Steve Toloken

The vote creates a system that could have a major impact on plastic packaging, setting a 65 percent recycling rate target and requiring companies to pay $500 million a year into an environmental cleanup fund.

A California legislative committee approved a large plastics pollution and extended producer responsiblity bill in a June 28 vote, clearing one hurdle to withdraw a plastics referendum on the state's November ballot.

Canada's government is going ahead with a long-discussed, legally enforceable ban on the manufacture and sale of six types of single-use plastics and is considering tighter rules on using the chasing arrows symbol.

EPA is dramatically lowering safe drinking water levels for four PFAS chemicals, by a factor of several thousand. It comes as the American Chemistry Council released a study that says that related fluoropolymers are safe.

Greenpeace has ended a high-profile lawsuit against Walmart over recyclability claims on its plastic packaging. But concerns over environmental marketing around plastics recycling continue.

Responding to petitions from environmental groups, the Biden administration said June 8 that national parks will ban the sale of single-use plastics, with a 2032 deadline.

A new report from the OECD has some eye-catching analysis around a topic that doesn't usually get much attention in the plastic debates: What will be the economic impact of cleaning up plastic waste and pushing the industry in a more sustainable direction?

Advocates for plastics waste shareholder resolutions at big companies like Amazon, Phillips 66 and ExxonMobil see favorable votes as a sign of growing investor concern. Flexible packaging and microplastics could be the next topics.

A little more than one-third of ExxonMobil Corp. shareholders voted May 25 to urge the company to closely study its financial risks if society makes rapid moves away from single-use plastics and virgin resin.

The countries at a United Nations environment forum formally agreed March 2 to move ahead on a broad plastics pollution treaty that could have a big impact on how plastics are regulated.

Talks on a potential plastics pollution treaty are in the home stretch at a United Nations Environment Assembly meeting in Kenya. Negotiators expect to finish March 2.

A state agency in California is out with the first microplastics reduction strategy in the U.S. It includes some plastics bans and tougher enforcement around pellet leaks, as well as calls for more work on other sources like tires and synthetic clothing.

Negotiators from nearly 200 countries are expected to agree on broad outlines of a global plastics pollution treaty at a U.N. meeting in early March. But beyond that, specific impacts will depend on how nations implement any new accord.

Large ocean freight firm CMA CGM will stop transporting plastic waste worldwide over environmental concerns. The French company is reportedly the largest shipper of scrap plastic from the United States.

Investment funds backed by the plastics industry, along with some large financial firms, see the possibility for a U.N. plastics treaty to speed investment in green technologies.