Just 20 companies are the source of more than half of all the single-use plastic items thrown away globally. That’s the conclusion of analysis of the corporate network behind plastic production. The study looked at approximately 1,000 factories that make the raw materials needed for single-use products. Plastic bottles, food packages and bags are among billions of items that are used once and then thrown away, often ending up in the oceans. The research – carried out by a consortium including the London School of Economics – looked at which companies are at the base of the plastic supply chain and make polymers, the building blocks of all plastics. It names 20 petrochemical companies which it says are the source of 55 per cent of the world’s single-use plastic waste. The companies include ExxonMobil, Dow and Sinopec.(BBC)…[+]

More than 90 people are missing after a barge off the coast of India’s Mumbai city sank amid a severe cyclone. The Indian navy said it had rescued 177 of the 270 people aboard and that efforts to find survivors were ongoing. Three other commercial barges carrying about 700 people are stranded at sea in the wake of cyclone Tauktae, which has battered India’s western coast. Tauktae weakened after it made landfall on Monday but at least 12 people have already died in the storm. The stricken barge, owned by India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), was carrying personnel deployed for offshore drilling. When the storm struck, the barge’s anchors gave way and it began drifting.A spokesman for the Indian navy told the BBC it had dispatched three warships to save those aboard the three stranded commercial barges. Two of the barges are off the coast of Mumbai, the capital of Maharashtra state, while the third is off the coast of Gujarat.(BBC)…[+]

At least 6,000 migrants have reached Spain’s Ceuta enclave from neighbouring Morocco, a record number over a single day, Spanish officials say. They say the migrants – who include about 1,500 minors – either swam around the border fences that jut out into the sea or walked across at low tide. They are said to be mostly from Morocco. Spain says it has already sent some 2,700 back – but not the minors. Spain’s Ceuta and Melilla enclaves have become magnets for African migrants. Spanish troops have been deployed to the beach to help border police at Ceuta’s main entry point – Tarajal, on the enclave’s south side. Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said 200 troops, plus 200 extra police were going to assist Ceuta’s normal 1,100-strong border force. The enclave has some 80,000 inhabitants.(BBC)…[+]