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We can now tell the difference between a wide range of plastic types and thereby separate plastics according to their chemical composition. This is absolutely ground-breaking and it will increase the ...

Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily. High-income countries have long sent their waste abroad to be thrown away or recycled ...

Plastics are valued for their durability, but that quality also makes them difficult to break down. Tiny pieces of debris known as microplastics persist in soil, water and air and threaten ecosystems ...

A plastic fishing line might take 600 years to break down in nature or a landfill. A plastic bottle might take 450 years. Dental floss might take decades. But in a Harvard lab, a recently discovered ...

There’s a soap dish for sale at a beauty products shop in São Paulo, Brazil. An off-white disc with a smooth, rounded shape like a river stone, it is just one of millions of plastic soap dishes on ...

A recycler drags a huge bag of paper sorted for recycling through a heap of plastic material at Richmond sanitary landfill site in Zimbabwe. A team of Chinese scientists has converted a common type of ...

Washington — Plastic recycling rates are declining even as production shoots up, according to a Greenpeace USA report out Monday that blasted industry claims of creating an efficient, circular economy ...

Dealing with plastic waste is a real headache. But with a little help, bacteria can turn plastic into a painkiller. The approach could help reduce plastic pollution and curb reliance on the fossil ...

GENEVA (AP) — A Swiss ocean protection group is handing out bars of soap in cardboard boxes, with a simple message that reads: “no dirty tricks, vote for a clean plastics treaty.” Some delegates from ...