Plastics have become an omnipresent part of the everyday life of billions of people. Properties like low cost, low weight, durability, and barrier tendency have gradually raised the demand for plastic materials and it is bound to increase further in the coming years.

The report ‘Addressing Single-use plastic products pollution, using a life cycle approach’ has been released by UNEP, just ahead of UNEA5. The report summarizes the key conclusions on the environmental performance of eight different single-use plastic products compared to their alternatives.

The COVID19 pandemic is having immense effects on societies across the world. It has caused millions of deaths worldwide and challenged our health systems and economies. The pandemic - and responses to it, involving lockdowns, use of personal protection equipment, and stay-at-home measures - has far reaching health and economic consequences.

More than 8,000 million metric tons of plastic have been made since the beginning of large-scale plastic production in the 1950s. As a consequence, plastic debris is present in all ecosystems, including remote locations such as mountain lakes and polar sea ice.

The gender gap in Kampala in the Waste Management and Plastics Recycling sectors represents a major issue to be resolved if the country is to achieve and improve the efficiency of the Strategic Program for Climate Resilience (SPCR) projects and therefore enhance the achievement of Uganda's Sustainable Development Goals.

In 2015, a global study estimating inputs of plastic waste into the oceans ranked Indonesia as the second largest contributor to plastic marine pollution. In 2017, another study ranked four Indonesian rivers in the world’s most polluting top 20.

Twenty companies are responsible for producing more than half of all the single-use plastic waste in the world, fuelling the climate crisis and creating an environmental catastrophe, new research reveals.

Public understanding of plastic pollution has risen consid­erably in the last couple of years. Far less understood is the broader context in which this pollution exists, and of the full extent of its impacts.