The need for a solution to e-waste disposal is more urgent than ever.
Microplastics sample collected in a plankton net trawl in the North Pacific subtropical gyre from the SSV Robert C Seamans.
Giora Proskurowski/Sea Education Association
By 2050, 99% of the world’s seabird species will be accidentally eating plastic, unless we take action to clean up the oceans. And some of the highest risk to wildlife is in the Southern Ocean off Australia.
Don Featherstone, the creator of the iconic lawn ornament, died in June.
Ryan Hyde/flickr
Recent research into the health effects of the plastic-making chemicals phthalates has reignited concerns about low sperm counts. But the evidence is far from conclusive.
California is the latest state to attempt to ban microplastics from consumer care products. Why these commonly used microbeads are causing major health and environmental problems.
Hungarian artist László Moholy-Nagy often used industrial plastics in his artwork.
Wikimedia Commons
Consumers and makers of plastic products want plastic to biodegrade to minimize the environmental impact, but some additives don’t live up to the claims.
Trawling for plastic at different depths.
Julia Reisser
Four decades after South Australia’s container deposit scheme began, New South Wales has finally overcome industry resistance and launched its own. Could the rest of the country now follow suit?
Plastic waste washed up on a beach in Haiti.
Timothy Townsend
You might have heard the oceans are full of plastic, but how full exactly? Around 8 million metric tonnes go into the oceans each year, according to the first rigorous global estimate published in Science…
Inside Boeing’s Dreamliner: tomorrow’s polymers today.
Jordan Tan
The New York World’s Fair of 1939-40 was one of the greatest expos the world had ever seen. Visitors to Flushing Meadow Park in Queens were invited to see the “world of tomorrow” giving them a first glimpse…
Some plastic particles to go with that plankton, sir?
Chris Gotschalk
There are at least 268,000 tonnes of plastic floating around in the oceans, according to new research by a global team of scientists. The world generates 288m tonnes of plastic worldwide each year, just…
Purchase a plastic water bottle, and there’s a good chance that it will feature a “BPA-free” label. You might be seeing it more often because the industrial chemical Bisphenol-A has now been removed from…
Rubbish strewn on beaches eventually ends up in one of the world’s giant ocean garbage patches.
Vberger/Wikimedia Commons
Most of us have littered at one time or another, and in the process we probably contributed to the enormous of amounts of plastic that enter the ocean every year, eventually ending up in one of the five…
On Monday June 30 the prestigious journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) published a scientific paper, led by Andrés Cozar from the University of Cádiz (Spain) and co-authored by…
Plastic bags are still hanging around years later.
Adrian S Pye
After months of deliberation and consultations, the UK government’s long-awaited announcement about a plastic bag charge arrives, only for Defra to shoot it full of holes by opting to exempt retailers…