We can't find the internet
Attempting to reconnect
Something went wrong!
Hang in there while we get back on track
The Darker Side of Dutch Colonialism: Exporting Plastic Waste Is Plastic Pollution Trafficking
AI summary Read the abstract
Researchers argue that the Netherlands and other EU nations exporting plastic waste to non-OECD countries are effectively trafficking pollution, shifting the environmental burden of plastic contamination — including microplastics — onto less wealthy nations that lack the infrastructure to manage it safely.
In 2021, the European Union (EU) was the largest exporter of plastic waste in the world, followed by the United States and Japan. Within the EU, the Netherlands, with a population of just 18 million, was the largest exporter of plastic waste to non-OECD countries,...
More Papers Like This
The Human Rights Impacts of Plastic Waste Exports
AI summary Read the abstract
Researchers analyzed the human rights dimensions of plastic waste exports, arguing that the global trade in plastic waste imposes disproportionate environmental and health burdens on receiving communities. The paper frames plastic waste management as a rights issue requiring international accountability beyond conventional environmental regulation.
How Plastic Pollution Impacts our Environment
AI summary Read the abstract
This overview examined how persistent plastic pollution — including the 79,000 tonnes accumulating in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch — degrades into microplastics and permeates ecosystems globally. The review underscores that fossil-fuel-based plastics' near-permanent environmental persistence creates an expanding reservoir of microplastic exposure risk for wildlife and humans alike.
Plastic Pollution and the Need for Responsible Plastic Consumption and Waste Management
AI summary Read the abstract
This paper reviewed the global scale of plastic pollution across environmental compartments and assessed current waste management practices — recycling, composting, incineration, and landfill — finding that all existing approaches result in leakage of plastics into natural environments. Closing the gap between plastic production and effective end-of-life management is a prerequisite for halting the continuous input of new microplastic particles into ecosystems and ultimately into human bodies.
The not-so-hidden threats of plastic pollution
AI summary Read the abstract
This commentary reviews how micro- and nanoplastics dispersed throughout the environment affect entire ecosystems and argues for an international binding agreement to contain plastic contamination before consequences become irreversible. The piece underscores the urgency of global policy action given the ubiquity of plastic particles in food, water, and air and their demonstrated effects on organisms across trophic levels.
Research digests by email
When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.