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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment
Sandra Laville

Reuse and return schemes could help eliminate plastic pollution in 15 years, says report

Piles of bottles and cans on beach with walkers in background
Walkers pass plastic packaging waste on the Ulee Lheue beach in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. Photograph: Hotli Simanjuntak/EPA

The 66m tonnes of pollution from plastic packaging that enters the global environment each year could be almost eliminated by 2040 primarily by reuse and return schemes, significant new research reveals.

In the most wide-ranging analysis of the global plastic system, the Pew Charitable Trusts, in collaboration with academics including at Imperial College London and the University of Oxford, said plastic, a material once called revolutionary and modern, was now putting public health, world economies and the future of the planet at risk.

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