plastic pollution

Join our newsletter

The best of EcoWatch, right in your inbox. Sign up for our email newsletter!

    More Than 40 Companies Sign Onto Historic UK Plastics Pact

    More Than 40 Companies Sign Onto Historic UK Plastics Pact

    In a historic move, more than 40 UK companies have signed up to fight plastic pollution as part of the UK Plastics Pact, The Independent reported Wednesday. The pact, which officially launches today, is a groundbreaking alliance of companies, non-governmental organizations and governments working to transform packaging in the UK by 2025. “We need to […]

    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 […]

    Why It’s Time We March for the Ocean

    Why It’s Time We March for the Ocean

    By Sylvia Earle & David Helvarg We’ve recently seen the remarkable capacity of youth to mobilize and to inspire us with a message of change in their march against gun violence. Theirs is also a generation equipped with technologies not just to connect to each other but to better understand our blue planet in ways […]

    7 Things You Can Do to Create a Plastic-Free Future

    7 Things You Can Do to Create a Plastic-Free Future

    By Jen Fela We’re celebrating a huge moment in the global movement for a plastic-free future: More than one million people around the world have called on big corporations to do their part to end single-use plastics. Now we’re taking the next big step. We’re setting an ambitious new goal: A Million Acts of Blue. […]

    Indonesia Calls in the Army to Fight Plastic Enemy

    Indonesia Calls in the Army to Fight Plastic Enemy

    In March, a diver’s video of masses of plastic floating off the Indonesian coast went viral. But that plastic often reaches the ocean through the country’s rivers, clogging them to such an extent that Indonesia had to call in the army, the BBC reported Thursday. The BBC spent time on the ground in Bandung, Indonesia’s […]

    With Eco-Friendly Jerseys, Major League Soccer Kicks Off Earth Day in Style

    With Eco-Friendly Jerseys, Major League Soccer Kicks Off Earth Day in Style

    Major League Soccer (MLS) is scoring a goal against plastic pollution this Earth Day, with help from a unique, eco-friendly product. All 23 MLS teams playing Earth Day weekend, from Friday, April 20 to Sunday April 22, will wear special Adidas jerseys made from Parley Ocean Plastic™, an Adidas press release announced April 10. Parley […]

    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 […]