How Safe Is BPA-Free Plastic?
With BPA gone from many plastic products, researchers are concerned about other environmental chemicals, which might cause reproductive harm.
Why Plastic Roads Lead to a Cleaner Ocean
To prevent several millions tons of plastic from flushing into the ocean every year, engineers are paving roads with it.
The Revolutionary Past of Plastics
When plastics were first invented, they seemed to promise a utopian future.
Is Plastic Pollution Depriving Us of Oxygen?
Plastic debris is killing the ocean’s “invisible forests,” which produce ten percent of the oxygen we breathe.
Is the 30-Year-Long Styrofoam War Nearing Its End?
Neither banning nor recycling will rid us of Styrofoam. Can we live without it?
Where are the Biodegradable Alternatives to Plastic?
New polymers meant to either biodegrade or to last longer would reduce waste. So what is taking science so long to create them? Well, it's complicated.
Company Uses Mushrooms to Grow Plastic Alternatives
Plastic has become ubiquitous in our home and work lives, but is a pollutant that won't break down. Mushrooms may provide a sustainable alternative.
Plastic in Your Beer, Toxins in Your Air, and Heavy Metals on Your Doorsteps
From household plastic to industrial waste, anthropogenic activity has created compounds that poison ecosystems from water to air.
How Should We Deal With Plastic Bags?
A proposed 5-cent plastic bag fee was just blocked in New York City. What can be done to effectively reduce plastic bag use?
One Way to a Cleaner Ocean? Plastics!
A new technology allows ships to dredge the ocean for plastic, then compress it into bricks. But plastic recycling has proved difficult in the past.