The Canadian government has announced that it intends to ban the import and sale of baby bottles that contain a potentially dangerous chemical, bisphenol A. Bisphenol A (bpa) is a common

Volunteers clean up the plastic mess left behind by unthinking tourists and visitors. The plastic is used by KK Plastic when laying roads with plastic in the bitumen mixture.

Civic bodies in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region could soon start sharing landfill sites to create environment friendly dumping grounds, thereby reducing the requirement of land for garbage. "Two to three civic bodies can possibly have a landfill site in common where they can dump their garbage, however the land will be only for bio-degradable waste," Metropolitan Commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad said. The sites would be earmarked for certain civic bodies on the basis of their geographical proximity to the landfills.

Metal costs, largely responsible for vehicle price hikes, will soon cease to pinch the automobile manufacturers' margins as they become increasingly aware of the benefits of using engineering plastic instead of metals in vehicles. Home-grown automotive players like Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland, Bajaj Auto, Hero Honda, TVS Motors and Maruti Suzuki are augmenting the use of plastics in engine components in an ambitious effort to reduce dependence on key metals like steel and aluminium, all of which have witnessed stupendous rise of 35-50 per cent in the past 5 months.

Mayor Gavin Newsom is competitive about many things, garbage included. When the city found out a few weeks ago that it was keeping 70 percent of its disposable waste out of local landfills, he embraced the statistic the way other mayors embrace winning sports teams, improved test scores or declining crime rates. Workers sort plastics at the San Francisco Recycling Center. The city, with 7,800 tons of waste a day, keeps 70 percent of it out of landfills. Mayor Gavin Newsom is shooting for 75 percent. But the city wants more.

Consumers could be paid for recycling their plastic bottles under a scheme proposed by the Campaign to Protect Rural England. CPRE president Bill Bryson and the Wombles launched the campaign in London's Leicester Square (Copyright CPRE) An extra 10 pence would be added to the cost of goods such as drinks which would be returned to the consumer after the bottle is taken to collection points.

The Colombo Magistrate fined some polythene dealers for stocking and selling polythene that were not in conformity with the Government standards. Central Environmental Authority yesterday produced four traders for stocking and selling non standard polythene to the customers before the Colombo Additional Magistrate Majula Thilakaratne and were fined Rs 3000 each.

Bureaucratic lethargy and the lack of political will have led to a situation where the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) and the city district government Karachi (CDGK) appear to have virtually lost the battle against polythene bags that was energetically launched over a year ago. Environmentalists accuse the environmental and health safety watchdogs of having made too many compromises.

Canada's decision to label as toxic a chemical that is used to make a popular form of plastic has created headaches for some makers of baby bottles, sports water bottles and other food and beverage containers. Sally McCoy, the chief of CamelBak, a sports bottle maker, switched plastics, even though the substitute costs more. But it may prove to be a bonanza for companies like Eastman Chemical, which makes a comparable plastic without the offending ingredient, as well as for makers of glass and food-grade stainless steel.