Plastic

Polypropylene is one of the most commonly used plastics but there are problems when it comes to recycling. Researchers have developed a new way of breaking down this troublesome plastic by enlisting the help of a couple of common fungi.

Scientists have described a new disease called plasticosis, caused by – you guessed it – plastic waste. So far it's only been identified in the digestive tracts of seabirds, but the scale of the problem suggests it could be widespread in other species.

Greenhouse gases and plastic waste are two of the biggest environmental problems the world faces today. A new reactor from Cambridge tackles both at once, converting CO2 and used plastic bottles into useful materials, powered entirely by sunlight.

A new study documenting the accumulation of microplastic particles on the floor of the Mediterranean Sea has shed some new light on plastic pollution, finding that concentrations of this material on the floor of the Med has tripled since 2000.

Plastics are made to last, which is great while they’re being used but not so great after they’re discarded. Chemists have now developed a new kind of plastic that has all the durability of regular plastic, but biodegrades within months or even days.

Advances in chemistry continue to bring new materials into the realm of recyclability, and new work from a research team at the University of Michigan has taken aim at one of the most problematic to reuse.

Scientists at Stanford University have analyzed microplastic concentrations and the foraging habits of whales off the coast of California, and found that blue whales take in an estimated 10 million pieces of plastic each day.

A new report has looked at activity at a broad range of recycling facilities across the US and found that the vast majority of plastic waste generated by households wound up in landfill, with less than 5% actually recycled.

Plastics can be hard, plastics can be soft, but can plastics be both at the same time? Scientists have been exploring this question and produced a first-of-a-kind material that is pliable in some sections and stiff in others.

Plastic waste is one of the most pressing environmental problems of our time. Now, engineers at MIT have developed an effective new catalyst that breaks down mixed plastics into propane, which can then be burned as fuel or used to make new plastic.

Scientists continue to unearth enzymes that can eat away plastic materials with high efficiency, and a team in Spain has just discovered more in the saliva of wax worms, which have the ability to degrade plastic bags in hours at room temperature.

In a bid to reduce the environmental burden associated with both the manufacturing and disposal of plastics, scientists have demonstrated a new upcycling technique that turns one common form of it into another.