According to the official OECD estimates on global plastic pollution, out of all the plastic waste generated per annum, only 9% is recycled. The rest contaminates water bodies, soil, the air we ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. It was hailed as a wonderful thing: During the oil boom in the 1950s, chemists began to render the waste coming out of refineries ...

The average amount of plastic packaging waste generated by a single EU citizen per year is 36 kilograms. Longer-term projections are equally grim, with the amount of plastic waste estimated to triple ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. New research might make you rethink that gum habit. Chewing gum, whether natural or synthetic, contains plant-based or synthetic ...

Plastics are widely used but difficult to degrade, posing an ecological challenge. A team from SIAT developed degradable "living plastics" using synthetic biology and polymer engineering. They ...

Materials scientists are cooking up environmentally friendly polymers from natural sources like silk, plant fibers and whole algae. Economics and acceptance remain hurdles. By Boyce Upholt / Knowable ...

A tractor making piles of compost. Firms are developing bacteria and enzymes that might one day be used to break down microplastics in compost. Credit: Shutterstock Synthetic polymers have been on the ...

Concerns surrounding plastic, particularly microplastics and synthetic microfiber, pollution are growing. As federal and state governments continue to focus on this issue, lawsuits seeking to hold ...