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.
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 […]
One of the dangers posed by microplastic pollution in the oceans is that fish and other marine life might eat it by mistake. But could a solution to the problem involve a robot designed to consume it on purpose? Researchers at Sichuan University in China have developed a proof-of-concept for a robotic fish that can […]
Plastic pollution in the oceans. Microplastics. Oil spills. Each of these items is already a distinct crisis. But researchers in the Canary Islands have coined a term for a new type of pollution they are finding in their studies: plastitar. According to the scientists, plastitar is washing up around shores of islands and consists of […]
Could plastic pollution make you sick? A new study published in Marine Pollution Bulletin found that it might. A research team from the University of Stirling in Scotland found that harmful bacteria including E. coli had colonized sewage waste like wet wipes that washed up on beaches in the area. “We all know that sewage […]
At more than two million years old and more than a mile above sea level, Lake Tahoe sits on the border of California and Nevada in the Northern Sierra Nevada mountains. The water is so pure that it isn’t even required to be filtered by water suppliers, the Tahoe Daily Tribune reported. Despite the remarkable […]
At Maison Jar – a new grocery store located in Greenpoint, Brooklyn in New York City – silos of dry goods line one wall. Dried beans, grains, pasta, nuts, and coffee are beside bins of cooking staples like flour, baking soda, baking powder, and sugar. A refrigerator on the wall opposite holds industrial-sized jars of […]
An international team of scientists wrote a letter to the journal Science recently asserting that recycling is not a long-term solution to the growing sea of plastics polluting our soil, river, oceans, the air we breathe and even our bloodstreams and lungs. The scientists argued that the production of plastics must not only be regulated, […]
In Los Angeles County, California, the Board of Supervisors has given the green light for a new ordinance aimed at reducing plastic waste. The ordinance will require all takeout items, such as takeaway containers and other dishes and cutlery, to be either compostable or fully recyclable by 2023. Additionally, restaurants with seating for customers who […]