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Added on the 27/03/2022 03:00:20 - Copyright : AFP EN
San Andrés (Colombia), Feb 15 (EFE).- (Camera: Ares Biescas) On the beaches of the island of San Andres, a Colombian paradise in the Caribbean, waves return plastic bottles, flip flops and single-use cups and cutlery to shore, covering the sand in the rubbish that has not been properly disposed of.FOOTAGE OF RUBBISH IN SAN ANDRÉS.SOUNDBITES AND TRANSLATIONS OF:Lizbeth Arigan, resident: "Around the trees, there's a lot of pollution. Pollution has taken over the vegetation."Rosaina Forbes, resident: "Kids have got sick because of pollution, they've had viruses with a fever, flu, vomit, diarrhoea. Kids and adults. A few months ago I had red spots on my skin, my skin was affected by pollution."Ana Raquel Mar, technical consultant at Schooner Night Ethnic Association: "It's a use project. We collect and transport solid residue that can be reused. In four months we have collected 40 tons. Of those 40 tons, we've sent 10 to Bogotá.""All this material we see here is ready to be taken on a ship to Cartagena."
This creepy crawly insect is called a wax worm and, believe it or not, this little guy may just be the answer to global pollution. Footage provided courtesy of the Spanish National Research Council shows a brilliant new discovery made by researcher Federica Bertocchini. She discovered that wax worms are capable of eating through polyethylene plastic. The researcher demonstrated her discovery at a laboratory in Madrid on Wednesday. Although polyethylene is one of the world's most resistant forms of plastic, the worms can destroy the material by munching their way through it. According to the researcher, 100 worms can biodegrade up to 92 milligrams of polyethylene in just one night. That might not seem like much, but what if we multiply that by a thousand? Or even a million? The discovery is touted as the first all-natural solution to the disposal of the dangerous and wasteful material worldwide. Wax worms are now seen as the best way to biodegrade plastic without causing more harmful effects to nature. Polyethylene plastic, the material used to make plastic bags, is very durable. That's why we use it so often. The problem is that polyethylene is not biodegradable, which means that it stays in the environment for hundreds of years after being thrown away. It can cause all sorts of problems for wild animals and the natural environment in general. That's why this new discovery has the potential to help us clean up our act and restore areas like landfills and other areas polluted with plastic.
A park in Beijing's Fangshan district, where residents used to gather, dance and exercise, is now flooded with plastic waste after China's capital was hit with its heaviest rains in recent days since records began 140 years ago. IMAGES
Representatives of 175 nations with divergent ambitions met at UNESCO headquarters in Paris for the second of five sessions, with the aim of making progress towards reaching, by next year, a historic agreement covering the entire plastics life cycle. IMAGES
The United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi passes a solution to start negotiating a world-first global treaty on plastic pollution in what has been hailed a watershed moment for the planet. Nearly 200 nations unanimously agreed to create an intergovernmental committee to negotiate and finalise a legally binding plastics treaty by 2024. IMAGES
The UN Environment Assembly opens the closing session of its deliberations, where the body is to launch formal negotiations for a global treaty to address the planet's "epidemic" of plastic trash, a moment that supporters describe as historic. IMAGES
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