plastic pollution

World’s First Collapsible, Reusable Straw Fits Right On Your Keychain

World’s First Collapsible, Reusable Straw Fits Right On Your Keychain

Straws suck—literally and figuratively. Americans throw away 500 million of these single-use plastics everyday day, clogging landfills, polluting oceans and causing harm to aquatic creatures. And while reusable straws made of bamboo or metal already exist on the market, the Santa Fe-based team at FinalStraw have invented the world’s first collapsible, reusable straw you can […]

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    Plastics: The History of an Ecological Crisis

    Plastics: The History of an Ecological Crisis

    The Earth Day Network has announced that this year’s Earth Day, on Sunday, April 22, will focus on ending plastic pollution by Earth Day 2020, the 50th anniversary of the world’s first Earth Day in 1970, which led to the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the passage of the Clean Water, […]

    Scientists Accidentally Develop ‘Mutant’ Enzyme That Eats Plastic

    Scientists Accidentally Develop ‘Mutant’ Enzyme That Eats Plastic

    Researchers in the UK and the U.S. have inadvertently engineered an enzyme that eats up plastic. The enzyme is able to digest PET (polyethylene terephthalate)—the same material used in the ubiquitous plastic bottle that’s clogging up landfills, coastlines and oceans around the world. Amazingly, this discovery only happened by chance. Scientists from the University of […]

    Death by Plastic: 64 Pounds of Trash in Whale’s Digestive System

    Death by Plastic: 64 Pounds of Trash in Whale’s Digestive System

    A sperm whale found dead in southern Spain was killed after ingesting 64 pounds of mostly plastic garbage, a necropsy of the marine mammal recently revealed. The 6-ton, 33-foot-long juvenile male beached near a lighthouse in Cabo de Palos in the region of Murcia in February. Región de Murcia An examination of its digestive tract […]

    Humans Eat More Than 100 Plastic Fibers With Each Meal

    Humans Eat More Than 100 Plastic Fibers With Each Meal

    The proliferation of microplastics in the ocean has led to concerns that they might work their way up the food chain to us. But when researchers at Heriot-Watt University set out to investigate that concern, they found that plastics in our own homes pose a much greater threat to humans. The results of the study, […]

    Plastic Bag Bans Actually Work, Study of European Waters Shows

    Plastic Bag Bans Actually Work, Study of European Waters Shows

    If you ever feel like the world’s plastic nightmare might never end, a new study shows proof that plastic pollution legislation actually works. There are significantly fewer plastic bags on the seafloor ever since a number of European countries introduced fees on the items, according to a 25-year study from the UK government’s Centre for […]

    We’re Drowning in Seas of Plastic

    We’re Drowning in Seas of Plastic

    The fossil fuel era must end, or it will spell humanity’s end. The threat isn’t just from pollution and accelerating climate change. Rapid, wasteful exploitation of these valuable resources has also led to a world choked in plastic. Almost all plastics are made from fossil fuels, often by the same companies that produce oil and […]

    85,000 Petition Supermarket Giant to Open Plastic-Free Aisle

    85,000 Petition Supermarket Giant to Open Plastic-Free Aisle

    An online petition calling on the nation’s largest supermarket chain to open a plastic-free aisle has surpassed 85,000 signatures. The Care2 petition, launched less than a week ago, asks Kroger Co. to curb plastic packaging in its 2,800 branches. The campaigners were inspired to take action after Dutch grocery store chain Ekoplaza launched the world’s […]

    Great Pacific Garbage Patch Is Now Twice the Size of Texas

    Great Pacific Garbage Patch Is Now Twice the Size of Texas

    The Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) floating off the coast of California now measures 1.6 million square kilometers (about 1 million square miles), according to a startling new study. To put that into perspective, the clump of trash is about the size of three Frances, or twice the size of Texas. Not only that, the […]