Plastic overshoot day report 2024
Plastic Overshoot Day marks the point when the amount of plastic waste generated exceeds the world’s capacity to manage it, resulting in environmental pollution. In 2024, the global Plastic Overshoot Day
Plastics
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Indian auto majors shift focus to plastics to cut production cost
Metal costs, largely responsible for vehicle price hikes, will soon cease to pinch the automobile manufacturers' margins as they become increasingly aware of the benefits of using engineering plastic instead of metals in vehicles. Home-grown automotive players like Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland, Bajaj Auto, Hero Honda, TVS Motors and Maruti Suzuki are augmenting the use of plastics in engine components in an ambitious effort to reduce dependence on key metals like steel and aluminium, all of which have witnessed stupendous rise of 35-50 per cent in the past 5 months.
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A City Committed to Recycling Is Ready for More
Mayor Gavin Newsom is competitive about many things, garbage included. When the city found out a few weeks ago that it was keeping 70 percent of its disposable waste out of local landfills, he embraced the statistic the way other mayors embrace winning sports teams, improved test scores or declining crime rates. Workers sort plastics at the San Francisco Recycling Center. The city, with 7,800 tons of waste a day, keeps 70 percent of it out of landfills. Mayor Gavin Newsom is shooting for 75 percent. But the city wants more.
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CPRE call for bottle deposit scheme
Consumers could be paid for recycling their plastic bottles under a scheme proposed by the Campaign to Protect Rural England. CPRE president Bill Bryson and the Wombles launched the campaign in London's Leicester Square (Copyright CPRE) An extra 10 pence would be added to the cost of goods such as drinks which would be returned to the consumer after the bottle is taken to collection points.
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Polythene dealers fined and warned
The Colombo Magistrate fined some polythene dealers for stocking and selling polythene that were not in conformity with the Government standards. Central Environmental Authority yesterday produced four traders for stocking and selling non standard polythene to the customers before the Colombo Additional Magistrate Majula Thilakaratne and were fined Rs 3000 each.
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Impact of religious tourism on Gir National Park
Many protected area managers are encountering difficulties balancing the demands of conservation and visitors. An essential component of sound management planning for these areas is objective data on visitor use impacts and needs. Gir National Park attracgts a large number of visitors, both pilgrims and tourists. What matters is not the large number of visitors, but the type of visitors, the pattern of resource use and the quality of management to achieve compatibility between activities undertaken by the visitors and the protected area objectives.
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Govt fails to take action under plastic bags ban
Bureaucratic lethargy and the lack of political will have led to a situation where the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) and the city district government Karachi (CDGK) appear to have virtually lost the battle against polythene bags that was energetically launched over a year ago. Environmentalists accuse the environmental and health safety watchdogs of having made too many compromises.
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Plastic-Bottle Scare Is a Boon for Some
Canada's decision to label as toxic a chemical that is used to make a popular form of plastic has created headaches for some makers of baby bottles, sports water bottles and other food and beverage containers. Sally McCoy, the chief of CamelBak, a sports bottle maker, switched plastics, even though the substitute costs more. But it may prove to be a bonanza for companies like Eastman Chemical, which makes a comparable plastic without the offending ingredient, as well as for makers of glass and food-grade stainless steel.
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Clean Shimla drive launched
After introducing a scheme to save electricity by popularising the use of energy-efficient CFL lamps, the state plans to undertake energy audit of all government buildings to help reduce power consumption by at least 10 per cent. This was announced by minister of forests and environment J.P.Nadda while launching the seven-week "seeti bajao, Shimla bachao' campaign to check littering of the "Queen of Hills' involving schoolchildren.
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Plastic disappears in 4 months of discarding
Researchers at the Missouri University of Science and Technology in the US are working to develop environmentally friendly plastics, which can literally disappear within four months of being discarded. What the research team is constructing is a new breed of biodegradable and bioavailable plastics in an effort to reduce the tonnes of plastic waste that ends up in America's landfills each year. Bioavailable plastics contain substances that can be absorbed by living systems during their normal physiological functions.
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WWF for use of paper bags
Painting messages on paper bags , clay-modelling workshops, film screenings and seminars have been planned to sensitise people towards environment on Earth Day tomorrow. The World Wild Life Fund(WWF)India has invited entries from schoolchildren to paint on paper bags that will be distributed in commercial areas to passersby. "The best three entries from each of the participating seven schools in Delhi will be awarded. But all bags that the kids make will be distributed as part of the sensitisation programme on Earth Day tomorrow,' Rashmi Asthana of the WWF India told IANS.