Malaysia Stop Waste Trade Coalition

04/06/2026

TRUE zero waste versus FALSE solutions:

- True zero waste includes strategies to design out the idea of “waste”: waste prevention, redesign, reuse, changes in consumption patterns, recycling, composting, and other methods to reprocess organic material.

- As a vision, its ultimate objective is to change how we produce, consume and process discards so our materials economy fits within planetary boundaries.

- Zero waste is rooted in environmental justice– supporting the flourishing of everyone regardless of race, class, or any other identity, and the rights of nature. Zero waste systems are community‑based, recognize waste pickers as workers, eliminate “sacrifice zones” that disproportionately burden poor and marginalized communities, and put people at the center of solutions.

- Hundreds of cities, thousands of communities and many waste practitioners have shown that it is possible to achieve over 90% source separation, diversion rates of 80% and higher, improved working conditions for waste pickers, and local economies based on repair and reuse.

- They also demonstrate that following the waste hierarchy (reduce first) creates more jobs, reduces more methane emissions, and improves public health.

- Waste‑to‑energy or plastics‑to‑fuel projects are NOT “zero waste”.

- Waste‑to‑energy incineration perpetuates waste generation because it requires feedstock to burn, competes with reuse and recycling for high‑calorific materials, relies on fossil‑based feedstocks such as plastics, produces greenhouse gas emissions, and creates hazardous residues.

- It is part of the linear system that perpetuates disposal, resource depletion, climate change and pollution that threaten public health and well-being.

What is ?

In this blog post, GAIA’s Global Zero Waste Cities Director Cecilia Allen urges everyone to “honor zero waste’s true spirit that drives systems change.”

Reject harmful waste-burning and other false solutions, ! READ in full: https://www.no-burn.org/defending-the-real-spirit-of-zero-waste/

Zero Waste Forum

30/05/2026

UK government fines waste exporter for falsely declaring dirty plastics and e-waste as clean plastics and attempts to dump on Turkiye. Enough is enough. Exporting countries must do more inspections and increase the penalties. For repeated offenders, shut them down!!

İngiltere hükümeti, Türkiye’ye yasa dışı şekilde atık göndermeye çalışan geri dönüşüm şirketine ceza verdi. İngiliz MV Recycling Ltd şirketinin, kirlenmiş plastik atıkları “Yeşil Liste” kapsamında ihraç etmeye çalıştığı belirlendi.

29/05/2026

When the products are already so problematic, what more the wastes?

27/05/2026

Another form of toxic colonialism and offshoring pollution!

"In June 2025, former Miteni executives were convicted over contamination linked to the plant, in a first-instance ruling widely seen as a landmark for environmental justice in Europe.

The factory left behind the contamination of one of Europe’s largest aquifers, affecting more than 350,000 people across the provinces of Vicenza, Verona and Padua through the drinking water. Miteni’s workers were worst affected, with one former employee showing one of the highest concentrations of Pfas ever recorded in human blood.

High levels of Pfas in the blood are associated with increased risk of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, liver and kidney damage, reproductive disorders and more.

The factory’s equipment was dismantled, shipped and reassembled in Lote Parshuram, south of Mumbai. Its purpose remained the same: producing Pfas, often referred to as “forever chemicals” because of their persistence in the environment.

The investigation revealed that Laxmi included in its portfolio some of the same products once manufactured by Miteni and maintained commercial relationships with clients that previously sourced from the Italian company. Laxmi has denied allegations of pollution.

Since early 2025, Laxmi’s site in Lote Parshuram has been fully operational, producing chemicals that will be used in pesticides, pharmaceuticals, dyes, cosmetics and other products."

Lack of Pfas regulations raised in parliament after Guardian revealed former Miteni plant bought by Indian company

27/05/2026

Join the supermarket audit now! Check out https://www.breakfreefromplastic.org/supermarket-audit/

STEP 01
Sign up to receive the questionnaire and participant guide.

STEP 02
Find the supermarkets we are targeting in your country, and plan your visit. We want to target the top 5 in each country and the top 10 global supermarket chains.

STEP 03
Visit your chosen stores, and use the online questionnaire to submit data.

STEP 04
Let others know about supermarket audits! Share on social media and help gather even more data!

22/05/2026

Groups from the Philippines filed a landmark pollution complaint before the Pollution Adjudication Board of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR-PAB) against Unilever PLC and Unilever Philippines, Inc.

The groups include fisherfolk, coastal residents, women, youth, and waste workers.

They seek to hold Unilever accountable for the relentless production of non-recyclable plastic sachets and the company’s alleged double standards and greenwashing.

The company is responsible for extremely large volumes of sachets, producing over 475 billion sachets from 2010-2020.

Billions of sachets have inundated Philippine waterways annually, causing floods, posing severe health risks, degrading mangrove ecosystems, and crippling the livelihoods of fisherfolk and waste workers.

Because of its multi-layer design—combining different plastic types and aluminum film—these sachets are persistent, non-recyclable, and inherently “non-environmentally acceptable.”

Multisectoral groups from the Philippines have filed a landmark pollution complaint before the Pollution Adjudication Board of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR-PAB) against Unilever PLC and Unilever Philippines, Inc.

21/05/2026

Time to educate ourselves as consumers!

The more we understand the gap between what corporations claim (about plastic recycling) and what actually happens (to their plastic waste), the more pressure there is on Starbucks and other companies to actually reduce their single-use plastic.

Here are some of the report’s key findings:

• Beyond Plastics placed 53 Bluetooth-enabled trackers inside Starbucks cups and dropped them into in-store recycling bins at 35 Starbucks locations across nine US states and Washington, D.C.

• Of the 36 trackers that gave usable data and reached a final destination, NOT ONE ended up at a recycling facility. Instead, the cups went to landfills (16), incinerators (9), waste-transfer stations otw to landfill/incinerator (8), and materials recovery facilities which are sorting facilities, not recycling facilities (3).

• Four cups crossed state lines from New York City to a landfill in Amsterdam, Ohio — the longest single trip was 463 miles, from a Starbucks in Brooklyn.

• Beyond Plastics originally targeted 21 states. In 11 of them, the stores surveyed either had no recycling bins at all or had signage indicating plastic cups go to landfill — despite Starbucks publicly claiming the cups are “widely recyclable.”

• A December 2025 Greenpeace report found only two commercially operating facilities in the entire country that claim to recycle post-consumer polypropylene cups. Their combined capacity is roughly 2% of all U.S. polypropylene waste.

Starbucks claims its single-use plastic cups (made of No. 5 polypropylene plastic) are now "widely recyclable." ♻️🥤 But are they❓

👉Read Beyond Plastics' new report to find out: www.beyondplastics.org/starbucks-cups

21/05/2026

Watchdog group glued trackers to 53 of the chain’s cups across nine states and found none ended up at a recycling facility