For Joe Brock's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
When the U.N. agreed on a deal to create the world's first ever global plastic pollution treaty, every party was quick to claim victory, but that could spell trouble.
U.N. members are set to meet this month to draft the blueprint for a global plastics treaty. That's a problem for Big Oil, with the plastic industry set to double output within 20 years.
Experts say that burning plastic in cement kilns, a practice firms are promoting, emits harmful emissions and amounts to swapping one dirty fuel for another.
While residents have dutifully packaged up their trash, expecting it to be put to a green use, many have been left disappointed.
The failure is a sign that the industry is falling short of its targets to curb an increase in waste, two environmental groups say.
The pandemic has intensified a price war between recycled and new plastic, made by the oil industry.
Early one October morning in 1969, Singapore police officers found the body of a man dumped in a storm drain. He had been stabbed to death, police said, in what became one of the country's most notorious gang killings. After more than 50 years on ...
As economies work to reopen, coal-fired plants likely to be favored over more expensive wind and solar power generation.
A week ago, Sri Lankan tourist guide Ricky Costa was preparing for a typically easy Sunday ferrying backpackers between Colombo's tea shops and beach bars in his canary-yellow rickshaw. Then the blasts began. The coordinated suicide bombings by Islamist militants at hotels and churches killed ...
Namibia's Herero people are heartened that Germany is keen to atone for the genocide of their ancestors, but they expect something that Berlin says it cannot give. "What we want is our land," said Alex Kaubtauuapela, 74, whose parents survived the extermination of 80 percent ...
