News Article

Unknowns about drinking water pipes

Ensia article informs about plastic water piping material PEX; discusses what is known and unknown about the material’s composition and what leaches out into water

News Article

Chemical migration into coffee, canned vegetables, and Indian curd

Three research studies investigate the occurrence of chemicals in food packaging and migration into food; find average of 330 µg oligoesters migrating from cans per kg drained vegetables; report most extractable chemicals from low-density polyethylene Dahi curd packaging not included in India’s positive list; detect low levels of phthalic acid esters in coffee obtained from single-use capsules

News Article

Stakeholders discuss waste management challenges of plastics

Publications from government, academia, civil society organizations, and consultancies paint problematic picture of a circular plastics economy; plastic packaging waste per person found to increase over last decade; low percentage of plastic produced is effectively recycled; pyrolysis (a type of chemical recycling) of plastics produces 9x more emissions than mechanical recycling; “biodegradable” and “compostable” plastics found to not break down in home compost systems

News Article

Many REACH registrations non-compliant

Study by German authorities finds 32% of high production volume chemicals non-compliant with REACH safety data requirements; 31% compliant, rest uncertain; European Environmental Bureau suggests actions for improvement