Author: Victoria Gill

Hermit crabs all over the world, which scavenge shells as armour for their bodies, are turning increasingly to plastic waste instead. The conclusion is based on analysis of photos, taken by wildlife enthusiasts, and published online. Scientists said they were "heartbroken" to see the extent to which the animals were living in our rubbish.

Author: Sidhi Mittal

This is according to the ‘Failing Commitments’ report from Business360, a competitive intelligence firm providing research and analysis services. The analysis is based on data sourced from both the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the revenue filings of companies that committed to the Foundation’s New Plastics Economy Global Commitment in 2018. This initiative, supported by more than 1,000 organisations, aims to address global plastic pollution through collective goals.

Author: University of Utrecht

About half of Europe’s plastic waste is exported to several countries in the Global South, including Vietnam. An Utrecht University research team ventured to Minh Khai Craft Village, the largest recycling hub in Vietnam, to follow the recycling path of European plastic.

Author: Daily Sabah

he Mediterranean region faces a severe threat from plastic pollution, with an average of 229,465 tons of plastic waste added annually, according to warnings from experts. Middle East Technical University (METU) Marine Sciences Institute faculty member professor Ahmet Kıdeyş expressed concerns over the escalating pollution levels in the Mediterranean, comparing it unfavorably to other seas worldwide.

Author: Carolyn Wilke

Microplastics have turned up in some of the most remote places, such as the Antarctic and the summit of Mount Fuji. Yet models of atmospheric transport haven’t been able to fully explain how these plastic bits stray so far from the people that produced them. A new study finds that the shape of microplastics influences the distances they fly (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2023, DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.3c08209). “You find these microplastics worldwide, even far away from likely sources,” says Andreas Stohl, a meteorologist at the University of Vienna and one of the study’s authors. Most of these microplastics seem to be fibers or relatively complex shapes, he says. “But most models assume that particles are spherical.”

Author: Miquéla Thornton

“Big Oil Is in Trouble. Its Plan: Flood Africa With Plastic,” a headline in The New York Times read in 2020. The “trouble” the Times referred to was the decline of fossil fuels amid the climate crisis. “Big Oil” referenced the lobby group the American Chemistry Council (ACC), which includes the likes of Exxon, Dow, Shell, Dupont and Total. As the industry ramps up plastic production to make up for lost profits, the plan was to find somewhere to dump all the waste.

Author: Karen DeWitt

Environmental groups in New York say a top priority in 2024 will be getting a law approved that would cut the amount of plastic packaging in consumer products in half over the 12 years and help combat climate change. It faces fierce opposition from the plastics industry. The bill would also step up recycling efforts and ban a form of plastics recycling known as chemical recycling, which heats the plastic waste to a high temperature and converts it into a form of fossil fuel.

Author: Chris McCrory

WASHINGTON — Aldi, the popular discount grocery chain, will no longer sell plastic shopping bags to customers, becoming the first major retailer in the U.S. to completely eliminate the environmentally-problematic checkout staple. In a statement released earlier this month, Aldi officials said they had met their goal of removing all plastic shopping bags by the end of 2023, eliminating them from the chain's 2,300 stores across the U.S. 

Author: Josh Jackman

Plastics release 1.8 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases per year, which equates to 3.4% of the world’s emissions. That means plastic has a bigger effect on climate change every year than all aviation and shipping. We can’t effectively address climate change without massively reducing the amount of plastic we create, use, and throw away. Here are the main ways in which our addiction to plastic contributes to climate change, and the actions we can all take to help solve this issue.

Author: Bethanie Carney Almroth and Eric Carmona Martinez

Plastic pollution is a menace worldwide. Plastics are now found in every environment on the planet, from the deepest seas to the atmosphere and human bodies. Scientific evidence describing harm to the environment and humans is growing. Hence, the United Nations has resolved to negotiate a legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution.

Author: Katharine Gammon

On the top of Mount Everest, in the Mariana Trench, in the human placenta, and babies’ feces: Plastics are everywhere. They are built to last, and last they do: A plastic bag can endure for 20 years in the environment, and a disposable diaper, soiled or not, up to 200.

Author: Natalie Muller | Neil King

Tiny particles of plastic have spread to every corner of the planet — from the deepest parts of the ocean to the heights of Mount Everest. "We find microplastics in just about every animal species that we've studied," Tamara Galloway, professor of ecotoxicology at the University of Exeter in the UK, told DW.

Author: Angela Symons

The average litre of bottled water has nearly a quarter of a million pieces of microplastics and tiny, invisible nanoplastics, new research has found. These have been detected and categorised for the first time by a microscope using dual lasers. Scientists had long figured there were lots of these microscopic plastic pieces, but until researchers at US universities Columbia and Rutgers did their calculations they never knew how many or what kind.