plastic pollution

Kenya Joins Growing Fight Against Plastic Pollution

Kenya Joins Growing Fight Against Plastic Pollution

Kenya just became the latest country to ban plastic bags. According to Environment Cabinet Secretary Judi Wakhungu, “The ministry has banned the use, manufacture and importation of all plastic bags used for commercial and household packaging.” Kenya’s ban follows the United Nations‘ new Clean Seas initiative, which has already inspired 10 governments to address plastic […]

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    Disposable Plastics Outlawed in One of the World’s Most Populous Regions

    Disposable Plastics Outlawed in One of the World’s Most Populous Regions

    Did you know that nearly a month, India’s National Capital Region—a massive swath of land that includes the nation’s capital territory, Delhi—outlawed disposable plastic? On Jan. 1, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) enacted a ban on one-time use items such as plastic grocery bags and cups for the region’s 54 million inhabitants, the world’s second […]

    The Unintended Consequences of Giving Water

    The Unintended Consequences of Giving Water

    In war, natural disaster and poverty, water is the first relief to arrive alongside the security of life and limb. It is the gift that aids the weary traveler, sits at the table before a meal arrives. The lack of it kills before the lack of food does. It is not a commodity, as in […]

    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 […]