A Canadian grocery store put embarrassing slogans, such as "Wart Ointment Wholesale" and "Into the Weird Adult Video Emporium," on plastic bags to get customers to use reusable shopping bags.
Many organic farmers rely on plastic as a form of mulch, but it ends up in landfills. Biodegradable plastic could help, but some worry about its long-term effects on soil health and the environment.
As a child on a New York farm, Eben Bayer helped his dad shovel wood chips in the barn. That's where he noticed a stretchy web of fungus that became the basis of his biodegradable packing material.
The move would impose a complete ban on some single-use plastics across the European Union and a reduction on others, aiming to implement most measures by the mid-2020s.
A very small study shows that microplastics are in human waste in many parts of the world. While it's not entirely clear what that means for our health, it might be a sign that we need to pull back.
The giant, U-shaped tube is designed to form a garbage-corralling barrier propelled by wind and waves. Its creator hopes to remove half the plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in five years.
As awareness grows about the environmental toll of single-use plastics, U.S. retailers and regulators alike are finding ways to decrease their use. And straws have become a prime target.
Turning food waste into fertilizer is popular in parts of Europe and is catching on in the U.S. But tiny plastics are also making their way into that fertilizer — and into the food chain.
Manufacturers are not required to disclose whether products contain BPA, which makes it hard to know which kitchen plastics include the additive — or other functionally identical compounds.
Scientists predict that plastic in the ocean will eventually outweigh the fish there. Where is it all coming from? And is it making our food unsafe? Researchers are trying to find the answers.
More than a trillion plastic bags are used annually. They're made of a notoriously resilient kind of plastic called polyethylene – but scientists have found that wax worms are able to break them down.
A scientist estimating the weight of candy wrappers, bags, bottles, syringes and other plastic trash in the world's water sees a synthetic tsunami. Should China and India create more landfills?
