New Research in the Netherlands: synthetic clothing fibers inhibit the production of lung cells
Nylon and polyester hinder the growth and recovery of our airways, scientists from the University of Groningen (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen), TNO, […]
Plastic waste releases greenhouse gases
Amsterdam, August 27, 2018 – It’s no news that plastic contributes to climate change. The production of plastic amounts to about 5% of the world’s annual production of oil. This way, plastic contributes to global warming. A new study also proves that plastic waste contributes to climate change. It’s mostly related to the emission of the greenhouse gases methane and ethylene, which are released from plastic waste under the influence of sunlight. Polyethylene, the most-used type of plastic, emits the most of these two gases. It’s the first time the emission of greenhouse gases in plastic waste has been studied.
All types of plastics that were tested emitted gases. The quantities are relatively low, but because there’s a constant increase in plastic production and plastics disintegrate into smaller and smaller pieces, both the size and the speed of the greenhouse gas production will increase, researchers suspect. It’s a source, in short, that shouldn’t be overlooked.
The results are a nice example of serendipity. Oceanographer Sarah-Jeanne Royer of the University of Hawaii was conducting a study on methane gas from organic materials, which she kept in plastic bottles. When, unexpectedly, a lot more gas was released than expected, she realized it came from the bottles as well. Read the BBC article here.
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Ban the export of plastic waste!
European countries are part of the plastic pollution problem in South East Asian countries because shady dealers are free to do what they like. This was yet again the finding of a recent broadcast by Pointer in cooperation with investigative journalists (in Dutch).
Supermarkets’ plastic policy needs a complete overhaul
By 2025, Dutch supermarkets promise to use 20% less plastic packaging material than in 2017. According to this promise, by 2021 we would be at around 10%.
Ten years of Plastic Soup Foundation
Today marks the tenth anniversary of Maria Westerbos’ founding of the Plastic Soup Foundation at her kitchen table. Plastic soup, pollution of the environment by plastic, was hardly known at the time. One of her first goals was that everyone in the Netherlands should know what it was.
