Asia’s Richest Man Says ‘No Option’ But to Make Businesses Green

In an effort to identify plastic accumulation and leakage hotspots along the Ganges river, a recent project in three north Indian cities found that roughly 10%-25% of all the plastic waste generated was littered and was not routed into recycling or appropriate waste disposal channels. This litter, which is either generated in or accumulates in the different cities’ hotspots is a major source of plastic leaking into the riverine system in the area, especially during the rainy season. Much of the litter was multilayer plastic packaging, disposable bottles and cutlery, nylon sacks, and polythene bags.

The motion, which passed with 574 votes in favour, 22 against and 95 abstentions, urges the European Commission to set binding 2030 targets for materials use and consumption footprint of all products placed on the EU market. It also calls on the EU executive to introduce product-specific standards for recycled materials to be incorporated into new products placed on the EU market. “If we continue to use all these natural resources at this speed by 2050, we won’t need one planet, we’ll need three,” said Jan Huitema, a Dutch liberal MEP who authored the Parliament’s report. “It’s much better to make sure that the waste we would otherwise burn or dump, that we use it as a valuable raw material to make new products,” he said.