An estimated 14,000 tons of microfibers sloughed off of soiled laundry is believed to be released into European oceans every year, further contributing to microplastic pollution with a threat of becoming a “significant environmental issue.” That amounts to about two garbage trucks every day, new research suggests. Many synthetic clothes, linens, and households textiles are […]
Scientists have discovered the highest concentration of microplastics ever recorded on the seafloor—1.9 million pieces in one square meter (approximately 11 square feet) of the Mediterranean. But the finding, published in Science Thursday, suggests a much broader problem as deep-sea currents carry plastics to microplastic “hotspots” that may also be deep-sea ecosystems rich in biodiversity. […]
For the first time, microscopic plastic pollution has been found in Antarctic sea ice samples collected more than a decade ago, suggesting that microplastic concentrations in Southern Sea ice may be higher than previously believed. A total of 96 microplastic particles from 14 different types of polymer were discovered in an ice core sample collected […]
The Danish building block toy LEGO has sprouted an empire of amusement park like stores, movies, and reality TV competitions premised on building complicated characters, vehicles and settings from inter-locking pieces of plastic. Unfortunately, all that plastic will be with us for a long, long time, according to a new study published in the journal […]
By Robin Pomeroy For the great explorers of the 19th and 20th centuries, the prime motivation was getting to places no one had been before: “Because it’s there,” is what British mountaineer George Mallory famously replied when asked why he wanted to climb Everest. But no longer. With all the biggest peaks climbed, poles reached […]
All those phones, computers and tablets we rely on are dependent on mined resources. Extracting and processing those resources accounts for nearly half of our greenhouse gas emissions, which is why the European Commission’s Circular Economy Action Plan calls for “initiatives for the entire life cycle of products, from design and manufacturing to consumption, repair, […]
By Simon Coghlan and Kobi Leins A remarkable combination of artificial intelligence (AI) and biology has produced the world’s first “living robots.” This week, a research team of roboticists and scientists published their recipe for making a new lifeform called xenobots from stem cells. The term “xeno” comes from the frog cells (Xenopus laevis) used […]
Thailand rang in 2020 with an effort to tackle the plastic crisis filling the country’s waste sites and choking its waterways. The country’s ban on plastic bags at major retailers began as soon as the clock struck midnight in Bangkok. A complete ban of bags that includes smaller shops will go into effect in 2021, […]
Microplastics have been found everywhere in the world, from the depths of the ocean to the pristine mountaintops of the Pyrenees mountains to Arctic snow. Now a team of researchers in the United Kingdom is testing the concentrations of microplastics in cities. Sure enough, the tiny plastic particles are raining down on urban populations, as […]
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