BFFP Newsletter 🌍📰 : Help activists go home, new report “Waste Pickers for Less Plastic” and more!

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Subject: BFFP Newsletter 🌍📰 : Help activists go home, new report “Waste Pickers for Less Plastic” and more!

Latest News and Updates

February 20, 2025

Help Greenpeace Activists Go Home

Greenpeace International activists - Al, Ash, Jens, Sam and Rainbow Warrior Captain Hettie - are currently prohibited from leaving South Korea. They are under an ongoing investigation for the peaceful direct action that took place in Daesen city as a part of the ‘Sailing for Change: Plastic Free Future’ Rainbow Warrior ship tour in East Asia.

On November 30 of last year, the 4 activists boarded a tanker that was about to load toxic plastic chemicals from South Korea’s Hyundai Daesan Refinery complex to deliver a strong message to cut plastic pollution to the world leaders gathered at the nearby city of Busan for the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (#INC5) to negotiate a UN Global Plastics Treaty.

Help us request for the legal processes to be completed quickly so our activists - #INC5Warriors - can rejoin their loved ones as soon as possible! Your signature will be delivered to the prosecutor and the judge overseeing our ongoing case in South Korea.

We’re grateful for each and every one of your support.

Sign the petition

Final Report of the Research “Waste Pickers for Less Plastic”

The Institute of Collective Law (IDC) has just published the Final Report of the Research on the Non-Recyclability of Plastics and its Impact on Recycling Cooperatives with the participation of some BFFP and GAIA members. The research provides an unprecedented overview of the challenges faced by cooperatives in the recycling of low-recyclability plastics, and reinforces the need for public policies and innovative solutions, including the inclusion of waste pickers.

Check out the report

How plastic credits [don’t] work. Source: Sustainable Plastics.

Cocktail of Contaminants

Plastic credits are a dangerous loophole in the fight against pollution, allowing corporations to avoid real responsibility while harming vulnerable communities. In Cambodia, a cement plant burns tons of plastic waste to fuel its kilns, generating plastic credits sold to global companies to “offset” their pollution. But this practice doesn’t solve the plastic crisis; it simply shifts the problem to places like Cambodia, where people breathe toxic fumes and suffer from the environmental fallout. With no clear regulations and harmful emissions at every step, plastic credits are a hazardous, lazy solution that fails to address the true cost of plastic pollution.

Read the article

BFFP & GAIA Africa Members in Busan, Republic of Korea during treaty negotiations.

A Show of Force Meets the Consensus Entropy at INC-5

At the end of 2024, the world expected a groundbreaking plastics treaty, but what we got instead was another battle against the obstructionist countries.💥Now, leading to a new round of negotiations, over 100 countries keep fighting back, demanding a legally binding treaty enshrining reduction targets, phase-out of harmful chemicals, a just transition, and an equitable financial mechanism! 🌍

What really went down at INC-5? Who stood up, who stalled progress, and what’s next in the fight against plastic pollution?

📝 Read the full breakdown by Merrisa Naidoo, Africa Plastics Program Manager for BFFP & GAIA.

Learn more

Inside the U.S. Department of Energy’s Partnership With the Plastics Industry

Did you know, the U.S. Department of Energy signed a five-year agreement with the American Chemistry Council, the plastics industry's biggest lobby group?

The recently-concluded agreement focuses on "innovative plastics recycling technologies," and specifically emphasized research on pyrolysis and gasification pyrolysis – essentially burning plastic – which industry has been pushing for years.

"It is clearly not an appropriate relationship for an industry lobby group to have with a department charged with the expenditure of millions in public funds," says Lee Bell, policy advisor for the International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN).

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Subject: BFFP Newsletter 🌍📰 : Help activists go home, new report “Waste Pickers for Less Plastic” and more!