The International negotiations to approve a Global Plastics Treaty They have failed again, for the second time. The nearly 200 countries meeting in Geneva since August 5 have been unable to reach an agreement, as It happened at last year's summit in Busan, South Korea.The deadline for reaching an agreement technically ended at midnight on Thursday. Negotiations dragged on until early Friday morning, following widespread revolt against the latest draft agreement, released Wednesday, which directly eliminated all the key points, especially the imposition of a reduction in plastics production, yielding to pressure from the group of oil-producing countries, led by the group supporting the United States. These latter countries are truly responsible for the failure.

In the Atlantic, there are an estimated 27 million tons of nanoplastics, which means that these tiny particles of plastic (much smaller than microplastics) are the most abundant in this ocean, much more than the large pieces of plastic or what the well-known microplasticsThis is the conclusion of a new study published this Tuesday in the journal Nature and prepared for Utrecht University.

On average, a plastic bag is used for only 12 minutes, but it can take more than 300 years to fully decompose. According to the OECD's Global Plastics Outlook, in just two decades, annual plastic waste production worldwide has doubled, from 180 million tonnes to over 350 million. Plastic waste is projected to nearly triple worldwide by 2060: half of all this waste will still be landfilled, and less than a fifth will be recycled.

We read in the ARA that researchers from the University of Edinburgh (which is not the No-Thi-Fixis University) "have discovered in a study that a bacterium calledEscherichia colican convert a molecule from a plastic bottle into paracetamol." The findings are published in the journalNature Chemistry.

The problem of plastic waste is growing: more and more are dumped into the world every year. more than 52 million tons. Therefore, it is urgent to develop sustainable ways to recycle this material, which has a huge impact on ecosystems, because plastics poison the oceans, kill birds and marine animals, and contaminate the food and water we consume. Now, researchers from the University of Edinburgh have made an unprecedented discovery that opens the door to a strategy for reusing this waste and transforming it into a useful product. Specifically, they have discovered in a study that a bacterium called Escherichia coli can convert a molecule from a plastic bottle into paracetamol. Despite the potential of the findings published in the journal Nature Chemistry On Monday, the authors clarify that more research is needed to determine whether it is a valid strategy in the fight against pollution.