Researchers have discovered a variety of large plastic pieces in the guts of dead sea turtles found in the eastern Mediterranean. Some of these plastic items include bottle caps and a Halloween toy in the shape of a witch finger. A team led by the University of Exeter and the North Cyprus Society for the […]
The EU has drafted rules that will require companies linked to microplastic pollution to partially pay for cleanup. Companies will have to pay at least 80% of microplastic recovery costs, while the government will subsidize the rest. The proposed plan identifies specific industries that would need to help pay for the cleanup, also known as […]
Quick Key Facts What Is Slow Fashion? Back in 2007, design activist Kate Fletcher coined the term “slow fashion” when talking about the needs for systems-level change in the fashion industry. It was a hat tip towards the Slow Food Movement, which began in Italy as pushback against the fast food industry, overproduction and waste, […]
Yes! The 2 to 4 million species of fungi in the world offer us endless possibilities — from creating alternative building materials and textiles, to cleaning up environmental toxins, to providing new sources of plant-based proteins. Now, scientists are turning to mushrooms and mycoremediation to solve our plastic pollution crisis. What Is Mycoremediation? Mushrooms growing […]
Lagos State, which includes Nigeria’s most populous city of 15.4 million, has announced a ban on single-use plastics and styrofoam in order to reduce the plastic pollution that chokes the region. The ban would be immediate, according to a statement from the state government, but enforcement and implementation would not be so straightforward, environmental experts […]
Microplastics are so pervasive, they have been found all over the planet and in the human body. A new study has found that a liter of bottled water contains an average of approximately 240,000 detectable plastic fragments, which is 10 to 100 times more than earlier estimates, a press release from Columbia Climate School said. […]
The sandy beaches of Spain’s northwestern Galicia region have been inundated with millions of plastic pellets, sometimes referred to as “nurdles” or “mermaid tears,” reported Reuters. The pellets ended up in the sea when a container fell off the Liberia-registered ship Toconao, BNN Breaking reported, and are the remnants of common plastic items like plastic […]
We’ve all seen cigarette butts on the sidewalk, on the beach or lying in the grass, but may not have realized the toll those cotton-like plastic fibers take on the environment. The cost of marine ecosystem damage and waste management related to the plastics in cigarette packaging and butts is approximately $26 billion per year, […]
Microplastics — tiny fragments of plastic products and industrial waste — are now so pervasive in Earth’s environment that they are found everywhere from the highest mountain peaks to the deepest parts of the ocean. According to a new report, all aquatic species in the mouths of rivers that flow into the Atlantic Ocean and […]