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Street cleaners collect plastic waste separately for local recycling and trash on the occasion of World Environment Day in Johannesburg. (Photo by Ihsaan Haffejee/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
CIRCULAR ECONOMY

Plastics industry ‘unduly influences SA’s global plastic treaty’

South Africa is a primary plastic producing country with significant imports of primary plastic for local manufacturing

  • Sheree Bega
12 min read
Stuck: The department of forestry, fisheries and the environment does not support establishing a new multilateral environmental agreement on plastics, according to a leaked document, and to the dismay of environmentalists. Photo: Paul Botes
ALBI MODISE

Plastic: South Africa is 11th-biggest litterbug

The country risks ‘pariah status’ for approach to global plastic waste crisis

  • Sheree Bega
6 min read
The first round of plastic treaty negotiations saw positive outcomes but oil producing countries, at the behest of big oil and petrochemical companies, could dominate the treaty discussions. (Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg/Getty Images)
BASEL CONVENTION

South Africa won’t support proposed global plastic ban treaty, draft document reveals

Critics say the environment department’s argument that the treaty would be a duplication of existing agreements is flawed

  • Sheree Bega
6 min read
EARBUDS

A Gauteng firm is using bioplastics to limit microplastics

Humans eat, drink and breathe in tens of thousands of micro- and nanoplastics, but research into the effects on health is limited

  • Boitumelo Kgobotlo
3 min read