Skip to content
  • Science
  • Politics & Policy
  • Justice
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Clean Energy
  • Today’s Climate
  • Projects
  • About Us
Inside Climate News
Pulitzer Prize-winning, nonpartisan reporting on the biggest crisis facing our planet.
Donate

Search

  • Science
  • Politics & Policy
  • Justice
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Clean Energy
  • Today’s Climate
  • Projects
  • About Us
  • Newsletters

Topics

  • Activism
  • Arctic
  • Business & Finance
  • Climate Law & Liability
  • Climate Treaties
  • Denial & Misinformation
  • Environment & Health
  • Extreme Weather
  • Food & Agriculture
  • Fracking
  • Nuclear
  • Pipelines
  • Regulation
  • Super-Pollutants
  • Water/Drought
  • Wildfires

Information

  • About
  • Jobs & Freelance
  • Reporting Network
  • Impact Statement
  • Contact
  • Whistleblowers
  • Memberships
  • Ways to Give
  • Fellows & Fellowships

Publications

  • E-Books
  • Documents

Basel Convention

UN Agency Provides Path to 80 Percent Reduction in Plastic Waste. Recycling Alone Won’t Cut It

As the benefits of recycling are called into question, the United Nations Environment Program counts 13,000 chemicals in plastic, many of them toxic, and offers a challenging, multifaceted action plan to sharply reduce plastic waste by 2040.

By James Bruggers

Canadian activist and artist, Benjamin von Wong is pictured in front of his 30-foot monument themed 'turn off the plastics tap' created using plastic waste from Nairobi's largest slum, Kibera, standing outside the venue of the Fifth Session of the United Nations Environment Assembly, at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Headquarters in Nairobi on Feb. 22, 2022. Credit: Tony Karumba/AFP via Getty Images
A Turkish diver dives amid plastic waste in Ortakoy coastline to observe the life and pollution of Bosphorus in Istanbul, Turkey on June 27, 2020. Credit: Sebnem Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Is ‘Chemical Recycling’ a Solution to the Global Scourge of Plastic Waste or an Environmentally Dirty Ruse to Keep Production High?

By James Bruggers

Newsletters

We deliver climate news to your inbox like nobody else. Every day or once a week, our original stories and digest of the web's top headlines deliver the full story, for free.

Keep Environmental Journalism Alive

ICN provides award-winning climate coverage free of charge and advertising. We rely on donations from readers like you to keep going.

Donate Now
Inside Climate News
  • Science
  • Politics & Policy
  • Justice
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Clean Energy
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Whistleblowers
  • Privacy Policy
Inside Climate News uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you accept this policy. Learn More