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Environmental lawyers who have defeated ministers twice return to court in a bid to remove ‘major flaws’ from air quality plans

Environmental lawyers are taking the government to the high court for a third time in a bid to remove “major flaws” from minister’s plans to tackle the UK’s illegal levels of air pollution.

ClientEarth has inflicted two humiliating defeats on the government over previous plans, which were ruled not to meet legal requirements. Lawyers from ClientEarth had requested improvements to the latest plan from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) but were refused, prompting the new court action.

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Peter Wohlleben’s book has become bestseller in Germany but he tells Hay festival audience it has annoyed scientists

Trees are social creatures that mother their young, talk to each other, experience pain, remember things and have sex with each other, a bestselling author has said.

If that persuades you to go and hug the nearest tree, then great, said Peter Wohlleben. Just avoid a birch: “It is not very sociable. Try a beech.”

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Nearly seven decades ago, Jo Lancaster became one of the first pilots to eject from a plane in an emergency.

Expedition leader says the deep-sea fish had not been seen in waters off Australia since 1873

A “faceless” deep-sea fish not seen for more than a century has been rediscovered by scientists trawling the depths of a massive abyss off Australia’s east coast, along with “amazing” quantities of rubbish.

The 40cm fish was rediscovered 4km below sea level in waters south of Sydney by scientists from Museums Victoria and the Australian government’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) on the weekend.

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As the US president weighs up whether or not to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, we look at his most frightening actions on global warming

In March, Scott Pruitt infamously said about carbon dioxide that “I would not agree that it’s a primary contributor to the global warming that we see”, in contradiction to climate scientists, including those at his own agency. Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief has deep ties to fossil fuel interests and joined with them on numerous occasions to challenge EPA pollution rules while attorney general of Oklahoma. He has opined that the EPA has become distracted from its core mission by climate concerns and has begin the process of ripping up Obama-era emissions regulations.

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Harmful chemicals in shampoo and other personal products can cause real harm once they're washed down the drain. Shutterstock

Every year thousands of new contaminants enter the market in common consumer products and are washed down our drains without treatment. They end up in the water we drink, the fish we eat, and other marine life. These contaminants are lawfully produced and sold by the chemical, pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries.

Contaminants can range from microbeads and nanoparticles in cosmetics, to microthreads or cancer-causing NPEs and pthalates in synthetic clothing and flame retardants. They can also be antimicrobials and endocrine disruptors from our medication.

Regulations are unable to keep up with the barrage of potentially dangerous contaminants entering the market. Instead, we believe companies should take more responsibility for the damage they cause our environment and public health, by making sure their products aren’t toxic before they hit the market.

Tens of thousands of contaminants

Contaminants in common products like shampoos, toothpaste and makeup are almost impossible to manage once they hit our shelves. Once sold, they almost inevitably end up washed down the drain, where the burden of dealing with them falls largely on the taxpayer-funded wastewater system.

US researchers have identified some 80,000 chemical contaminants in wastewater sludge, while the European Union has identified at least 140,000. It is hard to say how many exist in Australian wastewater, but given that Australian consumers buy and use similar products to Americans and Europeans, we can safely assume broadly similar levels.

This makes for a vast range of substances for regulators to consider. Furthermore, restricted pollutants, such as bisphenol A (BPA), can be substituted with compounds that haven’t attracted the same level of scrutiny. Current guidelines mostly focus on a narrow list of “mainstream” contaminants, such as heavy metals like lead and mercury.

The environmental risk is increased by the changing ways we manage solid waste and wastewater, especially as waste is increasingly diverted for use in energy and food production. We need to act on the potential threat of chemical compounds in our wastewater that don’t break down or become concentrated in higher quantities as they move up the food chain. And wastewater contaminants are typically much harder than solid waste to trace back to their original source.

The potential impacts on the environment, human health and infrastructure are broad and in many cases unknown. Some contaminants can exert their toxic effects in local aquatic ecosystems very quickly. An example is the impact of oestrogen on the feminisation of fish.

While other countries have begun regulating these hazardous compounds, we are falling behind. A Greenpeace report, Toxic Threads, singled out Australia as at risk of becoming the dumping ground of the Western world.

Presently, much of the burden to manage these risks falls on wastewater service providers, environmental protection authorities, regulatory bodies and ultimately ratepayers. However, we have the opportunity to transform how we manage tens of thousands of emergent and existing contaminants. We have the potential to involve the companies that produce these contaminants in their responsible life cycle management to ensure environmental and public health is maintained.

Microfibre material is often used in hand dusters. 'John Keogh/flickr' Extending responsibility to producers

These companies can take a lesson from the solid waste sector. A good example is the EU, where manufacturers of everything from cars to carpets can be legally required to take back their products at the end of their life. This is known as “extended producer responsibility”, or product stewardship.

A UN project, Chemicals in Products, helps fill in knowledge gaps along product supply chains to ensure potentially hazardous chemicals can be traced back to their source. In Australia, more than 20 predominantly voluntary industry-led initiatives promote active responsibility for products across their lifespan, including after they have been discarded.

These schemes can help to drive innovations in product and process design, such as building computers and refrigerators for easy disassembly and reuse. Currently, such rules only apply to solid waste products, but the federal government’s Product Stewardship Act (2011) is soon to be reviewed. There’s an opportunity to expand this type of extended producer responsibility approach to a broader range of products and contaminants that end up in wastewater to better share management and the burden of clean-up among manufacturers, retailers, waste service providers and consumers.

Transforming our approach

Given the rate at which new contaminants of unknown toxicity enter our cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and cleaning products (and end up in our waterways), the precautionary principle may need to apply.

For example, companies could be required to prove their new chemical compounds have a benign effect on the environment and human health before being released onto the market.

This precautionary principle, which puts the burden of proof on companies, was first applied to hazardous chemicals introduced to the European market. This pre-market approach has since been implemented in California and China.

Mitigating risks of individual contaminants will require a range of possible policy, industry and consumer responses. In the case of microbeads, for example, consumers can choose to avoid buying such products, and governments can and are banning microbeads.

Extended producer responsibility provides an incentive for industry to avoid contaminants altogether at the product design stage. In the pharmaceutical industry there are examples of companies adopting “green chemistry” approaches that avoid the use of hazardous ingredients in the production of medicines and the need for downstream waste treatment. Either way, questions about the potential risks and environmental impact of the different approaches taken will need to be answered.

However, managing unknown risks of thousands of emergent contaminants in wastewater for which there is little traceability – and hence accountability – may require an integrated and precautionary approach. But the question still remains: whose responsibility?

Dana Cordell receives funding from the Environment Protection Authority Victoria to research organic waste management.

Dena Fam receives funding from the Department of Environment and Energy to research the convergence of the water and waste sectors in regard to risks, opportunities and future trends

Nick Florin previously received funding from the Department of the Environment and Energy for research into approaches for managing hazardous chemicals in products.

Last night, the Melbourne City Council voted unanimously to welcome the VRET and endorse passage of legislation enshrining the targets in state parliament.

Wholesale price rises mean higher solar tariffs for Ergon network, but forces government to lift annual subsidy to supply regional homes with mostly coal power by $200 million a year.

St Dominic, Tamar Valley Pennywort and mosses add to the verdure of the shadiest lanes, now green tunnels overhung by ash flowers

Rain enhances the growth of luxuriant ferns that dominate hedge banks and undergrowth in the woods. Beside narrow lanes, fronds of male ferns and soft shield ferns overwhelm the pink, white and blue of campion, stitchwort and bluebell, masking the eroded earth of rabbit burrows.

Foxglove, sorrel and bracken emerge through the leafy tops of these old banks, where, despite the annual cutback with mechanical flails, diverse woody shrubs are covered in fresh leaves interwoven with new shoots of rose, honeysuckle and bramble.

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In a visit to Australia this week, US nuclear power advocate Jessica Lovering brings a suitcase full of alternative facts. Let's unpack them.

Will he stay or will he go? Protesters at last week’s G7 meeting don’t know either.

Argentina reveals plans for 1GW solar plant that will provide power 24/7, meaning with battery storage.

Josh Frydenberg over-egged the success of a CCS plant he visited in US, and now he's done the same in Australia with new CEFC mandate.

Telstra plans big rollout of solar at exchanges, using back up generators in wholesale markets for grid security, but appears to be backing off plans to enter home solar and storage market.

Minister says Australia’s view clear to US although departmental secretary unable to point to ‘particular discussion’

The employment minister, Michaelia Cash, says Australia’s national interest is best served if Donald Trump stays the course with the Paris climate agreement.

With the US president expected to make a decision this week about whether America will pull out of the Paris accord, officials were asked during Senate estimates hearings whether Australia had made diplomatic representations to the Trump administration encouraging the president to remain in the agreement.

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SolarEdge will unveil innovations including next-generation power optimizer and large-capacity commercial inverters.

MUMMY MYSTERIES: Mummies from ancient Egypt have revealed another secret - some of them share very little of the sub-Saharan African ancestry that dominates the genetic heritage of modern Egyptians.

Antonio Guterres was speaking after Donald Trump refused to back the Paris climate accord.

Younicos has signed an agreement to deliver a megawatt-scale battery storage system to Austin Energy.

One of the world's worst hotspots for roadkill in Canada is helped by a project that cuts animal deaths by almost 90%.