Biodegradable and compostable bags have been found intact enough to carry shopping three years after being exposed to air, soil and sea – the same conditions they would encounter if left as litter, a new study has found. Researchers at the University of Plymouth examined biodegradable and compostable plastic bag materials widely available from high […]

Turtles, seabirds, seals, and whales are well-documented victims of out of control plastic pollution, but when was the last time you saw a video of a person suffering in the grips of the global plastics crisis? You’d be forgiven if you believed humans were somehow immune to this tragedy, as their stories are so rarely […]

Plastic floating in the sea is costing human society “hundreds if not thousands of billions of dollars” every year, including loss of tourism revenue and reduced productivity. The “perceived risk” of the contamination of seafood with microplastic may also be detrimental to the seafood industry, whilst the presence of marine litter can impact physical and […]

Study creates blueprint to safeguard marine life and enable ocean recovery Academics have mapped out a network of sanctuaries they say are required to save the world’s oceans, protect wildlife and fight climate breakdown. The study, ahead of a historic vote at the UN, sets out the first detailed plan of how countries can protect […]

Southeast Asia’s addiction to plastic needs to end and it can’t end without engaging with brands The standard narrative of the Southeast Asia plastic crisis has a puzzling blind spot. The typical story goes that consumers and governments shoulder all the blame—consumers for using and then tossing out too much plastic, and governments for not […]

There’s plastic in seabirds, in the middle of the remote Pacific Ocean, even in people. It’s a challenge to turn to the news these days without reading or hearing the latest horror story about plastic pollution. These updates seem new and striking and scary, but in reality much of the fundamental information contained in these […]

Plastic is kind of like a Twitter reply guy: It never goes away. And there’s more coming in. Each year, 8 million metric tons of plastic go into the ocean (that’s equal to about one garbage truck per minute), according to a 2016 report by the World Economic Forum, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, and McKinsey […]

Somewhere in Hilo, on Hawaii’s Big Island, a team of scientists and engineers are tending to The Ocean Cleanup’s 600-metre-long rubbish-herding device, after its maiden voyage to the Great Pacific garbage patch was cut short in December 2018, because it fractured into two pieces. The project has had its fair share of problems since it […]

One year ago, China stopped accepting most American scrap plastic and cardboard, throwing a wrench into U.S. recycling programs. Now, cities and towns across the U.S. are dealing with piles of homeless plastic with no clear destination. Many have stopped recycling altogether or dramatically scaled back their recycling programs. Douglas County, Oregon, stopped accepting plastic […]

Plastic pollution is becoming a major problem for ocean wildlife. Organisms that ingest plastics are subject to hormone disruption and issues with reproduction that affect their overall health, a new study finds. Wildlife around the world is exposed to plastic pollutants called endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs). Not much is known about how these chemicals affect marine […]