IPEN

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.

The IPEN Francophone Africa Hub, Centre de Recherche et d’Education pour le Développement (CREPD) organized its second regional meeting from the 30^thto 31^stMay 2019 in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. The last Francophone Africa Regional meeting took place in Yaoundé, Cameroon in December 2016. This meeting was an opportunity to share experiences and build the capacities of Participating Organizations (POs).

(Manila, Philippines; Vancouver, Canada; Gothenburg, Sweden): Sixty-nine shipping containers of illegally dumped Canadian trash set sail for home today after a six-year fight to get Canada to comply with the Basel Convention. In a joint statement, the EcoWaste Coalition, RightOnCanada, and IPEN described the historic departure of the reeking garbage from the Port of Subic north of Manila as a victory for the rule of law, morality and the environment.

https://comingcleaninc.org/latest-news/in-the-news/pfas-blog

Joe Digangi and Pam Miller

In February 2019, under growing public and political pressure, the US EPA finally announced plans to address PFOS and PFOA, two toxic chemicals widespread in drinking water that are still unregulated in the US after decades of use. Instead of praise, the EPA announcement triggered anger after the public realized that the agency will conduct years of assessment before actually regulating them. US residents may be more incensed if they know that the rest of the world has already acted globally on these substances.