IPEN International Pollutants Elimination Network

Glossary of Plastic Chemicals

Dioxins/furans: Dioxins are a family of chemicals that are some of the most highly toxic substances known. Dioxins and furans are not produced intentionally (and because they are produced unintentionally,…

IPEN and the Plastics Treaty Process

IPEN has worked to expose the health and environmental threats from plastics, with a focus on toxic chemicals throughout the plastics life cycle, for at least two decades. During this…

Tadesse Amera speaking at a plenary session with IPEN members by his side
Plastics Treaty INC-1: Interventions

Opening Statement presented by Dr. Tadesse Amera, IPEN Co-Chair, Ethiopia November 29, 2022 (read translations of the Opening Statement here) Thank you, Mr. President, Distinguished Delegates, I am speaking on…

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US singles out plastic pollution

In a two-step of ideas and action, the White House has released a report that outlines a government-wide approach for addressing plastic pollution and announced that buying single-use plastics for…

Delegates at a UN meeting
Caution urged for chemical recycling projects in developing countries

Chemical recycling of plastics could be problematic for developing countries that have limited capacity to manage and regulate waste. That, at least, was the opinion of experts at a June…

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A Fight Over the Future of Recycling Brews as Plastics Legislation Gains Traction

The chemical industry says advanced recycling will change the game, but environmentalists are skeptical Chemical companies, oil-and-gas incumbents and startups around the world are touting plans for new recycling facilities,…

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Plastic pollution talks end & Arctic people return home to a ‘sink’ of plastic

Global plastic pollution talks in Ottawa came to a close April 30, and with them a group of Indigenous leaders from the Arctic are on their way home. But the…

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Fourth UN meeting on plastics wraps with a plan for future work

As the gavel came down at 3:18 a.m. at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) meeting to create a global treaty to end plastic pollution, the room breathed an exhausted…

Plastics Treaty Delegates ‘Work is Far From Over’

The United States and other leading oil and gas producing countries that resist caps on future plastic production had a powerful effect on the latest round of United Nations talks…

UN plastics treaty inches closer to reality

Negotiators wrapped up the fourth round of formal discussions over the United Nations’ global plastics treaty early on Tuesday morning, inching closer to a final agreement that’s intended to “end…