Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’ daughter has made her on-screen debut.
Holmes, 43, directed and stars in the newly released movie Alone Togetherand her daughter Suri Cruise, 16, joined her on the big screen.
“I always want the highest level of talent,” Holmes said in an interview with Yahoo! Entertainment. “So, I asked her [Suri].
“She’s very, very talented. She said she would do it, and she recorded it, and I let her do her thing about her. That’s the way I direct in general. It’s like, ‘This is what I think we all want – go do your thing.’”
In the movie, Suri sings a cover of bluemoon, which plays during the opening credits of the film. Holmes told the outlet this will not be her daughter’s only on-screen singing gig, Fox News reports.
“She actually did sing in Rare Itemswhich is the film we did last [autumn],” Holmes said. “Other than that, she she’s a 16-year-old kid doing high school.”
Cruise and Holmes were married from 2006 to 2012. Suri is their only child together, and her uber-famous parents opted to keep her out of the public eye for the majority of her childhood.
Holmes directed, wrote and stars in Alone Together – a romantic comedy set during the Covid pandemic. Also appearing opposite her in the film is English actor Jim Sturgess.
The film follows a man and woman fleeing New York City during the first wave of the pandemic in 2020.
They end up booking the same Airbnb and ultimately decide to stay at the upstate property together.
Sturgess praised Holmes’ directing style and shared that she gives actors wide latitude when they are in front of the camera.
“She gives you this incredible space between action and cut,” Sturgess said of his co-star.
“She very rarely shouted, ‘Cut!’ actually. You’d think the scene had ended and she just kind of left it hanging. I love that she was always searching for those little nuggets of authenticity.”
This story originally appeared on Fox News and was reproduced with permission
Returning to the track following a shocking crash on Sunday that left him battered and bruised, Australian cyclist Matt Glaetzer has been dealt another cruel blow – denied a bronze medal on review in the men’s sprint.
Glaetzer came from behind to storm home against Scotland’s Jack Carlin, provisionally securing the bronze medal.
But after deliberating for more than half an hour, Birmingham officials relegated Glaetzer to fourth for moving in on Carlin, snatching away his medal.
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Matthew Glaetzer finishes ahead of Scotland’s Jack Carlin in the third race of the men’s sprint finals. (Getty)
While Aussie teammate Matthew Richardson went on to win gold in the event, Glaetzer’s stripping split the cycling world with suggestions Carlin had initiated the contact by moving off his line and into the way of Glaetzer.
Aussie cycling great Katey Bates labeled the decision “an absolute travesty”.
“I’m having nothing of that,” she said in commentary for Channel 7.
“The only time they made contact is when Carlin swung back up the track, and he in fact touched Glaetzer – if anybody got impeded, it was Glaetzer.
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“I don’t see how the Australians will accept this and not feel robbed. This is an absolute travesty in my mind.”
The lost bronze medal was the second major blow to Glaetzer in two days after he was involved in a nasty crash in the kierin quarter-finals after becoming tangled with another rider.
After touching wheels with another bike, Glaetzer was knocked off his bike and into the path of British competitor Joe Truman while traveling at over 70 km/h. The impact tore Glaetzer’s suit, with wounds opening up on several parts of his body.
Matthew Glaetzer and Joe Truman crash. (Getty)
“I was very sore this morning,” he said ahead of the race that broke his heart.
“Right side of my body was just on fire from the burns – had to just grimace through this morning and see what I’ve got in the body.”
Glaetzer also revealed that a piece of the track had lodged into his elbow.
“I definitely did take a souvenir – had to get the scalpel out to get it out, it went pretty deep into my elbow.
“Not nice, it’s the brutal part of our sport. Make one mistake and you’re eating wood.”
But not even a heavy fall could stop the man who beat thyroid cancer in 2019 from earning what many thoughts should have been a bronze medal.
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The death of a seven-year-old in South Australia is being investigated as a case of possible criminal neglect.
SA Police detective superintendent Des Bray said Craigmore boy Makai was taken to Lyell McEwin Hospital “very sick” on February 10 and was then transferred to the Women’s and Children’s Hospital, where he died later that day.
Task Force Prime, which was set up after the death of six-year-old Charlie, is now investigating whether the boy’s death was a case of criminal neglect.
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Investigators are also examining the care of his five siblings, aged between seven and 16.
Bray said a post-mortem examination following Makai’s death revealed several serious health issues.
He said the provisional cause of death was unusual, but was not a cause for immediate concern.
“The cause of death in itself wasn’t enough to raise concern because it was a serious, recognized health issue,” Bray said, adding that a coronial investigation was launched following the death.
About 10 days after Makai’s death, a coronial direction obtained information from “various child protection authorities”, which was then passed on to SA Police in July.
“Soon after, investigators began reviewing volumes of material and obtained an opinion from a pediatric expert,” he said.
“They formed the view that sufficient grounds existed to commence a criminal investigation of criminal neglect causing death.”
Bray said an interim cause of death had been determined but declined to comment further.
Superintendent Des Bray speaking to media. Credit: DAVID MARIUZ/AAPIMAGE
Investigators will determine whether anyone was guilty for Makai’s death or the neglect of the other siblings, Bray said.
Makai and his siblings had been staying in their father’s care since November 2020. Their mother was not living with him at the time of his death.
“There is neglect and abuse which we believe has occurred over a period of time but it doesn’t have all the same characteristics of Charlie’s,” Bray said.
Charlie was found unresponsive in her family home in Munno Para on July 15 and died in Lyell McEwin Hospital, sparking a police investigation into suspected neglect.
searching for answers
Following Charlie’s death, the state government ordered a review of the interactions between government agencies and the family in recent years.
Premier Peter Malinauskas on Monday announced a new wholly independent review would now investigate these interactions for both families.
“The death of any child is something that breaks all of our hearts, particularly parents across the state,” he told reporters.
“One was shocking, two is desperately heartbreaking.
“There is absolutely merit given the elevation of this for a wholly independent led review.”
Premier Peter Malinauskas said a new wholly independent review would now investigate the interactions between government agencies and the families. Credit: AAP
Malinauskas said he was “not wasting any time” and had appointed former SA police commissioner Mal Hyde to lead the review as “someone every South Australian has complete confidence in”.
“This is about making sure we have a review of integrity, of independence and robustness so we fully understand exactly what interactions occurred between government agencies and these families and to see whether or not there were any failures of systems that could be addressed,” he said.
“Two innocent children losing their lives potentially because of criminal neglect is beyond sad. But we know about it and we have to respond.”
Malinauskas said the findings of the review would be made public.
Bray said criminal neglect occurred when a person with a duty of care to a child failed to take all reasonable steps to protect them from harm, and a child is harmed or dies as a result of that neglect.
George Washington adjunct professor of economics Diana Furchtgott-Roth and University of Maryland economist Peter Morici discuss if the new spending bill will make a bad inflationary situation worse on ‘Cavuto: Coast to Coast.’
President Biden is taking his time to reveal whether he will issue a seventh extension of the pandemic-era pause on student loan payments that expires at the end of this month, raising speculation that a bigger announcement involving student debt forgiveness will come with it.
The administration has already signaled that the loan payments set to resume on Sept. 1 will not be due. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the Department of Education had instructed loan servicers not to send out billing statements.
Demonstrators outside the White House demand that President Biden cancel student loan debt on July 27, 2022.
With no time to send out statements providing the required 30 days’ notice, it is a safe bet that borrowers will not have to resume payments just yet. Some may never have student loan payments again.
According to multiple reports, the president is considering eliminating some student debt for current borrowers; it is simply a matter of what dollar amount. There is also consideration of what income cap might be set, if any.
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Sources familiar told the Wall Street Journal that the White House is mulling several options, including one confirmed by former press secretary Jen Psaki earlier this year, which involves forgiving $10,000 in student debt – a promise Biden made while campaigning for president – for anyone making less than $125,000 year.
The question is: What will the political ramifications be?
Sources say the White House is mulling several options related to student loan debt. (Jemal Countess/Getty Images for We, The 45 Million/Getty Images)
With Biden’s poll numbers showing he is currently unpopular even with his base leading into the November midterm elections, where control of Congress is at stake, the president’s move on the issue is critical.
Progressives and civil rights groups are pushing for Biden to grant $50,000 in student loan forgiveness, and no less. Activists seeking to wipe away debts argue that borrowers were bamboozled by universities and the federal government alike, leaving them with inadequate wages to cover the payments and keeping them from achieving life goals like homeownership.
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The NAACP delivered a letter to the president on Friday, telling him that $50,000 must be the minimum level of forgiveness with no income bracket caps because Black borrowers “have virtually no realistic way to pay it back in today’s unjust economy.”
Republicans have pushed back hard on the proposal to cancel student debt, pointing to the cost, proposed income caps, the fact that borrowers chose to take on the payments, and the ethics of requiring all taxpayers to foot the bill – including those who never took on student loans and those who already paid theirs off.
“Student loan forgiveness is regressive – it writes off the debts of rich kids who are going to be just fine,” Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., told FOX Business. “It’s a gut punch to every kid who paid their way through college or who worked hard to pay their loans.”
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That’s an argument vulnerable Democrats will have to answer, too, as the November elections approach.
President Biden’s reported plan to cancel student loan debt via executive action could face court challenges. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images/Getty Images)
An additional risk is that student loan forgiveness handed down by the executive branch is also likely to face legal challenges, given that Congress has the sole authority to authorize spending of taxpayer dollars.
After losing several court battles already, having student loan forgiveness nixed by a court could be perceived as another broken promise to the far left and seen as a scolding to the administration for overreach.
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Whether it holds up in court or not, the price tag is likely to fall under scrutiny for Biden, who has continued to push multitrillion-dollar spending packages while Americans grapple with crippling inflation that sits at a 40-year high.
One member, whose testimonial is featured on the F45 website, promises the workouts will “kick your butt”.
When the franchise started in 2013, the 45-minute functional high-intensity interval classes, which alternate between cardio, resistance, and hybrid, were based on a motto of “no mirrors, no microphones, no egos”.
Cofounder, Rob Deutsch, who left the business in 2020, recalls the original vision of the brand: “The workouts were super innovative, and it was revolutionary in the fact you didn’t need any other gym/boutique fitness membership(s). ”
Its other founder, Luke Istomin, who left in 2016, says they wanted to give members “a great experience primarily based on HIIT cardio with no two workouts ever being the same”.
As the business surrounds the HIIT wave, and an ever-expanding body of research supporting both high intensity interval training and the effectiveness of shorter workouts, F45 also provided its members with something else.
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When I asked what the appeal of the brand was, multiple members said a variation of the same thing: “I don’t have to think, I just have to show up.” And when they show up, they like the people as well as the variety, structure of the workouts, and the music.
“Walk in, walk out and exercise is done,” one member said. “I love that it’s programmed for me. Love the energy. The trainers and members are good value and foster great community.”
But former members had other things to say too. They said they flogged themselves, and it wasn’t sustainable; the caliber of the trainers was inconsistent; the fast-paced model values profits over people meaning those who are less fit or new to training are more likely to get injured; and there was little or no guidance around technique.
Istomin has since created a fitness model, REUNION, which he says is based on the lessons he learned from F45.
The flip side to the high “fun factor” at F45 was a lack of focus on improving strength or skill sets, he says.
“The retention rate was quite low as the constant high intensity and high-impact work led people to burn out, or becoming injured as they were trying new exercises every day and not developing the skills to master the movement sufficiently,” Istomin says. His new fitness model of him is about “building you up, not burning you out.”
It may be too soon to say whether F45 has peaked and the tumult they now find themselves in spells the beginning of the end.
Istomin thinks it might be the brand’s kick up the butt to reinvent itself and fix the problems that have plagued it: “It’s a new beginning for F45 now,” he says, “and that’s something long overdue.”
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Hollywood star Margot Robbie has told how she will be “eternally grateful” to soap Neighbors after it launched her acting career.
Margot, 32, who began her TV career as Ramsay Street’s Donna Freedman from 2008 to 2011, appeared in the show’s finale, which aired last Thursday.
While the A-lister filmed her scenes for the final show in Los Angeles, she made a sweet gesture to her fellow castmates, sending 37 bottles of champagne to the Melbourne set, as revealed by Neighbors actress Christie Whelan on social media last week, The Sun reports.
Robbie said that the final episode marks “the end of an era”.
Now Hollywood’s highest-paid actress, she said: “I owe so much to neighbors.
“There are so many of us that owe [the show] for giving us a big break.
“It wasn’t just about giving me a break either – it gave me a real chance to work on my craft. It was the perfect training for Hollywood and I will always be eternally grateful.”
thursday’s neighbors finale saw Robbie return alongside a host of other fan favourites, including Jason Donovan, Kylie Minogue, Guy Pearce, Holly Valance and Natalie Imbruglia.
Anne Charleston, who played Ramsay Street legend Madge Bishop, also returned – with her late character appearing as a ghost.
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Remembering her time on the soap, Robbie said it was only when she moved to London that she realized how widespread neighbors‘popularity was.
“It really is an end of an era for fans. When I lived in London, I understood at its peak how big it was. People would come up to me and tell me how they watched it every day after school.”
From fruit farm to Hollywood Hills
The actress, who grew up on a fruit farm on the Gold Coast, moved to LA after leaving neighbors in 2011 and landed a role in US TV show Pan Am.
But it was her part opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf Of Wall Street that caught the eye of movie bosses in 2013.
Soon after, she moved to South London where she shared a four-bedroom pad in Clapham with six other friends that they dubbed “The Manor”.
Her housemates were friends she had met filming wartime flick French Suite – including the assistant director and her now-husband Tom Ackerley.
Robbie went on to star in 2015’s focus opposite Will Smith and played The Joker’s girlfriend Harley Quinn in 2016 hitSuicide Squad.
In 2016, she and Ackerley also married, and the following year they swapped their Clapham flat for a $3.6 million villa in Hollywood.
But she said leaving London had not been an easy move for the couple.
She said: “It was such a hard decision to leave, but I just couldn’t keep living out of a suitcase.”
Back in LA, the actress went on to star as Tonya Harding in I, Tonya – which she also produced – and alongside Nicole Kidman and Charlize Theron in Bombshell.
Both roles won her Oscar nominations.
She also starred as rising movie star Sharon Tate in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywoodappearing with former co-star DiCaprio as well as Brad Pitt.
Next year will see her hit the big screen in neon pink and sky-high heels after she was cast as Barbie in a romantic comedy about the iconic doll.
Directed by Greta Gerwig, the film also stars Ryan Gosling as Barbie‘s love interest Ken.
Robbie said: “When I read the script, I genuinely thought, ‘This is one of the best scripts I have ever read.’ I needed to be part of this story.
“I remember speaking with Ryan before we started shooting and we were just so excited to be part of this incredible script.
“Whatever people expect the Barbie movie to be like, they need to totally rethink it because Greta has done something special here.
“And Barbie is such a role model. She was a surgeon back in the early ’70s when a tiny percentage of females were applying for medical school.”
It is expected that in the hands of director Greta – whose last films were Lady Bird and Little Women – Barbie will get a thoroughly modern makeover.
‘Things have changed a lot’
It comes after Hollywood’s own makeover in recent years following the #MeToo scandals.
That movement was the focus of 2019 movie Bombshell, which was based on the sexual harassment of women working at Fox News.
Robbie, who starred as Kayla Pospisil, told at the time that it was only while working on the film that she realized what sexual harassment was.
She told Net-A-Porter: “I’m in my late twenties, I’m educated, I’m worldly, I’ve travelled, I have my own business – and I didn’t know. That’s insane.
“I didn’t know that you could say, ‘I have been sexually harassed,’ without someone physically touching you.
“That you could say, ‘That’s not OK.’ I had no idea.”
The actress also said that she has experienced harassment, but “not in Hollywood”, adding: “I struggle to find many women who haven’t experienced sexual harassment on some level.
“So yes, lots of times. And to varying degrees of severity throughout my life.”
Speaking last week, Robbie said: “I think things have changed in Hollywood over the past few years.
“There have been some difficult conversations and very brave people.
“We live in hope that all this courage that has been shown means nothing like this ever happens again.”
This story originally appeared on The Sun and is republished here with permission
“Fuming” Port Adelaide club president David Koch believes he has “been played” by Collingwood after the Power’s request to wear their heritage prison bar jumper was again knocked back by the Magpies.
Speaking on FIVEaa radio, Koch said Port did “the right thing” and put the jumper request into the AFL back in March to wear for the Round 23 Showdown.
Koch didn’t hold back when asked about claims the Magpies told him Port’s jumper request would be denied back in March.
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“That is the greatest load of rot I’ve ever heard,” Koch said.
“In fact, two weeks ago the Collingwood president Jeff Browne rang me out of the blue and said: ‘Kochie look mate, we’re taking your request really seriously, we understand how important it is to your members, we understand the history of it … I’ve been canvassing opinions both in Melbourne and South Australia and I’m putting it to my board (last week) and I don’t want to get your hopes up, but I’m quietly confident we could have good news for you.’
“So that was just two weeks ago the president of the Collingwood Football Club rang me out of the blue and told me this.”
A Port fan holds up a prison bar jumper sign during the Round 8, 2021 Showdown. Picture: Sarah ReedSource: Getty Images
Koch claimed the club had been taken advantage of by Collingwood as debate continues to rage over whether the Power should be allowed to wear their heritage prison bar strip.
“Remember Collingwood have always said: ‘We own black and white in the AFL/VFL. They are our colours’ – as if you can own two colours. Don’t get me started on that,” he said.
“On the weekend, Collingwood VFL played the Southport Sharks in the VFL who are black and white. So why can’t we play in our traditional prison bar guernsey, Showdown in Adelaide, that’s all. Not against Collingwood. Not for the rest of the year. I don’t think it’s unreasonable.
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“I can’t help but feel that we’ve been played in this for being nice and a bit mislead by the club and also conversations I’ve had with the president.
“It just shows, dare I say, the pettiness of this which has got completely out of hand. I don’t know whether it’s a case of the big Victorian clubs once again going: ‘Hey, you just keep in your place you interstates, South Australian clubs. We run this competition, you do as we say.’”
An agreement was put in place when Port Adelaide entered the competition in 1997 that the prison bar jumper was only to be worn in the AFL’s Heritage round.
But there is no longer one dedicated round by the AFL, with clubs opting to do their own heritage celebrations each year.
“Yes, an agreement was signed when we came into the AFL – that’s 30 years ago. Times have changed and clubs are celebrating their heritage,” Koch said.
Port Adelaide Power press conference | 05:23
“Why can’t we declare a Showdown as celebrating our heritage?
“I’m fuming because we have done the right thing, we’ve just quietly gone about it, and I can’t help feel as though that good nature has been played.
“You look at virtually every AFL club being allowed to play in their heritage guernsey this year … but we’re not allowed to do the same.”
Koch later added in a statement: “Surely we’re past these trivial arguments and acknowledge this is one of these things where it’s time for change and we progress the game, as a truly national competition which acknowledges the rich heritage we all bring.
“We’re not asking to wear it every week, it’s for Showdowns, in Adelaide, to celebrate the rich heritage of Port Adelaide and of South Australian football. It just feels logical, harming no body and promoting the history of Australian football.
“At a time when the number 1 issue in the game is fan engagement and attendance, it’s such an easy solution.
“What we are asking for is entirely reasonable. To wear our iconic Prison Bar Guernsey in Showdowns to celebrate the heritage of Port Adelaide and South Australian football. Not against Collingwood, just two times a year, in Adelaide. I don’t see how it impacts anyone negatively at all.”
Last year, the Power were threatened with the loss of premiership points if they wore the prison bar jumper for the Showdown, against the AFL’s ruling.
So the team waited until post-match to change out of their playing strip and into the prison bar Guernsey.
A Federal Court judge is set to deliver his long-awaited verdict in the defamation trial between Clive Palmer and West Australian Premier Mark McGowan.
Justice Michael Lee will hand down his judgment in Melbourne on Tuesday, more than three months after reserving his decision.
Palmer sued the WA premier in 2020, claiming “vicious” public comments – including labeling the mining billionaire an enemy of the state – had damaged his reputation.
A Federal Court judge is set to deliver his long-awaited verdict in the defamation trial between Clive Palmer and West Australian Premier Mark McGowan. (Getty, Alex Ellinghausen)
The Queensland businessman is seeking aggravated damages which would allow for a payout above the $432,500 cap.
He has accused the Labor premier of being consumed by malice and seeking to “blacken his name at every opportunity.”
McGowan, who is countersuing Palmer for defamation, has made his own appeal for aggravated damages.
The premier is claiming qualified privilege as a defence. It requires proof there was a legal, social or moral duty for him to say those things.
Palmer is defending various comments he made on the basis of qualified privilege, and substantial and contextual truth.
Palmer is seeking aggravated damages. (Matt Dennien)
At the trial’s conclusion in April, Lee said it was possible neither side would be able to make out any defenses.
He flagged each man could receive a nominal damage sum, describing them as political combatants with entrenched reputations.
“There are people who love them, people who hate them,” Lee said.
“The publications themselves are, it seems to me, highly unlikely to change very settled views about these men.”
The defamation bid is one of several legal challenges Palmer has pursued against the WA premier, including a failed bid in the High Court to have the state’s coronavirus-related hard border closure deemed unconstitutional.
It emerged in 2020 that Palmer was seeking up to $30 billion in damages over a 2012 decision by the former Liberal state government not to assess his proposed Balmoral South iron ore project.
McGowan, who is countersuing Palmer for defamation, has made his own appeal for aggravated damages. (Flavio Brancalone)
The McGowan government subsequently rushed through extraordinary legislation to prevent Palmer from suing the state.
In his evidence, Palmer said he was scared because provisions in the legislation protected the government from criminal prosecution.
Referring to the fictional character James Bond and his “licence to kill”, Palmer told the court: “I didn’t know what the limits might be.”
Any suggestion Palmer had a genuine fear for his physical safety was “inherently incredible,” McGowan’s lawyers said.
In private text messages made public during the trial, McGowan described Palmer as “the worst Australian who’s not in jail.”
His attorney-general John Quigley privately labeled Palmer a “big fat liar.”
A man is dead after he was found unresponsive on a Mount Washington trail on Saturday. Hikers found an unresponsive man on the Jewell Trail around 1:15 pm New Hampshire Fish and Game said the group started CPR right away and called for help.After 40 minutes of CPR, the good Samaritans saw no signs of life and were battling tough weather conditions, freezing temps and high winds, according to the report, and resuscitation efforts ended. The man’s body was carried one mile by volunteer rescue teams and then transported to the base on the Cog Railway. The dog that was with him when he collapsed was placed in a shelter until his family could be reached. The identity of the man has not been released. In the video below, meteorologist Jacqueline Thomas reminds hikers that the weather conditions can change drastically atop Mount Washington, showing what conditions were like on Saturday.
MOUNT WASHINGTON, NH—
A man is dead after he was found unresponsive on a Mount Washington trail on Saturday.
Hikers found an unresponsive man on the Jewell Trail around 1:15 pm
New Hampshire Fish and Game said the group started CPR right away and called for help.
After 40 minutes of CPR, the good Samaritans saw no signs of life and were battling tough weather conditions, freezing temps and high winds, according to the report, and resuscitation efforts ended.
The man’s body was carried one mile by volunteer rescue teams and then transported to the base on the Cog Railway.
The dog that was with him when he collapsed was placed in a shelter until his family could be reached.
The identity of the man has not been released.
In the video below, meteorologist Jacqueline Thomas reminds hikers that the weather conditions can change drastically atop Mount Washington, showing what conditions were like on Saturday.
FFive years ago, Unilever announced a “radical recycling” process aimed at tackling a huge waste scourge it helped to create: billions of single-use sachets that litter south-east Asia’s landfills, pollute its waterways and wash up on its beaches.
The “sachet economy” of single servings at low prices, targeting poorer consumers, began across much of the developing world in the 1990s. Sold at shops and stalls across south-east Asia and Africa, these brightly colored palm-sized packets contain everything from shampoo to coffee. But their size and multilayered structure render them almost impossible to collect and recycle. In Indonesia, which lacks the infrastructure to deal with waste, they represent the ultimate symbol of throwaway culture, making up 16% of all plastic waste.
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Plastic in the depths
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The oceans swirl with plastic. More than 8m tonnes pour into the seas every year, spewed out via rivers, dumped on coastlines or abandoned by fishing vessels. Plastic even contaminates the air: in many places, it literally rains plastic.
However, while ocean pollution suggests bobbing plastic bottles or straws, these make up only a fraction of the total. In this series, the Guardian’s Seascape project is looking at what is in this plastic avalanche to find out where it comes from, the harm it causes and what can be done to fix it.
The type of plastic that proliferates through ocean ecosystems depends on where you look. While bags and food wrappings dominate the shoreline, further out it is abandoned fishing gear and plastic lids.
Some sources of plastic pollution are less obvious, such as cigarette butts and sachets. Then there’s the vast, unseen churn of microplastics – trillions of tiny fibers and beads that are now so much part of our water systems that every week most people drink a credit card’s worth of it.
Microplastic itself has many sources. It comes from clothes fibers, released in washing machines, and from nurdles, the building blocks for many plastic goods that are often spilled in their billions of ships, causing as much damage as oil spills (although still not classified as hazardous).
And it comes, in huge quantities (representing about a quarter of all microplastic in oceans), from tire dust – the residue generated as people drive their cars (and even bicycles) down the street. Chris Michael, Seascape editor
Photograph: Andrey Nekrasov/Rex Features
Indonesia produces 7.8m tonnes of plastic waste a year, according to the World Bank, 4.9m tonnes of which is uncollected, dumped or left at improperly managed landfills. An estimated 4.5% of this plastic waste – or about 350,000 tonnes – ends up in the ocean.
To tackle this growing problem, Unilever launched a waste-collection scheme in Indonesia in 2017, which it said would help “empower” waste-pickers, who are responsible for recycling much of the country’s plastic waste and are among its poorest and most marginalized workers. .
One of Indonesia’s many stalls selling sachets of everything from shampoo to coffee. Photograph: Courtesy of Gaia
At the same time, the company launched a pilot recycling plant using a system called CreaSolv that promised to recycle sachets into new products as part of Unilever’s pledge to ensure all of its plastic packaging was fully reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025. Unilever said the plant in Sidoarjo, East Java, was designed to recover polyethylene, which accounts for more than 60% of the sachets’ layers, to produce high-quality polymers, which are then made into new sachets.
But Indonesian rubbish collectors, organizations representing waste-pickers and environmental organizations tell a different story. Unilever stopped the collection scheme underpinning the project abruptly, they told the Guardian, leaving uncollected waste piling up outside waste banks.
Some waste collectors, unable to find buyers for the uncollected sachet waste, burned it to allow for more lucrative waste streams, creating air pollution. Meanwhile, waste pickers who work on landfill sites said they were no better off, as sachet waste is too low in value to collect.
The scheme was an “expensive failure”, said Yobel Novian Putra, the clean-energy officer at the non-profit organization Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (Gaia) Indonesia.
Putra’s organization published a report in January concluding that the Unilever scheme had failed owing to low recyclability and the low value of the waste. “It is a lot of effort to collect sachet waste and the price is very low,” said Putra, who added: “Unilever has not empowered waste-pickers and provided them with an income.”
A boy fetches his ball from a rubbish-filled creek in Manila. Indonesia’s problems with plastic waste are replicated in the Philippines. Photograph: Noel Celis/AFP/Getty
The Guardian’s findings follow a Reuters report last year, which cited two people involved in Unilever’s CreaSolv plant who alleged that plans for building a full-scale operation had been dropped. It was not commercially viable, they told Reuters, because of the cost of collecting, sorting and cleaning the sachets.
Unilever denied the report’s findings, saying the plant was still operating and that it was “actively working” to scale up its technology. In a statement, Unilever said the pilot plant had been severely disrupted by Covid, which had affected its collection service.
In Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia’s second-largest city, an hour from Unilever’s new recycling plant, operators of local waste banks, or “bank sampahs”, said sachet waste had been piling up since Unilever stopped collecting it.
Sutarti, a veteran waste trader of 15 years from Bangkingan village, accepts almost every kind of non-organic waste – from plastic bags to glass bottles. But she never used to collect sachets as she was unable to find a buyer.
About five years ago, Unilever approached its waste bank. “They said they would buy our sachet waste,” said Sutarti. “They also gave us some funds to start it.” She was enthusiastic.
“I bought [sachet waste] for around 500 rupees [3p] per one kilogram, then Unilever bought it from us for around 800 rupiah,” she said, earning her a modest profit of 300 rupiah a kilo.
After two years, however, the scheme stopped. Unilever told her there was a fire at the factory processing the waste and that it had to end sachet collections, she said. “Last year they told us that they would continue it again but there is still no news.”
Sachets of two of Unilever’s many products sold in sachets. Photograph: Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters
She has been left with sachet waste piling up and nowhere to put it. “No one wants to buy them,” Sutarti said, “I tried to keep them. But we don’t have a place to store them so I’ve been trying to burn them little by little every day.”
Other waste banks are also struggling to dispose of the sachet waste Unilever offered to buy.
Erna Utami, head of operations at a bank sampah at Babatan Pilang, a suburb of Surabaya, said Unilever helped build and manage the facility, before the collection of sachet waste stopped in 2017.
“There are still three sacks of sachet waste left in our place,” Utami said. “We are very disappointed. We have been trying to report this problem to the government and the company in every seminar or meeting about waste that we attend.”
Shanti Wurdiani Ramadhani, who helps manage the bank sampah in Jombang regency, East Java, said it had about a tonne of unclaimed waste sachets.
“We tried to store the sachet waste that people have collected because we don’t want them to burn them or throw them into the river,” Shanti said. She has since asked her members to stop sending the waste, because they ran out of storage space. The price Unilever paid waste banks for sachet waste was too low, compared with the price for other waste, she added.
Pris Polly Lengkong, head of the Independent Indonesia Scavengers’ Associations (PPIM), a group with 3.7 million members, said sachets were the least valuable type of waste. Scavengers working at Bantar Gebang, south-east Asia’s biggest landfill, located about 20 miles (32km) from Jakarta, only make about 1.5p per kg from sachets. By comparison, plastic bottles fetch 20p a kilo and even a kilo of plastic bags is worth about 7p.
Workers sort refuse at the giant Bantar Gebang landfill in Bekasi, West Java: sachet waste has no value for scavengers. Photograph: Willy Kurniawan/Reuters
“In the mountains of waste in Bantar Gebang you might find loads of multilayer sachet waste,” said Lengkong, who works as a middleman buying waste from scavengers and selling it on.
“They cannot be absorbed by scavengers because they don’t get any value for them,” he said.
Sales of sachets are predicted to increase by an annual growth rate of 5.8% between 2021 and 2031, according to one market report.
While many countries have banned single-use plastic, few cover sachet waste, with some exceptions such asSri Lanka, which prohibited some sachets last year.
Last September, Coca-Cola’s subsidiary in the Philippines pledged to phase out sachets and plastic straws in the country, ahead of a law to ban plastic straws and coffee stirrers.
The chief executive of Unilever, Alan Jope, has called for end to sachets, saying they were “pretty much impossible to mechanically recycle” and so had “no real value”. However, the company privately lobbied against proposed bans in India, Sri Lanka and the Philippines, Reuters reported in June.
Activists with mannequins dressed in plastic waste during an Earth Day climate protest in Surabaya, East Java, in April. Photograph: Juni Kriswanto/AFP/Getty
A Unilever spokesperson said that it continued to work with governments on solutions such as replacing multilayered sachets with recyclable alternatives, adding: “We need to consider whether technical alternatives are both viable at scale and affordable for low-income consumers whilst also ensuring they don’ t lead to unintended consequences.
“We’ve been trialling the use of CreaSolv technology at our Indonesian pilot plant, where our initial work has addressed the technical and commercial viability of the technology.”
The company said it had been able to recycle the polyethylene from multilayered sachets to produce “high-quality polymers”, which are then used in its packaging.
Unilever declined to explain how it would achieve its aim of making all packaging, including sachets, reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025.
“Our work at the pilot plant has been severely disrupted due to Covid-19, which has impacted all parts of our trial, including the collection of sachets as feedstock for the plant. The plant remains operational and we are actively working with other partners to determine the feasibility of scaling this technology,” the spokesperson said.
For campaigners such as Putra, the company needs to do much more to tackle the waste scourge it has created. He said, “Unilever is pushing the problem of their difficult-to-recycle material on to our communities. They created the market and it is their responsibility to solve it.”
