Plastic Pollution

Smart tech is being trialled at Ala Wai Harbor in Honolulu, Hawai’i in the hopes of cleaning up plastic pollution.Hawai’i Volcanic Water, a beverage and active lifestyle brand from the island state has sponsored two Seabin units that were recently installed in Honolulu’s Ala Wai Harbor.The Seabin, invented by Pete…

Almost every product and material we refer to as "plastic" is made from fossil fuels. Most of it hasn't been around for long -- a little over 70 years for the most common products. North American grocery stores didn't start offering plastic bags until the late 1970s. Over that short time, plastics…

Potentially deadly particles of plastic chemicals used in products including food packaging and mobile phones have been found for the first time in major human organs, a new study warns. US researchers analysed 47 samples from a tissue bank originally established to study neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease. All of the samples…

Eight million metric tons of plastic waste enter the oceans every year. This equates to one garbage truck’s worth of plastic being dumped into our oceans every minute. The total weight is the equivalent of 90 aircraft carriers. On top of that, models project that by 2050, there will be…

By Layal Liverpool Plastic waste can degrade into smaller bits known as microplasticsHOTLI SIMANJUNTAK/EPA-EFE/ShutterstockA new method could help detect microplastics in human tissues and organs, allowing researchers to investigate the impact that environmental plastic pollution has on our health. Last year, Rolf Halden at Arizona State University and his colleagues…

In a sobering report published by the journal Science, plastic pollution in our oceans is set to increase massively, with a tripling of the flow of plastic by 2040.The increase will have resulted in a mind-blowing 1.3 billion metric tons of plastic ending up in our oceans.The study found that…

Incase and BIONIC have teamed up to bring a new collection of backpacks, MacBook sleeves, and organizers to help combat the 8 million metric tons of plastic that end up in the ocean. 91% of plastic is not recycled and just discarded due to poor recycling practices. For this reason,…

Single use personal protective equipment (PPE) is significantly adding to the already serious plastic pollution crisis, experts have warned.An estimated 194 billion disposable masks and gloves are being used worldwide every month as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a study in Environmental Science and Technology. Most single…

Environment 7 August 2020 By Adam Vaughan A discarded face mask in Budva, MontenegroZUMA Press, Inc. / AlamyIt looked as if the tide had turned against single-use plastic last year, with the European Union approving a ban on cutlery, straws and more, New York backing a plastic bag ban and…

Plastic bag in the ocean. Credit: Making Oceans Plastic Free Clean-up devices that collect waste from the ocean surface won't solve the plastic pollution problem, a new study shows. Researchers compared estimates of current and future plastic waste with the ability of floating clean-up devices to collect it—and found the…