plastics

Plastics harm human health at all stages of the life cycle, a first-of-its-kind study has found.  The Minderoo-Monaco Commission on Plastics and Human Health, published in the Annals of Global Health March 21, revealed the extent to which plastics harm those that interact with them, from the unique lung diseases suffered by coal miners to […]

In 2021, war, persecution and other human rights abuses forced 89.3 million people to flee their homes. By 2050, the climate crisis could raise that number to more than one billion.  But in the immediate aftermath of an invasion or an extreme weather event, where will those people stay while waiting for a safe and […]

On Friday, thousands of gallons of a water-soluble acrylic latex polymer solution were released into a tributary of the Delaware River, which supplies more than half of Philadelphia’s drinking water. The release of the chemicals into Otter Creek began late Friday night from the Trinseo Altuglas plant in Bristol, PA, according to a statement from […]

Quick Key Facts What Are Fossil Fuels? Fossil fuels are fuels that literally come from fossils. Tens of millions of years ago, plants took energy from the sun and used it to turn carbon dioxide and water into carbon and hydrogen via photosynthesis. Animals ate those plants and stored the same elements in their bodies. […]

Negotiators working on a legally binding United Nations treaty to end plastic pollution will need to be as ambitious as possible with the final document.  That’s the main takeaway from a new report from Back to Blue — a collaboration between Economist Impact and the Nippon Foundation — released Monday. The report modeled what would […]

Rather than plastic, Steve Davies – a 23-year-old board designer based in Porthcawl, Wales – is developing a surfboard made from mycelia, the root-like structures of mushrooms and other fungi.

There are more than 17,000 sites across Europe that have been contaminated with toxic forever chemicals and another more than 21,000 sites that have likely been polluted. That’s one main finding from “The Forever Pollution Project,” a month’s-long collaboration between 18 European newsrooms to investigate and map the extent of polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) pollution across […]

Zero-waste refers to principles of minimizing waste production as much as possible. Béa Johnson of Zero Waste Home calls the framework for zero-waste the 5 Rs: refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle, and rot.