Widespread use of plastics, outside of the military, did not occur until after World War II. The ensuing rapid growth in plastics production is extraordinary, surpassing most other man-made materials. Its largest market is packaging, an application whose growth was accelerated by a global shift from reusable to single-use containers. As a result, the share of plastics in municipal solid waste (by mass) increased from less than 1% in 1960 to, according to the EPA, more than 12.2% by 2018.
The amount of plastic entering the ocean is on the rise: every year, 8 million metric tons of plastics are added to the estimated 150 million metric tons already circulating, affecting 700 species.
The problem with plastic is that it never fully decomposes, and as it degrades, it emits greenhouse gases. These microplastics disrupt the food chain and kill oceanlife.
To address the plastic epidemic Boyan Slat, at age 18, founded the Ocean Cleanup to remove plastic from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the largest accumulation of ocean plastic in the world. By 2025, the Ocean Cleanup project hopes to cut the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in half.
Ocean pollution also comes in through a number of additional outlets such as sewage, industrial and agricultural runoff, garbage dumping, and chemical spills. Pesticide and fertilizer runoff are creating huge dead zones — oxygen-depleted areas where many marine species struggle to survive. The world’s largest dead zone, located in the Gulf of Mexico, is roughly the size of Connecticut.
By Christopher Flavelle 01/01/23
Climate change is contributing to electric-green algae blooms. Massachusetts wants a cleanup of the antiquated septic systems feeding the mess, but it could cost billions....
By Raymond Zhong 11/09/22
A nonprofit backed by Al Gore and other big environmental donors says it can track emissions down to individual power plants, oil fields and cargo ships.
By Antonio Olivo 08/08/22
The Washington region is growing — a metropolis of nearly 6 million people where area officials are pressing to build another 320,000 homes by the end of this decade. And with that growth comes an…
By Laura Parker 04/26/22
A few years ago, as microplastics began turning up in the guts of fish and shellfish, the concern was focused on the safety of seafood. Shellfish were a particular worry, because in their case, unlike…
By Karen Shapiro and Emma Zhang 04/26/22
Typically when people hear about plastic pollution, they might envision seabirds with bellies full of trash or sea turtles with plastic straws in their noses. However, plastic pollution poses another threat that’s invisible to the…
By Ethan Howland 03/11/22
The Environmental Protection Agency is preparing to issue a series of proposals covering air, water and waste pollution from power generators, especially coal-fired power plants, EPA Administrator Michael Regan said Thursday.
By Dino Grandoni 03/10/22
Previewing a suite of new fossil fuel rules, Michael Regan said more needs to be done to clean up the air and water around power plants
By David Vetter 03/02/22
There were whoops of joy and applause as assembled heads of state and representatives from around the world agreed Wednesday to draw up an international treaty to end the growing global tide of plastic pollution.
By Seth Borenstein 12/01/21
America needs to rethink and reduce the way it generates plastics because so much of the material is littering the oceans and other waters, the National Academy of Sciences says in a new report.
By Tik Root 12/01/21
The United States ranks as the world’s leading contributor of plastic waste and needs a national strategy to combat the issue, according to a congressionally mandated report released Tuesday.
By Tina Casey 07/28/21
As Plastic-Free July draws to a close, the looming ocean plastic crisis is still growing by the day. However, there is light at the end of the tunnel. A new scientific study indicates that solutions…
By Sarah Kaplan 06/25/21
Climate change raises the risk from failing sewage systems. So Catherine Coleman Flowers is working for a new way to deal with waste.
05/19/21
Surfrider Foundation is working closely with allies in the Capitol to reintroduce bold federal legislation to tackle the plastic pollution crisis.
10/01/20
First-of-its-kind modeling analysis describes actions needed to stop plastic from entering the ocean.
11/18/19
Fighting for Trash Free Seas.
11/18/19
We’re here to clean the ocean and coastlines while working to stop the inflow of plastic by changing consumption habits.
11/14/19
Parley for the Oceans addresses major threats towards our oceans, the most important ecosystem of our planet. We believe the power for change lies in the hands of the consumer – given we all have a…
11/13/19
Plastic Pollution Coalition is a growing global alliance of more than 1,000 organizations, businesses, and thought leaders in 60 countries working toward a world free of plastic pollution and its toxic impact on humans, animals,…
11/13/19
The Ocean Cleanup’s mission is to develop advanced technologies to rid the world’s oceans of plastic. A full-scale deployment of our systems is estimated to clean up 50 % of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch…
By The Financial Express 05/19/21
A move to reduce pollution of the air by ships, ironically, seems to be driving up water pollution, notes a report in Science. Sulphur from ships’ exhaust is a significant contributor to ozone depletion. International…
By EJ Deuel 05/18/21
Everyone contributes to pollution: me, you, your mom, your employer, even those who work against pollution. You see all over the news stories about global warming and the massive effects of pollution. But most people…
By Reuters 05/18/21
Production of single-use plastics is set to grow 30% in the next five years, fueling their contribution to global warming and ocean pollution, researchers said Tuesday as they published a list of companies that manufacture…
By Angelo Young 05/18/21
In the 1967 coming-of-age rom-com “The Graduate,” a family friend tells recent college graduate Benjamin Braddock (played by a young Dustin Hoffman) that he should pursue a future in the plastics industry. In the scene,…
By Andrew S. Lewis 05/17/21
Each year just over 283,000 pounds of plastic waste are carried by the Delaware River and ultimately dumped in the ocean. That puts the Delaware at the low end of the 1,656 rivers the authors…
By Emma Bryce 05/10/21
There’s an incomprehensible amount of plastic in the ocean – estimates put the known total at 5 trillion individual pieces, or around 150 million tonnes. An additional 8 million tonnes finds its way into the…
By Boyan Slat 05/06/21
Close to 700 marine species are now known to be harmed by plastic, of which more than 100 are endangered. Its economic impact on coastal communities is estimated to be up to 19 billion USD…
By Olivia Rosane 05/03/21
A new study published in Science Advances Friday found that 80 percent of the plastic that enters the world's oceans via rivers comes from more than 1,000 waterways. That's as much as 100 times the…
By Laura Bult 04/27/21
A lot of the plastic we consume ends up in the ocean due to man-made causes, such as poor waste management practices. Some of it ends up there because of natural disasters. There’s a lot…
By Elinor Aspegren 04/22/21
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Wednesday that a team of scientists hauled 47.2 tons of marine debris out of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument in the North Pacific Ocean.
By S C Johnson 04/04/21
Plastic Bank®, a social enterprise revolutionizing the global supply chain for recycled ocean-bound plastic, announced today it has reached the significant milestone of stopping 1 billion plastic bottles from entering the world’s oceans. Plastic Bank’s…
By Winnie Lou and Margaret Murphy 03/30/21
Ocean plastic pollution is an urgent and global problem. The Pew Charitable Trusts’ recent report, “Breaking the Plastic Wave,” and accompanying paper in the journal Science, provides the results of an ambitious modeling effort to understand…
By Emma Bryce 03/05/21
Oysters and clams are some of nature’s most efficient feeders: these shellfish slurp up gallons of water, sieving out food and nutrients as they go, and repurposing some of those raw materials to make their…
Rasha Aridi 01/04/21
The transformation from blue to shades of yellow and green raises concerns that waterways have been increasingly imperiled since 1984
By Hannah Seo 12/21/20
Out on the deck of a research boat, Tara Yacovitch looked out to the water. In the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, the seascape is peppered with lights. And every light is part of…
By Sarah Kaplan 12/17/20
Climate change raises the risk from failing sewage systems. So Catherine Coleman Flowers is working for a new way to deal with waste.
By Catrin Einhorn 11/19/20
A new report examines how plastic waste affects marine wildlife.
By Nina Siegal 05/27/20
A data-driven media installation, created to reflect marine conditions around the world, has altered with the slowing human activity.
By Damian Carrington 05/22/20
The abundance of microplastic pollution in the oceans is likely to have been vastly underestimated, according to research that suggests there are at least double the...
By Hugo Kugiya 05/13/20
FRED, a solar-powered catamaran built by the organization Clear Blue Sea, retrieves marked water bottles during a test run in Mission Bay in San Diego. (Sandy Huffaker for The Washington Post)
By Julie Dermansky 01/18/20
Wilson described the occasion as “day one of the zero discharge settlement.” As of that date, Formosa could be fined up to $15,000 a day if it were found still discharging nurdles. That would put…
12/23/19
Efforts to clean up U.S. waterways are helping bring back seagrass beds.
11/13/19
Plastic is building up in the areas of the ocean where fish feed and grow, according to research.
By Matt Simon 11/12/19
Fish larvae off the coast of Hawaii are mistaking tiny pieces of plastic for prey, an alarming finding with big implications for the oceanic food web....
By Kathleen Toner 10/17/19
Afroz Shah, a lawyer in Mumbai, hasn't had a weekend off in four years. But he hasn't spent this time writing briefs or preparing for court. His mission? Saving the world's oceans from plastic pollution.
10/15/19
Thanks to algae’s natural talent for sucking pollutants and toxins out of water, the tiles offer a passive, accessible way to clean wastewater. ...
10/11/19
In the past few years, microplastics— small pieces of plastic up to 5 millimeters in size—have been getting a lot of attention, but not all studies are created equal.As scientists, we need to strengthen our…
By Jordan Davidson 10/07/19
A baby sea turtle that washed ashore in Boca Raton, Florida last week had 104 pieces of plastic in it stomach. The plastic products ranged from wrappers to balloons to bottle labels to twist ties…
By Michel Martin 10/05/19
That giant pile of plastic trash in the ocean just got a little smaller. Dutch inventor Boyan Slat's Ocean Cleanup project recently collected its first plastic from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
By Katie Pyzyk E.A. Crunden 10/02/19
A multi-pronged piece of federal legislation known as the "Save Our Seas 2.0 Act" (collectively S.1982) recently made multiple advancements, despite recent opposition. Two bills (S.2260 and S.2372) were passed in their respective U.S. Senate…
09/22/19
For more than a century farmers in California's Central Valley have been pumping water out of the ground — so much so that the land is slowly sinking, a process known as subsidence. In less…
By Brian Bienkowski 09/19/19
Contaminated drinking water—most of which currently meets legal quality standards—could cause an estimated 100,000 cancer cases in the U.S., according to a new report.The study—which was published today in the journal HeliyonHeliyon and looked at…
09/07/19
In the mid-1950s, domesticated cats in Minamata, Japan mysteriously began to convulse and fall into the bay. The people of Minamata took on similar symptoms shortly after, losing their ability to speak, move, and think....
08/23/19
Long-distance swimmer Ben Lecomte is helping collect scientific samples in a vortex of ocean plastic....
By Sharyn Alfonsi 08/18/19
Discarded plastic is piling up around the world and pooling in the ocean. Sharyn Alfonsi reports on the problem's deadly consequences for wildlife and what can be done to stop it
By Pam Wright 08/15/19
Two recent studies found microplastics in remote, seemingly pristine settings.
08/12/19
Researchers suspect a key source of the microfibers might be clothing fibers washed into the water from household laundry. They are testing other Minnesota lakes to gauge the impact on wildlife....
08/12/19
A new study shows how toxic waters from Chicago may be preventing the expansion of an invasive fish into the Great Lakes....
08/02/19
Plastic pollution in lakes and rivers is on the research back burner—that's a problem.That's according to a new study in the journal Water, Air, and Soil Pollution that tallies research on plastics in the oceans…
08/02/19
A teenage boy from Ireland may have found a way to rescue our oceans from plastic pollution....
07/01/19
Ocean Voyages Institute cleaned up the floating debris from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, but it probably barely made a dent. It's estimated that 1.15 to 2.41 million tons of plastic enter the ocean each…
By Olga R. Rodriguez / AP 06/28/19
Until recently we didn’t know how much plastic was piling up around us. When we found out, the picture wasn’t pretty
By Hannah Fry 06/27/19
If there was one upside to the severe drought that plagued California for seven years, it was how the lack of rain and dirty runoff improved beach water quality. But ocean pollution has surged once…
By Susie Cagle 06/24/19
Until recently we didn’t know how much plastic was piling up around us. When we found out, the picture wasn’t pretty
By Maria Bolevich 06/17/19
Many plastics float, block sunlight, and do not degrade—a recipe for altering the physical properties of the water underneath.
By Simon Denyer 06/16/19
Environment ministers from the Group of 20 on Sunday recognized an urgent need to tackle the marine plastic litter that’s choking the world’s oceans, but failed to agree on concrete measures or targets to phase…
By Tara Lohan 06/14/19
A sweeping “circular economy” bill in the California legislature aims to drastically reduce plastic waste and boost domestic recycling.
05/23/19
By Brett WaltonWhen Greg Wetherbee sat in front of the microscope recently, he was looking for fragments of metals or coal, particles that might indicate the source of airborne nitrogen pollution in Rocky Mountain National…
By Yasemin Saplakoglu 05/21/19
The amount of plastic pollution previously thought to exist around the world may be a dramatic underestimate — because the vast majority of plastic pollution may actually be below the surface.
04/29/19
Citizens Climate Radio Ep. 35: Plastic pollution and heavy metal Citizens’ Climate Radio is a monthly podcast hosted by CCL volunteer Peterson Toscano. Browse all our past episode recaps here, or listen to past episodes…
