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NewSecurityBeat

The blog of the Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Program
Showing posts by Meg Hassey.
  • Who Pays the Bill for Plastic Waste?

    ›
    China Environment Forum  //  January 7, 2021  //  By Meg Hassey, Richard Liu & Clare Auld-Brokish
    shutterstock_420111376

    China’s 2018 National Sword Policy ended the country’s role as the recycling bin for the world’s post-consumer plastic scrap and threw global recycling markets into disarray. Reeling on the other side of the globe, American cities were forced to store, incinerate, or throw collected recyclables into landfills. Faced with a rapidly diminishing landfill capacity, China is consolidating and formalizing its domestic recycling industry, an expensive and daunting task.

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  • Seeking Global Action on Plastic

    ›
    China Environment Forum  //  July 23, 2020  //  By Meg Hassey
    The earth covered in plastic wrap

    It’s your turn, you place a paper with a word on your forehead and people start yelling clues for you to guess: “Ketchup bottle! Your glasses! Glitter! Legos! Tea bags! But then the clues take a turn: “Gets stuck in trees! Floats in the ocean! Lies in gutters!” Realization hits and you yell “Plastic!” Plastic, a global riddle that inundates our daily lives yet also is the source of a growing waste and pollution crisis. Single-use plastic packaging and containers generate 300 million tons of plastic waste each year and between 4.8 to 12.7 million tons of it leaks into the ocean annually, from a variety of land-based sources like stormwater runoff, construction sites, and poor waste management systems. Moreover, nearly invisible pollution from plastic-derived chemicals and microplastics are also on the rise in the oceans. These plastics end up in the guts of birds, oysters, and fish, and entangle sealife, posing a threat to the health of ocean ecosystems, food security, and the planet.

    MORE
 
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