The world urgently needs to move past plastic.
Veronika Meduna
We need a global treaty to combat plastic pollution, but a small group of countries is blocking real action.
One use and done? Not always.
Peteruetz/Wikimedia
Many communities are banning single-use plastic shopping bags to reduce pollution, but a study in California shows that some consumers responded by purchasing more heavy plastic trash bags.
When temperatures rise and ice melts, more water flows to the seas and ocean water warms and expands in volume.
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Plastic is not as much of a threat to oceans as climate change or over-fishing.
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Nurdles are a raw feedstock used to make most of the plastic products we use everyday, but they’re flooding the ocean as “mermaid tears”.
David Jones
Volunteers from all over the world are taking part in a citizen science project to help scientists work out how bad microplastic pollution really is.
Joyce Njeri, 8, walks amidst garbage and plastic bags in the Dandora slum of Nairobi, Kenya.
AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File
Dozens of cities, states and nations are enacting bans and restrictions on single-use plastic bags and other items. A legal expert explains how a global treaty could build on these efforts.
Plastic pollution on a beach on Bali, Indonesia.
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Asian countries have become a dumping ground for the plastic waste from wealthy countries.
Frenco, a zero-waste store in Montreal.
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Zero-packaging stores provide a systemic solution to a globalised food industry dependent on plastic packaging.
Shampoo containing plastic microbeads.
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A plastic bag has an average usage time of 20 minutes, while it can take up to 1000 years to break down in the environment.
Recycled Island Foundation
A floating park made from discarded plastic in Rotterdam could spark new thinking on how we manage waste.
‘Tis the season to be plastic-free.
Shutterstock/Bogdan Sonjachnyj
The world is waking up to the plastic pollution crisis. Here’s how you can wake up on Christmas morning to a more sustainable holiday.
A necessary sea change.
Larina Marina/Shutterstock
While the world gathers to negotiate on climate change, governments must recognise the public desire for action on plastic pollution and work together to solve it.
Plastic floats on and near the surface of the ocean.
NOAA
Cleaning up plastic pollution in the ocean is good – and long overdue. But where will the waste go? Recycling isn’t always an option. Bacteria and enzymes could process it, raising new questions.
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Mosquitoes are transferring microplastics eaten in water into birds and other non-marine animals.
Surface water from the Vaal River is highly polluted with fragments of microplastics.
Flickr/Paul Saad
South Africa needs to strengthen its response to plastic pollution.
Many scientists believe it is impossible to ignore the human impact on the planet when defining the geological age we live in today.
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When it comes to the geological record, airbrushing out humans’ impact on the environment makes little sense.
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Every day we throw away plastic and every day we’re reminded of its environmental impact. Why can’t something be done about it?
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Tech fixes to environmental problems are guaranteed to grab attention, but real change for the planet requires community organising.
A Eurasian Coot sits on a nest built from human litter, including plastic straws, inside a half-sunk boat in an Amsterdam canal.
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Fast-food restaurants and coffee shops are banishing the straw. While it may seem like a small measure, your pessimism isn’t justified.
The Northern Royal Albatross is one of many species of seabird that breed in New Zealand.
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New Zealand is home to more seabirds than any other country, and many species are already under pressure from climate change and over-fishing. Plastic pollution could push some closer to the brink.