Tag - plastic-waste

 
 

PLASTIC WASTE

Japan Times
JAPAN
May 17, 2019
Japan to ask municipalities to dispose of industrial plastic waste as trash piles up due to China ban
Municipalities that accept the request will pass on the costs for incineration to companies generating industrial plastic.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
May 14, 2019
Pathways to tackling the plastic waste problem
The plastic waste scourge is seriously imperiling the world's environmental well-being, including contaminating our freshwater and food chain.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
May 14, 2019
Trash found littering Mariana Trench floor in deepest-ever sub dive
On the deepest dive ever made by a human inside a submarine, a Texas investor found something he could have found in the gutter of nearly any street in the world: trash.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 3, 2019
No silver bullet for China's plastics problem
The country could make biodegradable products mainstream, but that won't stop its trash from choking the oceans.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 8, 2019
Awash with plastic bottles and lacking a law, Kenya struggles to recycle with help from Coca-Cola and Unilever
As global concern over plastic pollution rises, corporate giants such as Coca-Cola and Unilever are pumping cash into a recycling initiative in Kenya they hope will provide a model for other developing countries.
EDITORIALS
Feb 26, 2019
Cuts to usage of single-use plastics gain urgency
On a per-capita basis Japan is second only to the U.S. in the annual output of plastic waste.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Beyond Tokyo
Feb 24, 2019
As the world drowns in plastic, Kameoka in Kyoto and other cities across Japan fight back
Plastic pollution in the ocean has become one of the world's most urgent environmental problems. Footage of vast fields of floating plastic debris between California and Hawaii — now commonly known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch — have driven home the gravity of the problem, with scientists and environmental groups warning that the colossal oceanic mess imperils the ecosystem and human health.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 21, 2019
Japan's plastic waste shipments fall 30% after China import ban; experts urge action to curb usage
The country's shipments to Southeast Asian nations such as Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam increased last year after China imposed the restrictions.
WORLD
Feb 18, 2019
U.K. plans new tax to boost recycled plastic content and get producers to pay for waste disposal
Britain is to set out plans to overhaul its recycling system on Monday, including making producers of plastic packaging pay the full cost of dealing with their waste and introducing a deposit return scheme for cans and bottles.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Feb 9, 2019
Japan, No. 2 generator of packaging waste, moves to ban plastic straws and cutlery in government cafeterias
The government decided Friday to ban in principle the use of plastic straws and cutlery in its cafeterias and to stop passing out plastic bottles to conference attendees — its latest policy on environmentally friendly procurement.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health
Feb 8, 2019
Startup's 'water from air' project aims to turn back Thailand's tide of plastic
Staying at a hotel on the Thai island of Koh Samui in 2015, Meghan Kerrigan noticed the four bottles of water she was given every day were clogging her trash can with plastic. Outside her door, Chaweng Beach was smothered in rubbish.
Japan Times
JAPAN / View from Osaka
Jan 20, 2019
A Japanese city plans to ban plastic shopping bags, but can it push its larger neighbors to follow suit?
International concern over the environmental damage done by the use of plastic in various forms is now the topic of political and economic discussions across the planet. Dealing with plastic waste, especially in the ocean, is one of the long-term issues that Japan has promised to address at this year's Group of 20 summits. In the meantime, local governments, NGOs and business groups from Hokkaido to Okinawa are hosting seminars, discussions and conducting public awareness campaigns on the dangers of plastic waste like never before.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 17, 2019
Plastics and consumer goods makers announce $1.5 billion pledge to rein in waste
Global companies including BASF, DowDuPont, Procter & Gamble and SABIC have formed an alliance to fight plastic waste, pledging to spend $1.5 billion over the next five years.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 19, 2018
French pair invent plastic-to-fuel recycling system fit for African bush
A French actor and a self-taught inventor have designed a low-tech machine that converts plastic waste into diesel and gasoline, which they say could help fight pollution and provide fuel for remote communities in developing countries.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 27, 2018
Ben Lecomte ends bid to swim from Japan across Pacific after support boat suffers damage
On June 5 Ben Lecomte entered the ocean off Chiba Prefecture to begin his attempt at a record-breaking swim across the Pacific, with the aim of shining a light on ocean pollution and plastic contamination.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Nov 15, 2018
Tokyo joins ASEAN action plan to take on plastic waste in world's oceans
Japan on Thursday offered to cooperate with other Asian countries to address ocean pollution by reducing plastic debris.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 27, 2018
Malaysia to phase out imports of plastic waste from developing countries
Malaysia is taking steps to limit imports of plastic waste, which has flooded the country since China stopped taking in foreign scrap for recycling, housing minister Zuraida Kamaruddin said on Friday.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Oct 26, 2018
Illegal factories cash in on Malaysia's plastics recycling plan
Hundreds of sacks filled with plastic waste from the United States, Britain, South Korea and Spain spill onto the streets of an industrial zone in Pulau Indah, an island town an hour from Kuala Lumpur that is home to Malaysia's biggest port.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 24, 2018
David Rockefeller Jr., scion of powerful U.S. family, calls for action from Japan to improve health of oceans
Japan is moving in a positive direction on its fisheries policy and ensuring the marine ecosystem remains sustainable, said David Rockefeller Jr., an environmentalist and a descendant of one of the most influential business families in the United States, but he noted in an interview with The Japan Times on Monday that the country needs to do more to tackle the issue of plastics polluting the world's oceans.
Japan Times
JAPAN / View from Osaka
Oct 20, 2018
For Kyoto, a chance to lead Japan in fight against food loss
Compared with constitutional revision, the economy, celebrity gossip and pontificating (if not panicking) over geopolitical changes in East Asia and Japan's role in those changes, Japan's mainstream media and politicians had, until recently, given environmental issues less attention.

Longform

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