{"id":12365,"date":"2021-04-06T14:34:49","date_gmt":"2021-04-06T11:34:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africasustainabilitymatters.com\/?p=12365"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:31:27","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:31:27","slug":"un-plastic-waste-affects-disadvantaged-people-the-most","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/2021\/04\/06\/un-plastic-waste-affects-disadvantaged-people-the-most\/","title":{"rendered":"UN: plastic waste affects disadvantaged people the most"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Plastic pollution is a global scourge with plastic waste having become ubiquitous worldwide. We all suffer from it in some ways as microplastics has permeated even\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sustainability-times.com\/environmental-protection\/each-one-of-us-ingests-tens-of-thousands-of-microplastics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">drinking water<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sustainability-times.com\/environmental-protection\/seafood-contains-plenty-of-microplastics-study\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">seafood<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sustainability-times.com\/environmental-protection\/microplastics-have-ended-up-in-our-table-salt\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">table salt<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yet some people suffer far more from plastic pollution than others, according to the United Nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cVulnerable communities disproportionately bear the brunt of environmental degradation caused by plastics pollution, and action is urgently needed to address the issue and restore access to human rights, health and well-being,\u201d the UN\u2019s Environment Programme says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe impacts of plastics on marginalized populations are severe, and exist at all stages of the production cycle, from extracting raw materials and manufacturing, through to consumption and disposal,\u201d the UNEP&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/news.un.org\/en\/story\/2021\/03\/1088712\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">notes<\/a>&nbsp;based on findings detailed in a new report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cPlastic waste not only endangers the livelihoods of those relying on marine resources, it also causes a raft of health issues for people who consume seafood infested with toxic micro and nano plastics. Women, in particular, suffer from plastic-related toxicity risk, due to higher aggregate exposure to plastics at home and even in feminine care products,\u201d the UN agency elucidates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These insights should come as no surprise. Economically disadvantaged people tend to live in communities with higher rates of pollution from air and water pollution to plastics pollution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cases in point are countries such as India where millions upon millions of the poorest citizens live in squalid urban slums where they are exposed to high levels of pollutants in various forms, largely owing to poor waste management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, developing nations such as Thailand are&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sustainability-times.com\/environmental-protection\/asian-countries-like-thailand-are-flooded-by-waste-imports\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">flooded by waste imported from abroad<\/a>&nbsp;as local businesses seek to turn a profit by recycling e-waste, which they often do with grave costs to the environment and local people\u2019s health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are no simple solutions to the problem of plastic waste. The UNEP calls for an expansion in plastic waste monitoring and better waste management in addition to further studies on the health impacts of plastic waste. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sustainability-times.com\/environmental-protection\/un-plastic-waste-affects-disadvantaged-people-the-most\/\">Read more&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Plastic pollution is a global scourge with plastic waste having become ubiquitous worldwide. We all suffer from it in some ways as microplastics has permeated even\u00a0drinking water,\u00a0seafood\u00a0and\u00a0table salt. Yet some&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12366,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}