Robotic system developed in U.S. pilot program separates food and beverage cartons from mixed recycling stream through artificial intelligence; promises to increase and improve carton recycling
EFSA re-publishes scientific opinion on perchlorate in food
EFSA re-assesses dietary exposure to perchlorate; overall conclusions from 2014 not affected
Opinion: FDA fails to ensure food safety
Scientific perspectives article discusses current gaps in assessment and regulation of chemicals in food by U.S. FDA, illustrates problems with perchlorate example, calls for immediate action to protect child health
Recycling industry launches ‘RecyClass’ platform
Plastics Recyclers Europe introduces online tool ‘RecyClass’ to assess recyclability of plastic packaging, aims to combine knowledge of recyclers and packaging producers to improve packaging design for recycling
Forum on packaging waste and sustainability
24th Packaging Waste and Sustainability Forum addresses circular economy solutions for packaging and packaging waste, June 5-7, 2018 in Brussels
UN: ‘Beat plastic pollution’
New report by UN Environment reviews global state of plastic pollution and counteracting measures, provides policy recommendations to reduce single-use plastics and improve waste management
EU agreement on single-use plastics
EU Council and Parliament provisionally agree on new Directive restricting several single-use plastic products, including cutlery, plates, straws, certain food and beverage containers
Hazard prioritization of printing inks and adhesives substances
Scientific study performs hazard prioritization on chemicals in printing inks and adhesives applied to plastic food packaging; uses publicly available “substances of concern” lists and an in silico tool; identifies 636 high and 1024 medium priority substances of which 696 ranked as “very high priority substances” by experts
Printing ink exposure from FCM significantly underestimated
New study investigates occurrence of photoinitiators in carton board packaging, finds benzophenone present in 50% of samples, surface to mass ratio 6 times higher than in EU legislation
UV-328 listed as POP under the Stockholm Convention
11th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention lists UV absorber as Persistent Organic Pollutant (POP); first non-halogenated POP under the Convention; also listing of flame retardant dechlorane plus and pesticide methoxychlor in Annex A