Plastic

Microplastics are ubiquitous in the marine environment. However, accurately classifying and quantifying them in the oceans has proven challenging for researchers.

"It was very surprising to find microplastics so deep," researcher Winnie Courtene-Jones told Newsweek.

An international team of researchers describeD how deep-sea currents transport and dump large quantities of microplastic across the ocean floor.

Researchers compared LEGO bricks that have washed up to pristine sets from the 1970s and 1980s to calculate their lifespan.

The COVID-19 virus appears to survive longest on plastic (polypropylene) and stainless steel.

Plastic covered in algae and micro-organisms could be releasing a smell that encourages sea turtles to mistake it for food.

Researchers say this could help with the problem of plastic pollution, but not all are convinced.

"This is a big deal," said lead scientist James Tour. "The world throws out 30 percent to 40 percent of all food, because it goes bad, and plastic waste is of worldwide concern."

"While the product was distributed to schools, it resulted from a commercial sale and was not part of the food provided by the USDA for the National School Lunch Program," the FSIS said.

The new estimate based on samples collected in California 8.3 million per cubic meter—not ten as previously calculated.

Sightings included beaked, baleen and sperm whales, and a mother with her very young calf.

The cetacean had died after getting caught in a fishing net⁠. Scientists say the netting had become jammed in the whale's baleen.

Millions of people have taken part in the Plastic-Free July challenge, which asks participants to help reduce their plastic waste by choosing to refuse to use single-use plastics.

Each week, students at the Akshar Foundation School in Assam are asked to bring in 25 recyclable plastic items, which are then transformed into low-cost, durable construction material.

Seagrass and algae, some of their favourite foods, look like plastic.

The beverage giant will test selling cans at restaurants before putting them on supermarket shelves.

On International Record Store Day, mom and pop shops try to tempt music-lovers to their stores in an age when most people stream songs online. 

Once touted as an indestructible magic material, plastics have proven they are, indeed, long lasting - often ending up in our oceans, polluting reefs and killing wildlife. Here's how to help while you travel.

"At restaurant tonight waitress asks if we want straws. Says she has to ask now in fear of THE STRAW POLICE," Nunes tweeted to his 380,000 followers.

These microplastics cause huge problems for marine life and can be colonized by microbes dangerous to humans.

Richard Branson and Fabien Cousteau dove to the bottom of the Blue Hole in December.

Police arrested the woman for armed robbery and aggravated assault.

If someone could collect and recycle all the unrecycled plastic on earth, they would be the richest person on the planet.

"It undoes all our hard work and proves once again that we are using plastic with our eyes closed," author Martin Dorey said.

The woman's family is hoping to transfer her to a hospital in Dallas for a second opinion.

She thought the cow was a sheet of plastic but then realized it had "four legs and was mooing."

Rather than wasting plastics, cold plasma pyrolysis can be used to recover valuable materials, which can be sent directly back into industry.

On average, researchers found 40 pieces of plastic in adult mosquitoes.

It's not uncommon to find stranded dead turtles with guts full of plastic.

Brazilian butt lift procedures have doubled in the past half a decade despite the potentially deadly consequences.