Space Industry and Business News
FROTH AND BUBBLE
Sri Lanka bans single-use plastics to save elephants
Sri Lanka bans single-use plastics to save elephants
by AFP Staff Writers
Colombo (AFP) Feb 14, 2023

Sri Lanka will ban single-use plastics, the government said Tuesday, in a move that follows a series of wild elephant and deer deaths from plastic poisoning.

Cabinet spokesman and media minister Bandula Gunawardana said the manufacture or sale of plastic cutlery, cocktail shakers and artificial flowers will be prohibited from June.

The move was recommended by a panel appointed 18 months ago to study the impact of plastic waste on the environment and wildlife.

Non-biodegradable plastic bags were banned in 2017 due to concerns over flash floods.

And imports of plastic cutlery, food wrappers and toys were banned two years ago after a spate of deaths of elephants and deer in the island's northeast after foraging at open garbage tips.

Autopsies showed the animals had died after eating plastics mixed with food waste.

But local manufacture and sale of plastic products continued.

Sri Lanka's top authority on Asian elephants, Jayantha Jayewardene, welcomed the move to stop them, but told AFP the ban should be extended to biodegradable plastic bags.

"These bags are getting into the food chain of elephants and wildlife and that is not a good thing," he said.

Elephants are considered sacred and protected by law in Sri Lanka, but about 400 die a year as a result of human-elephant conflict near wildlife reserves, as do around 50 people.

Shrinking habitat has led to jumbos raiding villages looking for food and many suffer agonising deaths after foraging for food at dumps filled with plastic waste.

Dozens of wild deer died from plastic poisoning in the northeastern district of Trincomalee about five years ago, prompting the government to ban the open dumping of garbage near jungle reserves.

Related Links
Our Polluted World and Cleaning It Up

Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters
Tweet

RELATED CONTENT
The following news reports may link to other Space Media Network websites.
FROTH AND BUBBLE
Long-term air pollution exposure raises depression risk: studies
Washington (AFP) Feb 10, 2023
Long-term exposure to air pollution raises the risk of depression, according to a pair of new studies published in the JAMA network of scientific journals. A study published on Friday in JAMA Network Open found that long-term exposure to elevated levels of air pollution increases the risk of late-onset depression among the elderly. The other study, published in JAMA Psychiatry, found that long-term exposure to even low levels of air pollutants was associated with increased incidence of depressio ... read more

FROTH AND BUBBLE
'Magic' solvent creates stronger thin films

High efficiency mid- and long-wave optical parametric oscillator pump source and its applications

Smart contact lens with navigation function, made with 3D printer

Researchers detail never-before-seen properties in a family of superconducting Kagome metals

FROTH AND BUBBLE
SES, ThinKom and Hughes enable multi-orbit resilient connectivity for critical airborne missions

Comtech receives additional funding for US Army Communications

GIT becomes Iridium Certus Service Provider to DoD and other Government customers

Latest milestone brings NTS-3 Vanguard closer to 2023 launch

FROTH AND BUBBLE
FROTH AND BUBBLE
GEODNET offers centimeter precision and GNSS corrections for OEMS and Ag Sector

New Galileo service set to deliver 20 cm accuracy

HawkEye 360 to monitor GPS interference in support of the US Space Force

Falcon 9 launches sixth GPS 3 satellite

FROTH AND BUBBLE
International consortium to bring zero-emission aviation to New Zealand

Lufthansa hit by major IT outage, flights cancelled

High-tech jets take on balloon, other objects in N.America skies

Japan analysing previous aerial objects after China balloon

FROTH AND BUBBLE
Spinning up a 'flip-flop' qubit

Atom-thin walls could smash size, memory barriers in next-gen devices

Developing practical quantum computers that can solve big challenges of our time

Researchers pioneer process to stack micro-LEDs

FROTH AND BUBBLE
Earth from Space: Swedish landscape

New land creation on waterfronts increasing, study finds

Antarctica's ocean brightens clouds

Tracking ocean microplastics from space

FROTH AND BUBBLE
Sri Lanka bans single-use plastics to save elephants

Sinkholes sow fear in former Polish mining town

Long-term air pollution exposure raises depression risk: studies

Rise in air pollution correlates to creation of impressionist painting, study says

Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us.