Plastic Pollution

Every year, plastic waste discarded by humans — everything from plastic straws and food packaging to fishing nets and industrial products — ends up in the oceans. This trash floats around, eventually bumping into each other, where it becomes trapped and forms an ‘island’ of trash. A new study sheds…

TOKYO -- When Circulate Capital announced the first close of its Ocean Fund in December 2019, plastic pollution seemed to have become an urgent global crisis.With 8 million tons of waste entering the oceans each year -- 60% of which comes from Asia -- social pressure reached a tipping point,…

Millions of metric tons of plastic waste enter the ocean each year, but beyond that, we have little idea where much of it ultimately winds up. Researchers working to trace its path through the marine environment have discovered the highest concentration of microplastics ever recorded on the seafloor, an example…

Credit: CC0 Public Domain New research from Queen's University Belfast and Liverpool John Moores University reveals how the microplastic pollution crisis is threatening biodiversity. Currently up to 10 percent of global plastic production ends up in the sea although the understanding of how this affects marine life is limited. The…

Two new studies by the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) are shedding new light on plastic waste in the Antarctic. Based on 30 years of extensive surveys of marine debris ingested by sea birds or washed up on Bird Island at South Georgia and Signy Island in the South Orkneys, researchers…

Food wrapping, fishing gear and plastic waste continue to reach the Antarctic. Two new studies into how plastic debris is reaching sub-Antarctic islands are published this month (April 2020) in the journal Environment International. New findings include analyses of some of the longest continuous datasets in the world on plastics…

Plastic debris has been collected at Bird Island and Signy Island for the last three decades. Credit: British Antarctic Survey Food wrapping, fishing gear and plastic waste continue to reach the Antarctic. Two new studies into how plastic debris is reaching sub-Antarctic islands are published in the journal Environment International.…

Food wrapping, fishing gear and plastic waste continue to reach the Antarctic. Two new studies into how plastic debris is reaching sub-Antarctic islands are published this month (April 2020) in the journal Environment International. New findings include analyses of some of the longest continuous datasets in the world on plastics…

Weather satellite for observing powerful thunderstorms of storms and tornadoes in space orbiting the ... earth. Elements of this image furnished by NASA. Getty While we know plastic is terrible for marine life, detecting plastic pollution in the ocean is notoriously challenging. Plastics come in many colors, break down to…

Feature Events 5 things to know about the ocean plastic problem, and how to fix it Events Key takeaways from a recent virtual event on the issue of ocean plastic pollution, in support of 1% for The Planet and co-hosted by Springwise. During a recent digital discussion on the issue…