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A Toxics-Free Future

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Highlights Front Roll

New Report: Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals: Threats to Human Health
6th United Nations Environmental Assembly (UNEA-6)
Chemical Recycling: A Dangerous Deception
IPEN at the Mercury Treaty COP-5
See StopPoisonPlastic.org - our website on toxic plastics
Video: Plastics Poisoning Our Health
Plastics Treaty INC-3

From 19 – 20 August, 2019, the IPEN Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA) Regional Workshop was held in Volgograd, Russia. The workshop was conducted by Eco-Accord - the IPEN EECCA Regional Hub, and by "Volgograd-Ecopress" Information Centre.

The workshop participants discussed activities of IPEN member-organisations and civic organisations of Volgograd, Volzhsky, Rostov, Saratov, and Krasnodar, that deal with addressing complex issues of safe waste management, access to environmental information, and public participation in decision-making on matters of environmental significance. IPEN activities at the international level were presented, as well as specific projects of the Network's member-organisations in different countries and their participation in IPEN global campaigns.

National and international environmental health organizations are urging the Canadian government to ratify the BAN Amendment to the Basel Convention and end the exportation of waste to developing countries. One of the primary objectives of the Basel Convention is to have countries take responsibility for their own wastes in their own country and, in particular, stop the practice of exporting wastes to developing countries.

https://tinyurl.com/yxorwfj4

A movement bidding good riddance to bad trash is growing across South East Asia, and it should spark an international reckoning with how we have been dealing with plastic waste, recycling, and responsibility.

China closed its doors in 2018 to nearly a million tons of mixed plastic waste shipments, and with it, the inevitable toxic pollution to land, air, and groundwater that comes with plastic waste. All plastics contain toxic additives, many of which have negative health impacts. In the wake of China’s decision, the developed waste exporting nations set their plastic recycling on course to other South East Asian countries that were soon overwhelmed by the massive trashing.

In May, world governments gave developing countries a tool to resist the deluge of plastic mixed waste shipments through the UN Basel Convention. The US is not a signatory to the treaty, yet attempted to block the decision. The US obstruction failed, and 184 of the world’s governments created new regulations that require waste exporting countries to declare the content of mixed waste shipments and enables receiving countries to refuse plastic waste imports.

The Prime Minister’s announcement and COAG support for a ban on waste exports should be cautiously welcomed and is long overdue following the embarrassing revelations of Australian illegal waste dumping in South East Asia. However, it seems certain that the announcement is designed to distract from a major government push to burn Australia’s waste in polluting incinerators: an industry it quietly supports. As noted by some media reports on the announcement, the government “was exploring using waste in energy plants to power Australian homes.”

Left-to-right: Zuleica Nycz (Toxisphera, Brazil), Laura Emilce Florez (Altervida, Paraguay), Sofia Chavez (Casa Cem, Mexico), Placido Silva (Colnado, Colombia), Sherika Whitelocke-Ballingsingh (CARPIN, Jamaica) and Tiffany Tool (IPEN).

Panama City, Panama – Lead in paint was included in the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) framework as an emerging policy issue at its 2nd International Conference on Chemicals Management in 2009. Thereafter, the Global Alliance to Eliminate Lead Paint was formed. IPEN plays an important role in the Alliance and is an executing partner in a SAICM project on eliminating lead paint.

NGOs want Mexico, a member of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), to lobby for the OECD to incorporate Basel Convention plastics amendments into the OECD Decision. By doing so, OECD countries will be required to use the prior informed consent procedure for hazardous and mixed/contaminated plastics wastes with each other. This is particularly important for Mexico, because it borders the United States, the main generator of plastics in the world.

Investigative news reporters at Korean media outlet, Hankyoreh, visited nine cities in India, Indonesia, and Vietnam and surveyed more than 120 workers at mobile phone factories over a 70-day period to develop an investigative series they call, “Global Samsung: A report on unsustainable labor practices.” The series asks questions about the life and work of company workers in Asian countries that host its major bases of production. The series assesses Samsung Electronics’ sustainability as a top-tier global company and describes its results as “unpleasant truths.”

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