Many communities are banning single-use plastic shopping bags to reduce pollution, but a study in California shows that some consumers responded by purchasing more heavy plastic trash bags.
Articles on Plastic
Displaying 221 - 240 of 399 articles
China, which once processed much of the world’s scrap, has slashed imports of “foreign garbage.” What can the US do to step up recycling at home?
Too much recyclable packaging is still finding its way into landfill - and plastic is the biggest culprit, with two-thirds going unrecovered, according to a new analysis.
Plastic is not as much of a threat to oceans as climate change or over-fishing.
Nurdles are a raw feedstock used to make most of the plastic products we use everyday, but they’re flooding the ocean as “mermaid tears”.
Volunteers from all over the world are taking part in a citizen science project to help scientists work out how bad microplastic pollution really is.
Dozens of cities, states and nations are enacting bans and restrictions on single-use plastic bags and other items. A legal expert explains how a global treaty could build on these efforts.
Asian countries have become a dumping ground for the plastic waste from wealthy countries.
Since China stopped accepting Australia’s recyclable plastic, the majority of exported plastic waste is now going to developing nations in South East Asia.
There are lots of issues with recycling – but it’s still an important part of society’s efforts to live more sustainably.
Snorkeling off the California coast, a high school student found heaps of golf balls on the ocean floor. With a marine scientist, she showed that golf courses were producing tons of plastic pollution.
Zero-packaging stores provide a systemic solution to a globalised food industry dependent on plastic packaging.
With all those blue recycling bins around you might think we are experts at recycling plastics. The truth is, that though many plastic items can be recycled, very few are. So what’s the solution?
Some of our favourite music formats might not be as environmentally friendly as we think.
A plastic bag has an average usage time of 20 minutes, while it can take up to 1000 years to break down in the environment.
A floating park made from discarded plastic in Rotterdam could spark new thinking on how we manage waste.
Whether plastic or natural, Christmas trees are generally bad for the environment. However, a new chemical process could recycle dead trees into all kinds of useful products.
Researchers unpack the vast impact of plastic on our society – from emerging health worries and pollution to recycling and plastic’s contributions to modern convenience.
The world is waking up to the plastic pollution crisis. Here’s how you can wake up on Christmas morning to a more sustainable holiday.
Less than 10 percent of plastic waste has been recycled – a factoid recently crowned statistic of the year.
Top contributors
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Senior Principal Research Scientist, Environment, CSIRO
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Research Chair, Indigenous Approaches to Environmental Management, Keele University
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Senior Principal Research Scientist, CSIRO
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Lecturer, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University
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Professor of Sustainable Development, Keele University
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Research Scientist, Stanford University
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Lecturer in Ornithology, Charles Sturt University
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Assistant Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto
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Professor, School for Resource and Environmental Studies, Dalhousie University
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Professor of Ocean Policy and Economy, University of Portsmouth
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Professor of Coastal Oceanography, The University of Western Australia
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Associate professor, University of Portsmouth
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Oceanographer, The University of Western Australia
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Research associate, Loughborough University
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Professor of Global Environmental Politics, University of California, Berkeley