure at around 40%. Circular economy solutions, which view used tires as a valuable resource, are needed to reduce environmental impacts across the supply chain. Image by Jared Earle via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). A toxic conundrum Tires typically start their life’s journey in the tropics, with rubber produced predominantly by smallholder farmers on monocrop plantations. Current production methods risk ongoing deforestation and harm to biodiversity, along with uncertain livelihoods for farmers. Some 70% of the world’s natural rubber ends up in car&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/rolling-car-tires-into-the-global-circular-economy/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/rolling-car-tires-into-the-global-circular-economy/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-272400</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Zimbabwe sees recycling boom as waste picking becomes lucrative business</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/zimbabwe-sees-recycling-boom-as-waste-picking-becomes-lucrative-business/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/zimbabwe-sees-recycling-boom-as-waste-picking-becomes-lucrative-business/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Aug 2023 16:03:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Tatenda Chitagu]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/08/21142731/A-worker-at-Stable-packaging-sorts-plastic-waste-ready-for-recycling-768x454.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=272421</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, South Africa, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Environment, Governance, Human Rights, Illegal Trade, International Trade, Plastic, Pollution, Recycling, Trade, and Waste]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MASVINGO, Zimbabwe — The weight of the world felt as if it was crushing Nyemudzai Jakiti, a single mother in Zimbabwe’s southern city of Masvingo, when she found herself out of a job after her employer closed shop in 2018. Faced with the burden of taking care of her child, paying rent, buying food and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MASVINGO, Zimbabwe — The weight of the world felt as if it was crushing Nyemudzai Jakiti, a single mother in Zimbabwe’s southern city of Masvingo, when she found herself out of a job after her employer closed shop in 2018. Faced with the burden of taking care of her child, paying rent, buying food and looking after her aging parents, Jakiti, 31, a bookkeeper by profession, turned to picking up litter and selling it. “It was a tough decision to start picking up waste. Imagine, I used to work in an air-conditioned office, and suddenly I found myself scavenging for plastic waste,” she says. After a few years, the startup plastic recycling company to which she sold plastic waste eventually employed her. “I am now back doing office work as an administrator here. It feels like a fairy tale from being in the office, to picking trash and back to the office again,” Jakiti tells Mongabay from her office at the plastic recycling facility where she now works, Stable Packaging. Jakiti is not the only one who discovered money in waste. Across the country and social classes, recycling trash by picking it up and selling it or buying it and converting it into profitable materials has becoming a booming business. According to Zimbabwe’s Environmental Management Agency (EMA) national spokesperson Joyce Chapungu, community-based recycling organizations that handpick litter quadrupled in the last few years, increasing from 50 in 2019 to 200 in 2023, as locals are enticed by the cash incentives&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/zimbabwe-sees-recycling-boom-as-waste-picking-becomes-lucrative-business/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/zimbabwe-sees-recycling-boom-as-waste-picking-becomes-lucrative-business/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-272421</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>From grassroots to government, Singapore takes lead in tackling e-waste</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/from-grassroots-to-government-singapore-takes-lead-in-tackling-e-waste/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/from-grassroots-to-government-singapore-takes-lead-in-tackling-e-waste/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Aug 2023 15:08:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhishyant Kidangoor]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/08/21145453/e-waste-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=272430</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Circular economy and Product Lifecycles]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Singapore, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Chemicals, Community-based Conservation, E-waste, Environment, Governance, Industry, Pollution, Recycling, Sustainability, Technology, and Waste]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SINGAPORE — If you didn’t know better, you might think Edwin Beng is heading home after buying a new appliance. It’s a muggy Sunday morning in Singapore, and Beng, carrying a signature bright blue Ikea bag in one hand, steps off the street, descends into a building basement, and enters a corner room. The vibe [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SINGAPORE — If you didn’t know better, you might think Edwin Beng is heading home after buying a new appliance. It’s a muggy Sunday morning in Singapore, and Beng, carrying a signature bright blue Ikea bag in one hand, steps off the street, descends into a building basement, and enters a corner room. The vibe inside is cheery as Beng pulls a table fan from his bag. It’s far from new; in fact, he bought it three years ago, but it stopped working the previous week. Beng was about to throw it away when a neighbor told him about Repair Kopitiam. He decided to give the program a shot to see if it could bring the fan back to life. Repair Kopitiam (kopitiam means coffeeshop in the Malay language) isn’t an official repair center. Rather, it’s an innovative program and weekly community gathering where volunteers help fellow Singaporeans repair and reuse their electrical and electronic goods. Started in 2014, the group consists of volunteers enthusiastic about repairing things who have been trained by other volunteers with more technical expertise. A volunteer at Repair Kopitiam inspects a clock brought in for repair. Image by Abhishyant Kidangoor / Mongabay. On this day, a volunteer is focused on fixing a hair dryer. Another listens intently to a woman explaining the issues with a clock she bought in Hong Kong. Shuttling between each group is Danny Lim, overseeing the gathering. “By repairing, we take an item for which carbon is already spent during manufacture,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/from-grassroots-to-government-singapore-takes-lead-in-tackling-e-waste/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-272430</doi>				</item>
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