Plastic news and archive

PlasticFree opens access to global materials database during Climate Week NYC

PlasticFree has opened access to its entire global materials database so that it is freely accessible to designers, brands, and businesses looking to move away from plastic-related materials. Operating in 37 countries, the announcement was made at PlasticFreeLand’s US debut at New York Climate Week earlier this week. Founded by A Plastic Planet,...

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Business

N Brown adopts ‘dissolvable packaging’ into supply chain

Retail group N Brown has revealed that it will be replacing its plastic packaging with a product that comes “without any risk of contamination”. The parent company of JD Williams, Jacamo and Simply Be said it will be utilising Polymax powered by HydropolTM, in order to reduce its overall use of plastic across all of its brands. According to the...

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Background

What the fashion industry has to do with microplastics pollution (and everything you need to know about EU initiatives to tackle microplastics)

The European Commission has microplastics on its agenda. But what initiatives are there to tackle the release of microplastics and what measures are being put in place to reduce the impact of microplastics on the environment? FashionUnited lists them. As always, we start at the beginning: with what microplastics are, why there are concerns about...

Fashion

Estée Lauder joins sustainability challenge as exclusive partner

Estée Lauder has joined the International Space Station (ISS) National Laboratory Sustainability Challenge: Beyond Plastics, as an exclusive partner. Estée Lauder will provide funding for awarded proposals, as a part of its commitment to support research that will promote innovation in sustainable packaging. The ISS National Lab Sustainability...

Retail

Harrods to ditch plastic bags

Luxury London department store Harrods is replacing all its plastic carrier bags with fully recyclable paper bags from early next month. The new sustainable sourced paper carrier bags will be 100 percent recyclable and made from 40 percent recycled materials, explained Harrods, and will display the FSC label showing that they use paper that has...

Retail

Plastic bag price in England to double form May 21

The price of single-use carrier bags in England is to double to 10p from May 21 and be extended to all businesses in the government’s latest bid to cut down on plastic waste. The current 5p charge, which was introduced back in 2015, has resulted in a 95 percent cut in plastic bag sales in major supermarkets, the government said. The average...

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Fashion

Asos sets “ambitious commitments” on plastic packaging

Online retailer Asos has signed up to Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy Global Commitment, a global initiative rallying more than 400 businesses and governments behind a positive vision of a circular economy for plastics, in which it never becomes waste or pollution. London-based Asos is the principal online retailer to sign the...

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Business

Fast Retailing (Uniqlo) to reduce single-use plastic by 85 percent

Fast Retailing, the parent company of Japanese casual brand Uniqlo, has pledged to eliminate the use of unnecessary plastic throughout its supply chain and to reduce the amount of single-use plastic handed to customers by 85 percent, or around 7.800 tons annually, by the end of 2020. Stores in 12 countries will switch from plastic shopping bags...

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Fashion

Adidas pledges to make more shoes using recycled plastic waste in 2019

It looks like reducing plastic waste is the cause closest to Adidas’ heart. The sportswear brand announced ambitious plans to increase the production of shoes containing recycled plastic waste from five million pairs in 2018 to eleven million pairs in 2019. Such growth will be possible thanks to a collaboration with Parley for the Oceans, the...

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Business

Hundreds of companies sign global commitment to eliminate plastic pollution at source

Over 290 companies representing 20 percent of all plastic packaging produced globally have signed a global commitment to end plastic waste and pollution at the source. The initiative was led by UK charity Ellen MacArthur Foundation, in collaboration with UN Environment. Fashion companies such as H&M, Walmart, Burberry, Target and Marks & Spencer...

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Fashion |OPINION

Ban on plastic is fueling new luxury accessories and fashion alternatives

Last week, while on holiday in Ibiza, the gin tonic I ordered at the quiet end of a beach club on Playa d’en Bossa was served with a bamboo straw. A sustainable, recyclable straw I was told, that sees the ban against plastic going global from Seattle to London to, well, Ibiza. According to Coastal Care, humans have made enough plastic since the...

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Fashion

Adidas x Wanderlust launch yoga collection made from recycled plastic

London - Adidas is upping the game on its pledge to stop using virgin plastics in its collections, as the sportswear giant launches a yoga collection with Wanderlust and Parley for the Oceans made from recycled ocean plastic. The new yoga collection, named Adidas x Wanderlust, features 42 pieces for women, including crop tops, leggies, and...