It’s no secret that too many of the plastic products we use end up in the ocean. But you might not be aware of one major source of that pollution: our clothes.
Plastic is not only killing marine animals and ecosystems, but countless studies show it’s hazardous to human health. These shocking statistics may encourage you to rethink single-use plastic products.
A multimillion-dollar floating boom designed to corral plastic debris littering the Pacific Ocean deployed from San Francisco Bay on Saturday as part of a larger high-stakes and ambitious undertaking.
Add millions of used contact lenses to the plastic waste that's finding its way into oceans and lakes.sA new study released Sunday estimates that these slippery transparent discs, vital to the vision of an estimated 45 million Americans, are often flushed into the sewer instead of placed in the trash or recycled.
From the icy splendour of the Arctic to the inky depths of the Mariana ocean trench, plastic waste is threatening our seas, killing our wildlife and polluting our food chain. The facts are undeniable: each year more than 8 million tonnes of plastic enter our oceans. According to one estimate, 99 per cent of seabirds will have ingested plastic by the middle of this century.
DYK: A plastic cup can take 50 - 80 years to decompose. An estimated 13 billion plastic bottles are disposed of each year. Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1 million sea creatures every year. Recycling plastic saves twice as much energy than burning it in an incinerator.
Bottled water beats out soda as the best-selling U.S. beverage, but that popularity spotlights the environmental costs of so many plastic bottles being used once and then tossed aside.
A study by the University of Minnesota's School of Public Health gives us a stunning look at the amount of plastic pollution found in beer brewed with our Lake Michigan water.
As the amount of single-use plastic in the world's oceans continues to grow, National Geographic is announcing a new, global commitment to tackle this pressing problem. On Wednesday, the media giant launched Planet or Plastic?, a multiyear initiative aimed at raising awareness of this challenge and reducing the amount of single-use plastic that enters the world's oceans.
In the past few years, scientists have found microplastics in our soil, tap water, bottled water, beer and even in the air we breathe. And there's growing concern about the potential health risks they pose to humans.
Cotton buds, plastic drinking straws and other single-use plastics could be banned from sale in England next year in the next phase of the campaign to try to halt the pollution of the world’s rivers and oceans.
Plastic pollution is invading the deepest parts of the ocean, causing damage to the ecosystem that can last thousands of years. The discovery of a plastic bag 36,000 feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean in the Mariana Trench is of global concern.
A study reveals highest microplastic pollution levels ever recorded in a river in Manchester, UK and shows that billions of particles flooded into the sea from rivers in the area in just one year.
In 2014 California became the first state to enact legislation banning single use plastic bags at large retail stores. Some U.S. counties and cities now ban or charge fees for plastic bags to reduce their harmful impact to the environment. Check the link to see what places are on the path to a #HealthyWorldForAll and visit our website for the latest news.
We use 500 Million Plastic Straws Every Day in the U.S.sMany of those plastic straws end up in our oceans, polluting the water and harming sea life. If we don’t act now, by 2050 there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish.
Plastic waste is building up in the supposedly pristine wilderness of the Norwegian Arctic, scientists say. Researchers are particularly concerned about huge concentrations of microplastic fragments in sea ice.
Marine life is facing "irreparable damage" from the millions of tons of plastic waste which ends up in the oceans each year, the United Nations has warned.
Most of that plastic isn’t recycled. 91 percent of the world’s plastic ends up as waste that threatens fish, birds, mammals and even the crustaceans seven miles below the ocean’s surface.
A lobster fished from waters off the coast of New Brunswick, Canada, was found earlier this month with an unusual marking on its claw—what appears to be the image of a Pepsi can.
Plastics now dominate modern human life, with many throwaway or single-use products such as drinks bottles, nappies and cutlery, ending up in the natural environment.
Every piece of plastic rubbish has a story, so it also makes me wonder about the chain of events that led to that particular item ending up in the deep ocean, and whether any of those events could have been prevented.
Now, ocean plastic pollution had its Frankenstein trash island. Sea captain Marcus Eriksen and surfer Charles Moore discovered the Pacific trash vortex and the island of floating trash.
An FAO study finds that more than 100 commercial seafood species ingest microplastic, which can be contaminated with toxins. More worrying are the unknown health effects of even smaller nanoplastics.
Oceans Deeply talks with experts about the plastic pollution that’s threatening the ocean: What we know, what we don’t know and, crucially, what we can do about it.
We've known that the plastics we throw away — empty water bottles and grocery bags, for instance — pollute our oceans. Every year, about 8.8 million tons (8 million metric tons) of this material ends up in the deep blue sea, imperiling marine ecosystems.
A new global study published yesterday estimated that 8,300 million metric tons of plastics have been produced to date Ndthe vast majority has ended up in our environment.
UN Environment and Think Beyond Plastic, an innovation accelerator organization, have launched a worldwide innovation challenge for university students to fight plastic waste in oceans.
One of the hardest parts of building Nomadix has been reminding ourselves to slow down. We really want to be able to make the right decisions that align with our values, not just growth rates or profit margins.
Henderson Island is particularly hit by the plastic pollution because it’s located at the edge of the South Pacific gyre, an ocean current that tends to pick up trash.
With millions of tons of plastic waste being dumped into the sea every year and barely any ocean area free of such pollutants, the environmental impact on marine life and species is tremendous. Take a look at the hazardous effects of plastic pollution on our oceans.
Coral nitrogen analysis offers an independent measure of the effects of human activity on the ecosystem. Changes in nitrogen runoff are reflected in coral reef growth.
In the two minutes it took you to read this article, more than 60,000 pounds of plastic were dumped into our oceans. That plastic could very well have profound health consequences for you and the ones you love.
In a state that prides itself as a global leader in protecting the environment, recycling rates for beverage containers have dropped to their lowest point amid the continued closure of centers that pay for bottles and cans and the fallout from changes to California's recycling program.
Would you like a side of plastic with your fish dish? Well, you might get it whether you like it or not. Ocean plastic pollution is pervasive. Scientists are trying to figure out the impact on human health.
The discovery of microplastics in deep water means scientists may have underestimated the extent to which plastic trash is contaminating the ocean – and its impact on fish, marine mammals and seabed dwellers.
Every year, billions of pounds of plastic waste pour into our oceans. Used by humanity for a few minutes at most, these single-use plastics will likely stick around for decades, or longer.
Plastic fibers are now showing up in fish and shellfish sold in in California and Indonesia for human consumption. And one paper showed that microfibers are responsible for 85 percent of shoreline pollution across the globe. How can we stop this pollution?
Industry has made more than 9.1 billion tons of plastic since 1950 and there’s enough left over to bury Manhattan under more than two miles of trash, according to a new cradle-to-grave global study.
Disposable plastic waste has gotten way out of hand, and recycling programs don’t appear to be solving the problem. The conditions are ripe for another attempt to enact a statewide restriction on polystyrene takeout containers. Sen. Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica) has written one, and lawmakers should pass it.
The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach is teaming up with the Monterey Bay Aquarium and others to reduce or eliminate single-use plastics like straws and beverage bottles from their cafes and gift shops.
The 5 Gyres Institute has published a report called “The Plastics BAN List.” Its purpose is to assess which plastics are most damaging to human health and the environment. Plastic waste was collected and analyzed to see in which form it’s most commonly found, which toxic chemicals are used to create the plastics, and what recovery systems (i.e. recycling, composting, reuse) exist, if any.
A UK company has created a biodegradable alternative to plastic bottles which is currently crowdfunding on crowdcube. The product is a blob of water that's made from a seaweed extract, which is actually cheaper than plastic to manufacture.
Plastic production has skyrocketed since it’s popularization as a consumer material in the 1950’s. A 2015 Worldwatch Institute report noted that the relatively modest launching point of 1.7 million tons of plastic generated in 1950 has ballooned into 300 million tons in 2015.
A study published recently shows a major ocean current is carrying trillions of bits of plastic from the North Atlantic to the Greenland and Barents seas, and leaving them there — in surface waters, in sea ice and possibly on the ocean floor.
50% of the plastic we use is only used once.In the US, a study indicated that 93% of people 6 years of age or older tested positive for BPA (Bisphenol-A, a chemical containing plastics).
Plastic is a material made to last forever, yet 33 percent of all plastic - water bottles, bags and straws - are used just once and thrown away. Plastic cannot biodegrade; it breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces.
The best thing we can do to protect our waterways is try to keep as much plastic as possible out of the waste stream in the first place. There are many small ways you can have a big impact.
There is currently a dire plastic pollution problem. If nothing is done, researchers predict there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050.
A walkthrough on how fish sold in markets have human-made debris inside them and how there are indirect environmental consequences to our everyday lives.
