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Greenpeace Taiwan collaborated with the research team at National Taiwan Ocean University to collect nurdles from beaches. Subsequent laboratory analyses were conducted to identify the plastic composition and detect adsorbed organic pollutants, aiming to further investigate the potential sources of the nurdles and their environmental impact.

Press Releases

Survey: Policymakers concerned over health risks of plastics, see production cuts as solution

Of the many risks related to plastic pollution, policymakers express most concern about the human health impacts, and are calling for measures to reduce production.

24/03/2025

As the final negotiations for a UN Global Plastics Treaty enter a critical phase in Busan, South Korea, four Greenpeace International activists prevent a tanker at South Korea’s Daesan complex from loading toxic petrochemicals destined to be used in plastic production. They are urging governments to resist fossil fuel and petrochemical industry interference in the ongoing INC-5 plastics treaty talks happening in Busan, and to deliver a treaty that firmly cuts plastic production, which on current trends is set to triple by 2050.
The British, Mexican, German and Taiwanese activists, equipped with protective safety gear, boarded the tanker from RHIBs (rigid inflatable boats) launched from Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior and set up climb tents on the tanker’s mast.

Press Releases

#AboutUs

Greenpeace activists send message after court hearing: We took direct action for a strong plastics treaty

“I came to South Korea and participated in a peaceful protest to amplify the voices of millions calling for production cuts. Right now, petrochemical lobbyists are working hard to weaken…

16/05/2025

The fashion industry has a massive plastic problem that it outsources to countries in the Global South, where textile waste pollutes the environment. Ghana is one of the world's largest consumers of second-hand textiles. A good 120,000 tonnes of second-hand clothing from Asia, North America and Europe end up in the West African country every year. More than half of the clothing is inferior disposable goods with no resale value - much of it is made of plastic.

On a research trip to Accra, a team from Greenpeace Africa and Greenpeace Germany used infrared scanners to examine discarded clothing at landfill sites and identify the various fibres. The result: almost nine out of ten items of clothing (89 per cent) contain synthetic fibres made from fossil fuels. After the garments are thrown away, these synthetic fibres decompose into microplastics. In the tested clothing from the Kantamanto market - the largest second-hand textile market in West Africa - the figure is as high as 96 per cent.

Greenpeace also analysed the air quality in three wash houses in Accra where textile waste is incinerated. The results show that the air is heavily polluted with hazardous chemicals, many of which are single or multiple carcinogens, mutagens and toxic to reproduction.

As part of a return-to-sender campaign, Greenpeace shipped textile waste back to Germany in a container designed by Ghanaian artists in order to take further samples and raise awareness about the destructive side of fast fashion.

Overconsumption in the textile industry and the massive use of synthetic plastic fibres and blended fabrics are causing devastating environmental damage and threatening nature and people in the Global South.

In the picture: Greenpeace banner at Jamestown, a fishery town in Accra where textile waste is washed into the sea

Stories

#Consumption

4 reasons why fast fashion will never be green

Fast fashion brands flood the market with cheap, trendy clothing at an unsustainable rate, creating enormous environmental and social harm. Despite their attempts at greenwashing; their business model is fundamentally…

17/03/2025