The trillions of pieces of plastic that end up in Earth’s oceans each year are wreaking havoc on the hundreds of thousands of marine organisms who live there. Mammals like whales and smaller organisms like fish ingest plastic particles, which contain toxins that stay in the animals’ bodies and are passed along to the organisms […]
Of the 8.3 metric tons of plastic produced in this world to date, 6.3 billion tons of that is trash, and less than 10% of it is recycled, which has created a global crisis, not just with the environment, but our health. Microplastics — tiny pieces of plastic debris, which result from the disposal and […]
Plastic pollution has quickly become one of the biggest environmental issues of the 21st century. Plastics that end up in waterways are the cause of millions of animal deaths each year when birds, turtles, fish and other marine organisms ingest or become entangled in plastic waste. Plastics contain toxic chemicals like PCBs and DDT that […]
After 60 years, Sprite, the popular lemon-lime soda from Coca-Cola, is getting a new look. The revamp? Swapping from its translucent green bottle to a clear bottle, at least in North America. Coca-Cola says the reason for the switch is to increase recyclability of the soda bottles, but critics note that it’s not the color of the bottle that is the problem. It’s the fact that the bottles are still single-use plastic.
One morning, I came out of the shower, reached for my towel and found myself face-to-face with a shelf full of different products. Although I used these things every day, I looked at the shelf as if I had seen it for the first time, and I was horrified. Staring back at me were bottles […]
The ocean conservation nonprofit announced the winners of its annual photo contest in a blog post last Monday, in the latest iteration of a tradition that’s been running 15 years. “The annual Ocean Conservancy Photo Contest presents a unique opportunity to engage our audience in a fun way,” Ocean Conservancy said in an email to EcoWatch.
A newly signed law in California, SB54, is set to reduce amounts of plastic waste, improve recycling rates, and place more responsibility on producers rather than consumers to curb plastic pollution. The new law requires a 25% decrease in single-use plastics entering the market over the next 10 years, and nearly half of that reduction […]
People visiting U.S. national parks and other wild spaces are advised to leave no trace of their presence on the plants, animals and ecosystems they visit. Despite this, the Department of the Interior (DOI), which manages the nation’s parks, produced almost 80,000 tons of solid waste in 2020, much of it plastic. But what if […]
From sea level rise to ocean acidification to plastic pollution, our planet faces an “ocean emergency,” UN Secretary General António Guterres said on the first day of the UN Ocean Conference. The conference, which is taking place in Lisbon, Portugal, from June 27 to July 1, is an international gathering co-hosted by the governments of […]