Topics
plastics
October 13, 2021
On the third day of the Food Packaging Forum’s annual workshop, speakers discuss the new Understanding Packaging Scorecard that helps improve packaging procurement decision making, how regulators assess food packaging in the lab and on the market, new projects investigating plastics, and how understanding game theory in group decision making can lead to societal benefits
Reading time: 7 minutes
September 28, 2021
Following France’s example, Spain’s Ministry for Ecological Transition is drafting a decree to ban the sale of produce wrapped in plastic by 2023; wants to discourage sales of drinks in single-use plastic bottles by encouraging the installation of drinking fountains and bottle reuse systems
Reading time: 2 minutes
September 22, 2021
UN Special Rapporteur on toxics and human rights issues report on the stages of the plastics cycle and their impacts on human rights; calls “the whole cycle of plastics… a global threat to human rights”
Reading time: 2 minutes
September 14, 2021
New report of NGO ClientEarth explores risks of single-use plastic packaging; warns investors that food companies and supermarkets neglecting plastic pollution-related risk to face reputational damage and legal action
Reading time: 2 minutes
September 8, 2021
Peru and Rwanda introduce a draft resolution to negotiate a global plastic pollution treaty at the inaugural United Nations Ministerial Conference on marine litter and plastic pollution; 33 countries sign on as co-sponsors; more than 80 other nations support a UN resolution on plastics
Reading time: 2 minutes
September 1, 2021
Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare publishes revised version of positive list for food contact materials (FCMs); applies to utensils, containers, and packaging made of synthetic resins; 83 substances added to the list of plastic polymers, 192 to coatings, 29 to monomers, and 121 to additives
Reading time: 1 minute
August 23, 2021
Recycling Today reports on the challenges of supplying food-grade recycled plastics even as commitments increase; European Commission registers Citizens’ Initiative to create plastic bottle deposit and extended producer responsibility system in EU; World Wildlife Fund Germany investigates packaging system to find ways to increase circularity, encourages reuse over recycling
Reading time: 2 minutes
August 13, 2021
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
Reading time: 4 minutes
August 5, 2021
House Bill 9147 would ban single-use plastic tableware within four years and drinking straws, stirrers, candy sticks, bags thinner than ten microns, and other small single-use plastics within one year; bill must now pass the country’s Senate in order to become law
Reading time: 2 minutes
July 29, 2021
Study investigates reproductive toxicity of environmental concentrations of polystyrene (PS) microplastics to male mice; further examines underlying molecular mechanism; study is first to find long-term PS microplastic exposure affects sperm quality and testosterone levels in mice
Reading time: 2 minutes
