Following years of campaigning by environmental activists, Thailand has banned foreign imports of plastic waste due to concerns about toxic pollution.

Experts warn that the failure to reach an agreement on a global treaty to eliminate plastic waste will have adverse impacts on human health, reported The Guardian.

“The ban on imports will help stimulate plastic recycling in Thailand, ensuring more efficient resource usage and reducing the amount of unused plastic waste,” said Arada Fuangthong, director-general of Thailand’s Department of Foreign Trade, as Sustainable Plastics reported. “This will also help reduce pollution that could impact the environment and public health.”

Fuangthong added that Thailand’s plastic waste problem has increased “significantly,” and that the country has struggled with electronic waste being smuggled in mixed with plastic waste.

Issued by the Thai Department of Foreign Trade on January 1, the new regulation provided a grace period from December 17 to 31 to allow for the completion of pending imports.

The guidelines require the promotion of domestic plastic waste recycling by responsible agencies under the Bio, Circular, Green (BCG) economy model framework.

Thailand became a main destination for plastic waste exports from the United States, Japan, Europe and the United Kingdom after a ban was imposed by China — the largest household waste market in the world — in 2018, reported The Guardian.

Japan is among the biggest waste plastic exporters to Thailand, sending roughly 50 million kilograms of discarded plastics in 2023.

According to Thai customs officials, over 1.21 million tons of plastic scraps were received by the country from 2018 to 2021.

“The ban on all plastic scrap imports should be seen as a triumph for civil society in preventing hazardous waste from entering Thailand,” said Penchom Sae-Tang, director of NGO Ecological Alert and Recovery, as the Bangkok Post reported. “However, our work is far from over. Vigilant monitoring and robust cooperation with authorities will be critical to ensuring the law is enforced for the benefit of all.”

Plastic waste imports have been frequently burned by factories rather than being recycled, leading to negative impacts for the environment and human health, reported The Guardian.

“While this is a great step forward for Thailand, there is more work to be done. After the law comes into effect, the Thai government must work to ensure its enforcement and implementation. This means industrial, environmental and customs agencies must cooperate to prevent any illicit imports of plastic waste… the current law does not address the transit of plastic waste, meaning Thailand could be used as a transit state to send waste to our… neighbours. The Thai government must guard against this,” said Punyathorn Jeungsmarn, a plastics campaign researcher with the Environmental Justice Foundation, as The Guardian reported.

European exports of plastic waste to non-OECD nations have increased over the past several years, reported Sustainable Plastics.

Rules regulating the global export of plastic scrap exist, but compliance is hard to assess.

Thailand’s new ban comes as attempts to rescue the global plastics treaty continue. Countries failed last year to agree on a final draft following talks in Busan, South Korea.

A draft text was supported by more than 100 countries, but oil-producing nations like Saudi Arabia, Russia and Iran resisted cuts to plastics production.

A date has not yet been set for further discussions on a global treaty to eliminate plastic waste.

“Plastic pollution is now recognised as not only an environmental crisis but also a critical human health crisis. The need for decisive international action to tackle plastic pollution has never been more urgent,” said professor Steve Fletcher, director of University of Portsmouth’s Revolution Plastics Institute, as The Guardian reported.

Fletcher pointed out that burning plastic as a waste management method posed severe health risks that were compounded by the plastic waste trade.

“With 16% of global municipal waste burned openly, rising to 40-65% in low-and middle-income countries, vulnerable populations bear the brunt of this crisis. The toxic fumes from burning plastic are a silent but deadly contributor to global health burdens. Urgent action is needed,” said Dr. Cressida Bowyer, deputy director of Revolution Plastics Institute, as reported by The Guardian.

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In a recent lawsuit, Murray County, Georgia, alleged that corporations 3M, Daikin and DuPont have used toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) “forever chemicals” to produce products in Northwest Georgia while hiding associated dangers since the 1960s, causing a public health crisis.

The county is also suing carpet manufacturers, including Shaw and Mohawk Industries, reported The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The lawsuit claims the companies have been aware for decades that the PFAS they produce and use are toxic, but have been concealing that knowledge and dumping contaminated waste in the county’s landfill.

“Thanks to these and other failures by the chemical makers and users, all or substantially all the residents of Northwest Georgia effectively have Scotchgard, Stainmaster, and Teflon coursing through their veins, suppressing their immune systems and triggering debilitating and fatal illnesses,” the county said in its lawsuit.

In its complaint, the Georgia county said defendants made billions from products contaminated with PFAS and should pay for necessary cleanup.

The complaint by Murray County follows another lawsuit filed by Mohawk Industries in Whitfield County against 3M, DuPont, Chemours and Daikin, alleging the chemical companies hid PFAS dangers from users.

One of the biggest carpet manufacturers in the world, Mohawk claims it was duped into using the chemicals without being aware that they could cause harm to humans and the environment, Atlanta News First reported.

Mohawk’s lawsuit claims the corporations “concealed and misrepresented material information regarding the environmental and health risks of PFAS chemicals” when it sold carpet “treatment products” to Mohawk over the course of decades.

The City of Dalton — known as “the carpet and flooring capital of the world” — has filed another lawsuit against Shaw Industries, 3M, Daikin, Chemours and others, alleging that the city’s sewage system was contaminated with PFAS by one of its largest employers. That complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court Northern District of Georgia, located in Rome.

PFAS are a group of thousands of chemicals used to make products like carpet stain- and water-resistant.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency has said PFAS have been linked to a heightened risk of decreased fertility, low birth weight and multiple forms of cancer.

Mohawk admitted that its industrial wastewater, which was contaminated with PFAS, made its way into rivers that provide local residents with drinking water.

“Mohawk has already paid over $100 million to settle certain water lawsuits in order to fund the construction of water treatment facilities to remove Defendants’ PFAS from the drinking water of the affected communities,” the lawsuit said, as reported by Atlanta News First.

The case brought by Murray County, which includes claims against Chemours, is the most recent in an increasing legal fight stemming from PFAS use in the state’s carpet manufacturing industry, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

PFAS are referred to as “forever chemicals” because they do not break down easily in the natural environment.

Murray County’s legal team is made up of attorneys, water experts and consumer advocates that include Erin Brockovich — famous for the fight against Pacific Gas & Electric that inspired an Oscar-winning film bearing the environmental advocate’s name.

3M has said it will stop making PFAS by year’s end, and has agreed to pay as much as $12.5 billion to public water providers.

“The PFAS in and around the county’s landfill, which are migrating into the waters of the state of Georgia, must be contained, captured and destroyed,” the county stated in its lawsuit.

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In a new study, scientists from University of Southampton, University of the West of England Bristol, University of Exeter, University of Cambridge, University of Leeds and University of Bath have developed a way to make smart, electronic textiles that are also sustainable and biodegradable. 

The researchers have created ‘Smart, Wearable, and Eco-friendly Electronic Textiles’ (SWEET), technological fabrics with features like sensors or lights that are designed to biodegrade after they reach the end of their lifespan.

“Integrating electrical components into conventional textiles complicates the recycling of the material because it often contains metals, such as silver, that don’t easily biodegrade,” explained Nazmul Karim, lead author of the study and a professor at the Winchester School of Art at University of Southampton. “Our potential ecofriendly approach for selecting sustainable materials and manufacturing overcomes this, enabling the fabric to decompose when it is disposed of.”

To make a biodegradable e-textile, the researchers created a three-layer fabric with a Tencel-fabric base, an interface layer, and the sensor layer. The Tencel is a wood pulp-based fabric, and the team used graphene and a type of conductive polymer known as PEDOT:PSS for the electronic elements. 

From there, they were able to use inkjet printing to adhere these materials to the fabric, as this process used less water and energy and produced no material waste, according to the researchers.

The researchers tested the fabric by attaching it to gloves, which five humans wore in the study. The fabric was able to effectively measure the humans’ electrocardiogram (ECG) signals and skin temperature, just like many smart wearables on the market today.

Gloves with swatches of e-textile attached inside and wired for sensing testing. Marzia Dulal

“Achieving reliable, industry-standard monitoring with eco-friendly materials is a significant milestone. It demonstrates that sustainability doesn’t have to come at the cost of functionality, especially in critical applications like healthcare,” Shaila Afroj, a co-author of the study and associate professor of sustainable materials at the University of Exeter, said in a statement.

After testing how the fabric performed in tracking human physiology metrics, the team put SWEET to its bigger test — whether it was biodegradable. The fabric was buried in soil with a 6.5 to 6.8 pH in an incubator with a temperature of around 29 degrees Celsius (84 degrees Fahrenheit) and a relative humidity of around 90%.

After a four-month period, the fabric had a 48% decrease in weight and 98% decrease in strength. The graphene elements also revealed a 40 times smaller impact upon decomposition compared to standard electrodes in wearables. The researchers published their findings in the journal Energy and Environmental Materials.

According to Statista, smart wearable shipments were expected to reach 543 million units worldwide in 2024, and this number is only expected to grow, reaching an estimated 612.5 million units by 2028.

Further, a report by ResearchAndMarkets.com has estimated that the global smart textiles market will increase from $4.85 billion as of 2024 to $29.1 billion by 2033.

With this increasing demand comes the risk of increasing e-waste, or electronic waste. As Earth.org reported, humans currently generate about 50 million to 60 million tons of e-waste per year, and much of this waste does not break down into the soil. Instead, the materials can corrode or react to UV rays and leach harmful substances into the environment. According to the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, e-waste is slated to increase 32% by 2030. 

With the growing demand for smart, wearable technology, advancements such as biodegradable electronic textiles will be necessary to meet demand without contributing to more e-waste. The researchers noted that their study can help further additional research into more sustainable, and ultimately fully biodegradable or recyclable, e-textiles and other materials.

“Amid rising pollution from landfill sites, our study helps to address a lack of research in the area of biodegradation of e-textiles,” Karim said. “These materials will become increasingly more important in our lives, particularly in the area of healthcare, so it’s really important we consider how to make them more eco-friendly, both in their manufacturing and disposal.”

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In devastating news for the Pacific Northwest population of southern resident killer whales (SRKW), Tahlequah, a 25-year-old member of the group, has lost another newborn female calf.

The mother made headlines seven years ago when she swam with her deceased calf for 17 days around the Salish Sea in an act of grieving. She has two other calves, one 14 years old and another born in 2020, both males.

Southern resident killer whales are a critically endangered population of orcas, and each loss, especially a female, is considered a huge blow to the 73 who remain. According to the Center for Whale Research, it is believed that there are just 23 breeding females left, reported The Guardian.

“The death of any calf in the SRKW population is a tremendous loss, but the death of J61 is particularly devastating, not just because she was a female, who could have one day potentially led her own matriline but also given the history of her mother J35 who has now lost two out of four documented calves – both of which were female,” the center wrote in a statement on Facebook.

The primary food source of southern resident killer whales is Chinook salmon, which have been in steep decline for years, BBC Wildlife reported. According to researchers at University of Washington, this impacts the nutrition and reproduction of the whales, which are listed as endangered in the United States and Canada.

Conservation groups have asked the environment minister of Canada to issue an emergency order to protect the imperilled species, reported The Guardian. The powers have been used just twice before: once to protect the western chorus frog of Québec, and the other to save Alberta’s greater sage-grouse.

Southern resident killer whales have been known to travel as much as 75 miles a day. In 2018, Tahlequah’s heart wrenching display of grief for her baby happened off the coast of Victoria, British Columbia. This time, she is mourning the loss of her newborn in Puget Sound, off the shores of Washington State.

SRKW face other threats, including disturbance and noise from vessels — which make it more difficult for them to hunt — as well as fishing gear, plastics and other pollution in the food chain.

“It’s so much harder to see now that she has lost another one,” said Brad Hanson, a research scientist with Seattle’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as The New York Times reported.

Hanson said he wasn’t sure why Tahlequah’s calf, born around Christmas, had died.

The deep mourning of Tahlequah of her first female calf in 2018 became a symbol of the southern resident killer whales’ plight. Though orcas sometimes display their grief as Tahlequah did, scientists considered the roughly 1,000-mile journey carrying her calf unprecedented.

Tahlequah is still caring for the second son she gave birth to in 2020.

Scientists said on Thursday that, as she clings to the body of her dead calf, Tahlequah cannot forage for food, but that her loyal pod, especially her sister, had been seen at her side throughout the ordeal.

SRKW are one of several orca communities that live in the Pacific Northwest. While they mostly occupy waters near Washington State and British Columbia, some venture south to California and north to Alaska.

Females typically live as long as 50 or 60 years and weigh as much as 16,000 pounds, while males live approximately 30 years and can weigh 22,000 pounds.

Researchers were at first optimistic about Tahlequah’s newborn, known as J61, but quickly suspected the calf was having health problems, reported The Guardian.

“Early life is always dangerous for new calves, with a very high mortality rate in the first year. J35 is an experienced mother, and we hope that she is able to keep J61 alive through these difficult early days,” the Center for Whale Research wrote on December 23.

The orca’s death left the team “deeply saddened.”

About 50 percent of orca calves die in their first year, and many orca pregnancies fail, The New York Times reported.

Another calf born to the same pod was spotted on Wednesday. Neither the mother nor the gender of the newborn have been confirmed. The calf, who appears to be healthy, brings hope to the population.

It came as no surprise to scientists that Tahlequah mourned the loss of her babies in such a profound way.

“Over the last few years, we realize that we have the same neurotransmitters that they have,” said Joe Gaydos, science director of University of California, Davis’ SeaDoc Society, as reported by The New York Times. “We have the same hormones that they have. Why shouldn’t we also have the emotions that they have? We don’t have the market cornered on emotions. So I think it’s fair to say that she is grieving or mourning.”

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For the second year in a row, Massachusetts beaches have recorded more nesting Piping Plovers than anytime in the last four decades — 1,196 nesting pairs, a 1.5 percent increase over 2023 and a 500 percent jump since the program began, according to preliminary data gathered by MassWildlife’s Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Program and Mass Audubon.

Mass Audubon has been leading the Coastal Waterbird Program (CWP) since 1986. The program is a collaboration between state, federal and local agencies. It engages in conservation research while monitoring and protecting vulnerable beach-nesting birds. In the mid-1980s, fewer than 200 pairs of breeding Piping Plovers existed in the state.

“Piping Plovers were on the brink of extinction in Massachusetts and now, through collaborative partnerships and strategic conservation strategies, this is a species recovering at an encouraging rate,” said Lyra Brennan, Mass Audubon’s Coastal Waterbird Program director, in a press release from Mass Audubon.

Piping Plovers on a Massachusetts beach. Pat Ulrich / Mass Audubon

The sand-colored shorebird is about the size of a sparrow and feeds along sand and gravel beaches on the North American coast.

While Piping Plovers are still listed as threatened on the state and federal endangered species lists, the last several years of data show that the elegant shorebirds are making a comeback in Massachusetts.

CWP protected 379 pairs of Piping Plovers in 2024, representing 17 percent of the Atlantic Coast population and almost a third of the state population.

In 2024, pairs of Plovers nesting at sites protected by CWP produced 1.24 fledglings per pair — nearly the same as the 1.25 chicks in 2023 — which is considered to be a sustainable reproductive rate.

“Long-term investments in coastal communities and implementing a combination of wildlife management, science-based conservation, policy development, and education is paying off,” Brennan said in the press release.

In a first, Plovers also successfully fledged chicks at Eastham’s Dyer Prince Beach, while Sagamore’s Scusset Beach saw its first Plover pairing in over a decade. Additional hotspots included an 83 percent leap in productivity in fledged chicks on Lobsterville Beach in Aquinnah, a 56 percent jump in Plover pairs at Barnstable’s Long Beach and twice as many pairs on Chatham’s Tern Island.

Other vulnerable seabirds have also had success, including Least Terns, who experienced a 37 percent population increase in 2024 to 4,901 pairs, following a drop in numbers the previous year. Mass Audubon’s 42 protected nesting sites for the birds maintained steady reproductive success with rates ranging from zero to 1.35 fledglings per pair, making them the most successful sites for Least Terns in Massachusetts.

As was true a year earlier, predators were the most significant factor determining nesting success for terns in 2024. Major overwash and predation events impacted several of the main sites, including South Beach, which saw no Least Tern fledges last year, despite having a colony of more than 100 pairs.

American Oystercatchers also experienced their second record year in a row with 250 nesting pairs detected — a year-over-year increase of five percent.

Brennan said Oystercatchers in Massachusetts were the most productive of any state reporting the same metrics.

“Mass Audubon monitors 30 percent of the state population and despite the fledgling rate dropping from 1.23 chicks per pair to .99 in 2024, this is still well above the .35 fledged chicks per pair rate estimated to maintain a stable oystercatcher population,” Mass Audubon said.

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