Did Putin just shade Trump in Geneva?

[View in browser]( [Mother Jones Daily Newsletter]( June 16, 2021 All eyes are on Geneva today, where President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin just concluded their first and much-anticipated summit. "President Biden is an experienced statesman...[He is very different from President Trump](," Putin told reporters in a news conference that otherwise didn't yield too much of anything unexpected. Both leaders noted their differences on issues ranging from cyberattacks to Aleksei Navalny, but ultimately called the meeting "productive" and expressed a desire for more cooperation between the two countries. As widely anticipated, neither side appears to be coming away with much. Would I describe the day as boring? I just might! Still, it's hard to overstate the enormous gulf between today's summit and Donald Trump's 2018 meeting with Putin in Helsinki. As I wrote at the time, [Helsinki featured a meltdown]( of historic proportions, with Trump undermining his own intelligence community to cast doubt on Russia's interference in the 2016 election. He also railed against special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation and Hillary Clinton. All this on the international stage, in front of the man responsible for meddling in US elections. "This may be the worst moment in US foreign policy history that does not directly involve a war or another act of violence," is how our DC bureau chief, David Corn, had described Helsinki. So while today's biggest "oooOOohhh" moment might have been Putin actually arriving on time—as opposed to the [Russian leader making Trump wait]( for almost an hour back in Helsinki—let's take a minute to relish the [return of a refreshingly boring president,]( shall we? —Inae Oh Advertisement [Shelton Capital Management]( [Top Story] [Top Story]( [Putin Shares Blame for 400,000 American Deaths. Should Biden Shake His Hand?]( The president just held a summit with the thug who helped put Trump in the White House. BY DAVID CORN [Trending] [Facebook makes an awkward legal argument in dispute with Muslim advocacy group]( BY PEMA LEVY [Teachers across the country are protesting laws that stop them from talking about systemic racism]( BY SAMANTHA MICHAELS [How giving Native Americans their land back helps protect nature]( BY JIM ROBBINS [One more perk for getting your vaccine? Free weed.]( BY SAMANTHA MICHAELS Advertisement [Shelton Capital Management]( [The Mother Jones Podcast] [Special Feature]( [Roxane Gay Says Cancel Culture Does Not Exist]( From the archives BY MOLLY SCHWARTZ [Fiercely Independent] Support from readers allows Mother Jones to do journalism that doesn't just follow the pack. [Donate]( [Recharge] SOME GOOD NEWS, FOR ONCE [Europe to Crack Down on the Plastics Befouling Its Beaches]( Beachgoers in Europe have grown accustomed to the dispiriting sight of plastic garbage strewn along shorelines, with [85 percent]( of the continent’s saltwater beaches and seas exceeding pollution standards on marine litter. The Mediterranean Sea is the [most defiled of all](, with researchers collecting an average of 274 pieces of plastic refuse per 100 meters of shoreline. And beneath the waves, microplastics have turned coastal waters into toxic “plastic soups.” In an all-out push to clean up Europe’s beaches—one plank in the European Union’s trailblazing efforts to address the almost [28 million US tons]( of plastic waste it generates annually—a ban comes into effect July 3 that halts the sale in EU markets of the 10 plastic products that most commonly wash up on the continent’s shores. These include plastic bottle caps, cutlery, straws and plates, and Styrofoam food and beverage containers. The ban is the most visible sign of Europe’s efforts to curtail plastics pollution by creating the world’s first circular plastics regime. By the end of the decade, this will lead to a ban on throwaway plastics, the creation of a comprehensive reuse system for all other plastics, and the establishment of an expansive and potentially lucrative European market for recycled plastics. A raft of EU measures is now driving investments and innovation toward circular solutions that, according to experts and EU officials, will come to define Europe’s low-carbon economy and enhance its global competitiveness. A circular economy is one in which products and materials are kept in use throughout their life cycle, from design and manufacturing to reuse or recycling. In contrast to the current, linear system, products don’t end up in the trash; they’re reintroduced into the production process. Under the EU Plastics Strategy, put forward in 2018, waste guidelines will overhaul the way plastic products are designed, used, and recycled. All plastic packaging on the EU market must be recyclable by 2030, and the use of microplastics circumscribed. The measures are the toughest in the world and have already pushed plastic packaging recycling rates in the EU to an all-time high of [41.5 percent](—[three times]( that of the United States. The EU has set a target for recycling half of all plastic packaging by 2025, a goal that now looks within reach. And in 2025, a separate collection target of 77 percent will be in place for plastic bottles, increasing to 90 percent by 2029. This strategy will rely on the widespread adoption of extended producer responsibility schemes, which means that if a company introduces packaging or packaged goods into a country’s market, that firm is responsible for the full cost of collection, transportation, recycling, or incineration. In effect, the polluter pays. As of this year, EU companies may no longer unload plastic waste on countries in the developing world. Now, Europe is forced to tackle the entirety of the waste burden itself. “The EU is taking the creation of a circular economy very seriously, and plastics are at the center of it,” said Henning Wilts, director of circular economy at Germany’s [Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy](. The United States, which generates the largest amount of plastic waste in the world, is awash in waste now that China, the largest manufacturer of plastic, [no longer accepts imported waste](; many US cities end up pitching plastic waste into landfills or burning it. Congress has commissioned the National Academies of Sciences to conduct a sweeping review of the US contribution to plastic waste, due out at the end of this year. While EU countries still produce large quantities of plastic, the amount of post-consumer plastic waste sent to recycling has soared by [92 percent]( since 2006, according to [PlasticsEurope](, a European association of plastics manufacturers. Meanwhile, landfilling—by far the dirtiest waste treatment option — [has fallen by 54 percent.]( Europe’s new plastics economy dates back to the mid-1990s, when the principle of extended producer responsibility was enshrined in EU law. Extended producer responsibility (EPR), argues a [Zero Waste Europe paper](, is “crucial to incentivize the redesign of products with circularity in mind.” The extensive private sector network needed to create this new circular economy is only now gaining momentum. “Eventually the recycling industry is going to produce the basic materials for industrial manufacturing,” Wilts said. “But we’re not quite there yet.” This story was originally published by [Yale E360]( and is reproduced and edited here as part of the [Climate Desk]( collaboration. —Paul Hockenos Did you enjoy this newsletter? Help us out by [forwarding]( it to a friend or sharing it on [Facebook]( and [Twitter](. [Mother Jones]( [Donate]( [Subscribe]( This message was sent to {EMAIL}. To change the messages you receive from us, you can [edit your email preferences]( or [unsubscribe from all mailings.]( For advertising opportunities see our online [media kit.]( Were you forwarded this email? 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