Loji Beach, nestled in a bay in West Java, Indonesia, is prone to plastic pile-ups.
Ocean currents sweep the waste into the bay where it gets trapped in and ends up on the sand.
“There’s no real community living here. There’s not a proper road to the beach, so there’s no local people cleaning it up properly, like you see in other parts of the country,” said Edu Ponces, a Barcelona-based photographer.
Indonesia is one of several Southeast Asia nations that have tightened their rules for plastic waste imports as they try to prevent becoming plastic dumping grounds for countries like China, the US and EU nations.
Indonesia will only allow shipments of products that are fully recyclable, but its neighbor to the north, Thailand, has gone further: It is banning all incoming plastic waste shipments starting in 2025.
At the same time, the European Union will ban the export of plastic waste to developing countries by 2026.
Click the link in CNN’s bio for more.
📸: Edu Ponces/RUIDO Photo
A £400m UK government loan to the Tropical Forests Forever Facility tightens the link between embodied carbon and real forest outcomes. Bio‑based and renewable building materials will now be judged on credible, deforestation‑free supply chains as much as on glossy lifecycle assessment or whole life carbon assessment outputs, driving wider use of environmental product declarations (EPDs), green building materials and green building products. Expect stronger traceability, circular construction strategies and end‑of‑life reuse in construction when specifying low embodied carbon materials and low carbon construction materials to cut the carbon footprint of construction and support the circular economy in construction.
Updated damp and mould guidance from the Chartered Institute of Building and the Chartered Institute of Housing reframes indoor environmental quality as a health obligation, pressing social landlords towards whole‑house ventilation, insulation upgrades and continuous monitoring. The shift embeds sustainable building design and energy‑efficient buildings as compliance issues, with implications for life cycle cost, building lifecycle performance and net zero whole life carbon pathways recognised by BREEAM and BREEAM v7.
A new retrofit procurement guide uses public spending to expand capacity, create local jobs and tackle skills shortages by baking training and labour targets into contracts. This gives sustainable construction and decarbonising the built environment delivery teeth, promoting life cycle thinking in construction, resource efficiency in construction and eco‑design for buildings, alongside sustainable material specification and low carbon building upgrades that support carbon neutral construction.
Escalating climate risks—from European wildfires to transboundary smoke and cascading Himalayan floods—are accelerating environmental sustainability in construction and sustainable urban development. Design for resilience is becoming core to net zero carbon buildings and green construction, with fire‑hardening, smoke filtration, heat‑safe interiors and green infrastructure specified to reduce the environmental impact of construction, deliver carbon footprint reduction over whole life carbon and strengthen eco‑friendly construction and sustainable architecture.
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