Impacts of plastics across the food system

Policy brief from Scientists’ Coalition discusses how plastics in the food system from farm to table to trash impact human health and the environment; provides suggestions for how UN Plastics Treaty can address the drivers and impacts of food system plastics use

Efforts to track plastic flows in EU and Canada

EU Joint Research Centre (JRC) publishes improved model of plastic product flows and recycling in the EU; new model design is easy to update when new information becomes publicly available; Canada consulting on a draft plastic products registry to track plastic flows in the country

EDCs in plastics cost the US $250 billion in healthcare annually

Scientists calculate US health care costs caused by a well-studied subset of endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in plastics; estimate exposure cost $250 billion in 2018, equivalent to 1.22% of Gross Domestic Product; recommend addressing chemicals of concern in global plastics treaty to reduce disease burden and costs

Canadian Federal Court overrules government’s plastics toxicity label

Justice Angela Furlanetto deemed the Canadian Environment and Climate Change Department’s classification of manufactured plastics products as toxic unconstitutional; the federal government is appealing the decision; single use plastics ban is still in effect

Study detects DNA-reactive, mutagenic substances in recycled PE, PP, and PS

119 plastic samples including polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS), and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) tested for mutagenicity; no DNA-reactive, mutagenic substances in PET but in 51 of the other samples, making them unsafe, especially for food contact applications; recycling process identified as source; dataset of over 600 organic chemicals in recycled high-density PE pellets published

Global plastics treaty should include chemical simplification, scientists demand

Highlight reduction of chemicals used in plastics production as one necessary step towards safer recycling, in addition to stricter regulation to increase transparency on plastic producer side and phase out of harmful chemicals; call for inclusion of these obligations in global plastics treaty

Why is the global plastics treaty necessary?

Minderoo Foundation scientists publish commentary; to be successful the treaty needs to include a global plastic production cap, limits on single-use plastic production, extended producer responsibility scheme, ban on plastic combustion, and disclosure of all plastic chemicals

New database on global plastics laws and policies

Civil society organizations publish database to research, track, and visualize plastic legislation around the world; hope to reach scientists, policymakers, industry, journalists; tool launched in anticipation of the global Plastics Treaty negotiations in Nairobi, Kenya in November

Minderoo Foundation systematically maps human health effects from plastic-associated chemicals

Interactive and openly available, the Plastic Health Map summarizes human health outcomes of certain plastic-associated chemicals and particles as published by peer-review articles between 1960 and 2021; includes more than 3500 studies for 1557 chemicals; identifies gaps, including only 30% of chemicals have been investigated for health impacts, few studies in low-income countries

FPF comment: Canadian pollution prevention notice for plastic food packaging

Food Packaging Forum (FPF) submits comment to Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) on the development of a pollution prevention planning notice for food plastic packaging; FPF highlights aspects of chemical safety and circularity for ECCC to consider; primarily (i) chemical migration, (ii) supporting safe reuse, and (iii) standards for compostable materials