Author: Seth Borenstein

The average liter of bottled water has nearly a quarter million invisible pieces of ever so tiny nanoplastics, detected and categorized for the first time by a microscope using dual lasers. Scientists long figured there were lots of these microscopic plastic pieces, but until researchers at Columbia and Rutgers universities did their calculations they never knew how many or what kind. Looking at five samples each of three common bottled water brands, researchers found particle levels ranged from 110,000 to 400,000 per liter, averaging at around 240,000 according to a study in Monday’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Author: Joseph Winters

At this point, it’s common knowledge that bottled water contains microplastics — fragments of the insidious material that can be as small as a bacterial cell. But the problem is much worse than previously known: It turns out that bottled water harbors hundreds of thousands of even tinier pieces of the stuff.

Author: Joseph Winters

In 2014, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency flagged vinyl chloride — a hazardous chemical that’s used to make PVC pipes and other plastic products — for further assessment and potential restrictions under the Toxic Substances Control Act, a federal chemical safety law. But it’s taken nearly a decade for the agency to begin that assessment.

Author: Pandora Dewan

Plastic is everywhere, from the Arctic ice to human placenta. In fact, previous estimates suggest that the average person ingests a credit card-worth of microscopic plastic particles every week. But new research shows that this could actually be an understatement. Microplastics refer to any plastics that are smaller than 5 millimeters (0.2 inches) long. They can be found in industrial waste and various beauty products and can also be formed during the degradation of larger pieces of plastic waste.

Author: Marissa Heffernan

California is moving ahead on implementation of its extended producer responsibility law. The state agency recently released a draft of the regulations and selected a producer responsibility organization. The California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) on Jan. 8 announced that Circular Action Alliance (CAA) will serve as the producer responsibility organization (PRO). The group is also the PRO in Colorado and is part of an EPR study in Maryland. It plans to submit a plan in Oregon, as well. 

Author: Andrea J. Arratibel

In Mexico, the majority of waste that is not collected is plastic, which ultimately finds its way to the coast. It is the debris that is carried by ocean currents until it accumulates on the shores, later returning out to sea and carried by the waves. Or it lies fading in the sun and brackish water, tangled in the roots of mangroves, in ecosystems that have become impromptu garbage dumps

Author: John Ensor

Recent weeks have seen the Galician coast in Spain awash with millions of tiny white plastic balls, transforming its picturesque beaches into an environmental nightmare. This environmental disaster began on December 13, with the discovery of plastic pellets on Espiñeirido beach.

Author: Lauren F. Friedman

By the time you open a container of yogurt, the food has taken a long journey to reach your spoon. You may have some idea of that journey: From cow to processing to packaging to store shelves. But at each step, there is a chance for a little something extra to sneak in, a stowaway of sorts that shouldn’t be there.

Author: Lisa Jucca

MILAN, Jan 3 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Companies will learn the hard way that polluting the world has a cost. Ten years after the deadly Rana Plaza factory-building collapse that killed more than 1,000 underpaid textile workers in Bangladesh, cheap polyester clothes from Shein, Boohoo (BOOH.L) or Primark continue to fill our wardrobes before hitting the landfill. Meanwhile, more than 350 million metric tons of Coca-Cola bottles, Mars wrappers and other plastic items are discarded each year. This may change as a crackdown on fossil fuel-based waste takes shape in 2024.

Author: Beatriz Santos

The Crown Prince of Dubai issued an Executive Council Resolution on the last day of 2023 that imposes a phased ban on the import and trading of single-use products. The resolution applies equally to single-use virgin and recycled products, regardless of their material composition.

Author: Alden Wicker

In 2010, when Zimbabwe’s new Environmental Management Agency was less than 8 years old, it looked at high-priority environmental issues it should tackle. And it identified polystyrene takeout containers. Some know this type of plastic by its brand name Styrofoam. Zimbabweans call their takeout containers kaylites. Regardless of the name, just like all over the world, this lightweight plastic was ending up in Zimbabwe’s water bodies, where it broke up into tiny, impossible-to-clean-up, bits.

Author: Susan Elizabeth Turek

With less than 10% of plastic waste recycled globally, according to the U.N. Environment Programme, certain efforts to give plastic waste a new lease of life seemed enticing. Unfortunately, as reported by Huanjia Zhang of Environmental Health News, if something is too good to be true, it probably is, with scientists raising their voices to debunk “a dangerous deception.”

Author: Willow Lynn

Recently released information has shown that the United States plastic exports to Mexico doubled between 2019 and 2021. The rising amount of plastic waste exported from the United States to Mexico occurred despite a 2019 agreement between 187 countries that regulates and restricts the international trade of plastic waste. The ban took effect in January of 2021. Since the plastic waste trade agreement, Mexico has become the largest destination for plastic waste originating in the United States. Humanitarians and environmental activists are raising alarms about these exports, terming it “plastic waste colonialism.”

Author: Mongabay

In today’s industrialized world, avoiding plastic is virtually impossible. Every trip to the grocery store likely means coming home with food and household items packaged in plastic bottles, tubs and packaging. Order something online, and your product may arrive shrink-wrapped in plastic. Not only that, but plastic is often part or all of the product itself, be it kids’ toys, holiday decorations or one of our ubiquitous electronic devices. So, how does one responsibly dispose of all this plastic?

Author: Dharna Noor

A national online recycling directory for plastic bags and films has been taken offline, six months after an investigation by ABC News found some materials were ending up in landfills, incinerators and other waste facilities. The directory previously directed users to some 18,000 store drop-off locations around the country where they could bring used plastic bags and packaging to be recycled, including Walmart and Target locations. The initiative was promoted by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and local and state governments across the country.