Tag Archives: Plastic pollution

New material inspired by spider silk could help solve our plastic problem

Shutterstock/Olga Miltsova Hom Dhakal, University of Portsmouth Plastics are very useful materials. They’ve contributed significant benefits to modern society. But the unprecedented amount of plastics produced over the past few decades has caused serious environmental pollution. Packaging alone was responsible for 46% out of 340 million tonnes of plastic waste generated globally in 2018. Although plastic recycling has increased significantly …

Read More »

The war against plastic is distracting us from pollution that cannot be seen

FocusDzign / shutterstock Thomas Stanton, Nottingham Trent University; Matthew Johnson, University of Nottingham, and Paul Kay, University of Leeds The war against plastic may be overshadowing greater threats to the environment. In a collaboration with experts from the environmental sciences, engineering, industry, policy and charities, we have written a paper in the journal WIREs Water which highlights concerns that relatively …

Read More »