MOHAMED ABDULRAHEEM, Shutterstock
Whether we can recycle plastic or not depends on what it’s made of (because there are many different types of plastic), if it’s sufficiently clean and if enough people will buy recycled products.
Plastic pollution can have devastating effects on rivers.
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Understanding how plastic pollution moves in rivers is key to effective cleanup strategies.
Eleanor Church / X Trillion film
A new film charts the voyage of an all-women crew who crossed oceans to sample microplastic pollution.
You can’t see them, but there likely are nanoplastics in this Mediterranean seawater.
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Nanoplastics are the smallest microplastics, far narrower than a human hair. Very little is known about their composition, structure or how they break down in the environment.
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Negotiations for a global plastic pollution treaty have hit on production limits for the first time.
University of Plymouth
Since coining the term microplastics 20 years ago on May 7 2004, Richard Thompson reflects on the progress being made to halt plastic pollution.
EPA-EFE/Sedat Suna
But how the world will get to zero pollution is still uncertain – and production caps are untested.
Waste pickers in Sasolburg, South Africa. Jonathan Torgovnik/
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Because waste pickers go through trash and leave behind everything without value, they know better than anyone which plastics should be eliminated.
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The more plastic, the more waste we produce. It sounds simple, but this discovery could help us find ways of ending plastic pollution.
MOHAMED ABDULRAHEEM / shutterstock
The treaty focuses on ending plastic pollution, not eliminating the use of plastics. But some countries are more ambitious than others.
Styrofoam in the trash.
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Plastic tax would work better than a ban in Lagos, Nigeria.
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Australia’s Soft Plastics Taskforce has been under pressure to fill the vacuum left by the demise of REDcycle. But this time the small trial announced for Melbourne has the potential to succeed.
A fisherman on the River Nile.
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The River Nile is contaminated with microplastics.
Single-use plastics make up most of the plastic waste in Nigeria.
Adam Abu-bashal/Anadolu Agency/ Getty Images
Banning single-use plastics in Nigeria is a step in the right direction. But its success will depend on provisions made for enforcement.
A worker sorting plastic bottles at a recycling plant in Lagos.
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Recycled plastics are not safe if the chemicals used in creating them in the first place are harmful.
Laundry washwater is a major source of microplastic fibers that can end up in water and soil.
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Your washing machine is polluting the ocean.
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Five reasons to avoid glitter, even on Christmas cards or baubles.
Plastic litters a beach in Manila, Philippines.
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A central question remains unresolved in the draft treaty: Is plastic pollution basically a waste management problem, or can it be solved only with a cap on production?
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Media coverage of the dangers of plastic pollution can distract from what is actually needed, says an author.
A beach littered with plastic and other waste in the fishing village of Kayar, north of Dakar, Senegal.
Bara Deme
Initiating a circular economy can help coastal west African countries to address plastic pollution with a World Bank fund.