The Laguna Beach, California, city council has voted to ban the sale and public use of balloons — inflated with helium or not — in order to stop a major source of marine trash and reduce the risk of wildfires. Starting next year, all balloons in the community of 23,000 will be prohibited from being […]
The Norwegian Arctic is home to many animal species, including caribou, narwhals, arctic foxes, polar bears and seals, as well as the fish and plankton on which many of them feed. Recently, disturbingly high levels of toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” have been found contaminating ice in the region, which may present a serious problem for […]
The Australian government on Wednesday rejected a proposed open pit coal mine that would have been located less than 6.2 miles from the Great Barrier Reef.
A leaked video of a deep-sea mining test showing a plume of sediment being released into the ocean is reigniting concerns about the controversial practice.
Baltimore County is the latest local government in the U.S. to ban plastic shopping bags. The Baltimore County Council voted five-to-two Monday to approve the “Bring Your Own Bag Act,” following in the footsteps of the City of Baltimore, which passed its plastic bag ban in 2019. “Plastic bags have been a menace on our […]
In recent years, there has been growing awareness of the risk that single-use plastics pose to the environment and human health as well as greater efforts made to regulate them. Despite this, the number of single-use plastics produced in 2021 rose to record heights at 139 million metric tons. That’s six million metric tons more […]
Supermarkets Woolworths and Coles have been ordered by the New South Wales (NSW) Environment Protection Authority (EPA) to dispose of more than 5,732 tons of recycled soft plastics currently sitting in more than a dozen warehouses across NSW. The concern is that they’re being dangerously stored since the collapse of recycling organization REDcycle — a […]
Scientists from Osaka Metropolitan University have found a way to synthesize fumaric acid, a raw material using for producing the biodegradable plastic polybutylene succinate, using artificial photosynthesis. The plastic, typically made from petroleum, was synthesized from carbon dioxide, biomass-derived compounds, and solar energy. The study, published in the journal Sustainable Energy & Fuels, documents the […]