Ocean plastics

The Ocean Cleanup Project has made a significant tweak to its design, switching from a passive device to one powered by active propulsion, which the team sees as a far more efficient and effective way of removing plastic waste from the ocean.

A new study paints a startling picture of how the evolutionary habits of juvenile turtles lure them into the most polluted parts of the ocean, demonstrated by the discovery of plastic in the stomachs of young turtles around the coast of Australia.

Such is the magnitude of our plastic pollution problem that cleaning beaches is a tough ask. The BeBot is a robot designed to tackle this problem, sifting through sand to gather up waste while making a minimal impact on the environment.

Back in January, we covered an autonomous plastic trash collector called Clearbot that was designed to remove waste from local waterways. Now the startup behind the project has partnered with gaming titan Razer for an updated design.

Commissioned to design a sustainable floating hotel, Margot Krasojević Architects produces a proposal that's unconstrained by practicalities. The designer envisions making use of the massive amounts of plastic in the ocean as a building material.

Modern scientific techniques are rapidly improving our understanding of how plastic pollution can impact marine organisms, and a new study has demonstrated how they can also be used to understand the plight of creatures past.

When you see plastic trash washed up on the shore, don't you wish there was something you could do? Besides just picking it up, that is? Well, a new app may soon be able to determine where that garbage came from, so action can be taken.

As millions of tons of plastic wash into the ocean everyday, scientists have their work cut out for them in trying to keep tabs on its whereabouts, but an algorithm that can detect and quantify marine litter through aerial imagery could help.

A group of scientists studying the flow of plastic into the ocean have found that the Ganges and two nearby rivers are responsible for pumping as much as three billion microplastic particles into the Indian Ocean each day.

Although cleaning up the humungous Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a daunting concept, removing trash from local waterways is much more feasible … and that's exactly what the Clearbot robot is designed to do.

A new study has highlighted a key link in the chain of how plastic pollution travels, demonstrating how microplastics can be swept across the surface of the seas by winds that carry them upward into the atmosphere, and into remote parts of the ocean.

A new study as shone a light on the role deep-sea trenches can play in the movement of plastic pollution, revealing how they can act as traps, accumulating large amounts of microplastic particles and holding them there.