The larvae of a beetle species native to Central and South America can apparently survive with the plastic polystyrene as their only food source and even gain weight by ingesting it. This was the finding of a new study by the Australian University of Queensland, published in the journal Microbial Genomics. The researchers were able to demonstrate that the larvae of the species Zophobas morio (large black beetle), known as "superworms," are able to digest polystyrene (PS) thanks to the microbes in their intestines.

The river cleaning project "Bekasi River Cleanup" (BRIC) was launched in Indonesia in 2019 by the Schwarz Group together with the environmental organisation One Earth - One Ocean, plus a local waste disposal company, and with the support of the authorities in Bekasi. BRIC, was set up as a "REmove" project as part of the Group-wide sustainability strategy, and has now, according to the Schwarz Group, been developed to the point where it can be handed over to local stakeholders.

At the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) in Nairobi in March, it was agreed to start negotiations
on an international legally binding instrument against plastic pollution of the environment. To drive
implementation of the UNEA resolution, a group of countries including Germany initiated the international
“High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution” (HAC) at the end of August.

For some years now, the plastics industry in Europe has been striving to avoid pellet losses by launching a number of different programs. With the "Special report on pellet losses", which is now available as a supplement to the "From Land to Sea" and "Plastics in the Environment" models, a comprehensive investigation on pellet losses along the entire value chain has now been compiled for the first time in Germany. Pellet losses can occur during the production, processing and recycling of plastics and also during transport. The special report compiled by Conversio on behalf of the BKV, also provides information on how many pellets are discharged into the terrestrial and aquatic environments via the respective potential discharge sources at these stages in the value chain.