plastic pollution

Microplastics in Oceans Outnumber Stars in Our Galaxy by 500 Times

Microplastics in Oceans Outnumber Stars in Our Galaxy by 500 Times

The United Nations is “declaring war” on the biggest sources of planetary pollution—ocean plastic. On Thursday, the intergovernmental organization’s environment program (UNEP) launched its #CleanSeas campaign at the World Ocean Summit hosted by The Economist in Bali, Indonesia. The unprecedented global initiative urges governments and businesses to take measures to eliminate microplastics from cosmetics and […]

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    How California Became America’s First State to Ban Plastic Bags

    How California Became America’s First State to Ban Plastic Bags

    By Matt Davis California’s environmental protections are not for sale. That’s the message California voters sent to out-of-state plastic bag manufacturers when they upheld Proposition 67 by 53 to 47 percent in November. But how did the Golden State manage to win a state-wide bag ban against a national political backdrop that went the other […]

    6 Communities Where Nestlé Bottled Water Plans Are Under Fire

    6 Communities Where Nestlé Bottled Water Plans Are Under Fire

    By Daniel Ross With much of North America still in the grips of a drought going back years, managing dwindling drinking water resources is a pressing topic. And in a year when bottled water sales in the U.S. are expected to exceed soda sales for the first time, Nestlé Waters—a water-for-profit poster child that dominates […]

    Why Seabirds Tragically Mistake Ocean Plastic for Food

    Why Seabirds Tragically Mistake Ocean Plastic for Food

    By Matthew Savoca Imagine that you are constantly eating, but slowly starving to death. Hundreds of species of marine mammals, fish, birds and sea turtles face this risk every day when they mistake plastic debris for food. Plastic debris can be found in oceans around the world. Scientists have estimated that there are more than […]

    World’s First Aerial Survey of Great Pacific Garbage Patch: ‘It’s Worse Than We Thought’

    World’s First Aerial Survey of Great Pacific Garbage Patch: ‘It’s Worse Than We Thought’

    Boyan Slat, the 22-year-old Dutch inventor and CEO behind The Ocean Cleanup, announced today preliminary results of the organization’s latest major research mission, the Aerial Expedition, the first-ever aerial survey of an ocean garbage patch. Boyan Slat next to Ocean Force One, which will help accurately quantify the ocean’s biggest and most harmful debris—discarded fishing […]

    Watch This Man Walk Around NYC Wearing His Trash

    Watch This Man Walk Around NYC Wearing His Trash

    For the next 30 days, I’m going to be wearing every single piece of trash that I create. At first that might sound crazy, but anybody who knows me, knows that I am indeed crazy … crazy in a good way. My biggest goal in life is to inspire people to think about how our […]

    6 Plastic Bag Bans Making a Huge Difference

    6 Plastic Bag Bans Making a Huge Difference

    By Fiona Nicholls Good news! Plastics bans across the world have been hitting the headlines lately. From the U.S. to India to Morocco, governing bodies are taking control of the plastic pollution problem, bringing in either complete bans on plastic or bans on specific forms like polystyrene. 1. Karnataka, India In March this year, the […]