Plastic Archives

Plastic waste is hurting women in developing countries – but there are ways to stop it

The burden of dealing with plastic waste tends to fall on the shoulders of developing countries. Tom_Crew/Pixabay Kutoma Wakunuma, De Montfort University If we are to build a greener, fairer and more equal society in the wake of COVID-19, it’s time for rich countries to end their practice of dumping plastic waste in developing countries. This not only harms the …

The ocean is full of tiny plastic particles – we found a way to track them with satellites

Plastic fragments washed onto Schiavonea beach in Calabria, Italy, in a 2019 storm. Alfonso Di Vincenzo/KONTROLAB /LightRocket via Getty Images Christopher Ruf, University of Michigan Plastic is the most common type of debris floating in the world’s oceans. Waves and sunlight break much of it down into smaller particles called microplastics – fragments less than 5 millimeters across, roughly the …

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 …

It might be the world’s biggest ocean, but the mighty Pacific is in peril

Shutterstock Jodie L. Rummer, James Cook University; Bridie JM Allan, University of Otago; Charitha Pattiaratchi, University of Western Australia; Ian A. Bouyoucos, James Cook University; Irfan Yulianto, IPB University, and Mirjam van der Mheen, University of Western Australia The Pacific Ocean is the deepest, largest ocean on Earth, covering about a third of the globe’s surface. An ocean that vast …

Most plastic recycling produces low-value materials – but we’ve found a way to turn a common plastic into high-value molecules

Bales of plastic waste destined for recycling. Koron/Getty Images Susannah Scott, University of California Santa Barbara If you thought those flimsy disposable plastic grocery bags represented most of our plastic waste problem, think again. The volume of plastic the world throws away every year could rebuild the Ming Dynasty’s Great Wall of China – about 3,700 miles long. In the …

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 …

Bottle-fed babies may consume millions of microplastic particles, our research suggests

Evso/Shutterstock Dunzhu Li, Trinity College Dublin and Yunhong Shi, Trinity College Dublin Microplastics can now be found in almost every environment on Earth, but scientists know surprisingly little about how the products we use every day shed these tiny plastic particles. If you drink from a plastic water bottle or eat out of a microwaveable container today, there’s a good …