Plastic Waste Management Hazards

Plastic waste has become an unprecedented pollution issue, blanketing our planet in the petrochemical remnants of plastic production. This report examines current and emerging methods by which plastic waste is managed globally and questions whether any of them present a solution to the rapidly accelerating generation of plastic waste. In short, they don't and the only long-term answer is to produce less plastic.

Plastic Waste Poisoning Food and Threatening Communities

Places like the US, EU, or Australia create vast amount of waste, including plastic waste, exporting much of it to countries lacking the resources or infrastructure to manage them safely. This study looked at levels of toxic chemicals samples of eggs in and around places where the waste is often burned openly to obtain metals or as a fuel source. The study found some of the highest levels of certain toxics, such as chlorinated dioxins ever measured in the environment.

Hazardous Chemicals Found in Plastic Products in Africa

Both the African environment and the human health of Africans suffer from toxic chemicals and imported wastes more than in developed countries. Africa has become the destination of illegal toxic waste exports and, as this study shows, toxic chemicals are also present in toys, kitchen utensils, and other consumer products sold in African markets.

Plastic, EDCs and Health

This joint report of the Endocrine Society and IPEN provides the current best knowledge about the effects of endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) on human health. It discusses chemicals known to be hazardous to human health yet actively used in plastics, exposures, the problem of microplastics, and the issues surrounding alternative plastics.

Plastic’s Toxic Additives and the Circular Economy

Report developed in collaboration with multiple UN convention groups, technical experts, and organizations working to address toxic pollution, discusses the key challenges society faces to eliminate toxic components in the plastics life-cycle, identifies chemicals and sectors of greatest concern, and outlines key approaches for tackling the issues.

Plastic Waste Poisons Indonesia’s Food Chain

Research from IPEN, Nexus3, Arnika, and ECOTON, demonstrates how highly toxic chemicals from plastic waste contaminates free-range chicken eggs in Indonesian communities where plastic waste accumulates. Eggs, collected in the communities where plastic waste is burned to reduce volume and for factory fuel, were found to contain dangerous levels of chemicals posing dire threats to human health including dioxins, flame retardants, and the toxic “forever chemical,” PFOS.

Ocean Pollutants Guide

Up-to-date synthesis of data on toxic chemical ocean pollution, including hazardous pesticides, pharmaceuticals, persistent organic pollutants (POPs) like PCBs, plastics, microplastics, and heavy metals, and exposes their sweeping impacts on marine and human life.

Peer-Reviewed Study Proves Toys from Recycled Plastics Threaten Children’s Health

In this study of toxic chemicals in plastic children’s toys and consumer products, researchers from Arnika, Biodetection Systesm, and IPEN proved that harmful chemicals can move from recycled plastics into human cells. The levels of toxic chemicals revealed in all the samples studied were comparable to levels found in hazardous wastes, such as the ash from waste incinerators. These chemicals can significantly contribute to the dioxin daily intake level for children who mouth their toys.

Plastic & Health: The Hidden costs of a Plastic Planet

Research, lead by CIEL, exposing the distinct toxic risks plastic poses to human health at every stage of the plastic life-cycle, from extraction of fossil fuels, to consumer use, to disposal and beyond.

Toxic Loopholes: Recycling Hazardous Waste into New Products

Evidence of banned toxic flame-retardants, hazardous chemicals from electronic waste that are known to disrupt thyroid function and cause neurological and attention deficits in children, are recycled into new plastic consumer products across Europe.

POPs Recycling Contaminates Children’s Toys with Toxic Flame Retardants

A study of children’s products from 26 countries revealed that toxic flame-retardant chemicals in recycled electronic waste results in pervasive contamination of new plastic children’s toys and related products. Recycling materials that contain persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and other toxic substances contaminates new products, creates human and environmental exposure, and undermines the credibility of recycling.

Toxics Soup: Dioxins in Plastic Toys

Highly toxic brominated dioxins found in toys and accessories sampled in seven countries that were made from recycled e-waste plastic reveals levels of dioxin found in previous studies in waste incineration fly ash or other industrial waste.

Toxic Industrial Chemical Recommended for Global Prohibition Contaminates Children’s Toys

The toxic industrial chemical Short-chain chlorinated paraffins (SCCPs) are primarily used in metalworking, but also used in plastic products as flame retardants and softeners. A survey of children’s products in 10 countries reveals widespread contamination with SCCPs.

Toxic Ash Poisons Our Food Chain

Report on the toxic threats from waste incinerator ash that, which is generated at a rate of millions of tons every year includes analysis of global scale of toxic ash and other residues from waste incineration contain dioxins, furans (PCDD/Fs) and a range of other highly toxic POPs at levels which are a threat to human health and the environment.

Waste Incinerator Ash Poisons the Food Chain: A Brief for Delegates

Abbreviated brief summarizes findings of the Toxic Ash Poisons Our Food Chain report.

Weak Controls: European E-waste Poisons Africa’s Food Chain

Research from IPEN and BAN reveals dire human exposure and food chain contamination from highly toxic plastics in waste in Ghana, including toxic recycled e-waste shipped from Europe.