It may have been overlooked in some circles, with much of the plastic waste attention being paid to global initiatives and hot spot regions, but the East African Community, an intergovernmental organization created in 1999 and comprised of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan, with approximately 175 million residents, has already recognized what other regions have been slow to embrace: environmental protection, including the current plastics crisis, is too big for countries to…
El artículo de Jonathan Cocker: “El Compromiso Del SICA De Una Región Libre De Plásticos Necesita Una Estrategia Regional Sobre Plásticos De Un Solo Uso” fue publicado por Environmental Policy and Law.
Jonathan Cocker’s article: “SICA’s Plastic-Free Commitment Needs a Single-Use Plastics Regional Strategy” was published by Environmental Policy and Law.
Client alert: Canada: Federal Government shortlists eight types of projects for the development of carbon offset protocols — ATTORNEY ADVERTISING Client alert 14 August 2020 Canada: Federal Government shortlists eight types of projects for the development of carbon offset protocols In Brief On July 2, 2020, the Government of Canada released a much-anticipated discussion paper on the proposed Federal Greenhouse Gas Offset System. The paper clarifies how protocols for carbon offset credits will be developed…
Plastic pollution, including through single-use plastics (SUPs), continues to plague natural environments around the world, including in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). The region produces around 28 million tons of plastic waste every year (12% of total municipal waste), of which around 36% is SUP. It is estimated that about 4 million tons of plastic waste could enter the ocean in 2020 due to inadequate solid waste management in coastal cities, where a significant…
With so many countries and regions committing to some (often indeterminate) form of bioplastic alternative to conventional plastic food packaging, scrutiny as to actual environmental and safety performance offered by these materials has become intense. This has ironically created great uncertainty within the commercial food industry at the exact time that many producers have introduced mandates to switch from conventional plastic packaging. So how does this end? An Aging EU Packaging Standard The principal packaging…
Jonathan Cocker will be presenting an upcoming paper at the Venice Symposium 2020 organized by the International Waste Working Group on sustainable food packaging in biogas production in partnership with members of the European Union’s Realizing the Transition to the Circular Economy (ReTraCe) program, including Amos Ncube, PhD Candidate at University of Naples ‘Parthenope’ Department of Science and Technology.
Governments across the globe are grappling with the growing problem of plastic pollution, which threatens wildlife, marine ecosystems and may negatively impact human health. To deal with this threat, the Government of Canada is demonstrating leadership by pledging to increase plastic waste diversion, reduce single-use plastic in its operations, meetings and events, and procure sustainable plastic products. In September 2019, the federal government put out a Request for Information (RFI) on upcoming requirements on packaging…
New National Decree regulating the take-back system of electronics – Trench Rossi Watanabe The Federal Government published Decree No. 10,240/2020 in the Official Gazette last Thursday (February 13, 2020). The Decree regulates the take-back system on electronics nationwide. The new rule is aligned with the Sector Agreement for the take-back of electronics signed by the Ministry of Environment and some companies in the sector in October 2019. The Decree came into force immediately after its…
Long-awaited, and much-contested, new repairability requirements will soon impact many household electronic appliances within the European Union. Compliance deadlines for these standards start as soon as April 2020. Until these recent regulatory changes to the EU’s 2009 Eco-Design Directive, electronics repair rights had been successfully resisted on proprietary and safety grounds across target industries. The broader complaint, not commonly articulated by industry, is the discernible shift these repairability standards signal in the relationship between producers…