Plastic pollution is a globally recognized problem, with an estimated 322 million metric tons produced in 2016, excluding plastic fiber production. When evaluating the risks three main sources of microplastics (MPs) should be considered; polymer nanoparticles manufactured for specific purposes like cosmetic products, fragmentation of plastics caused by different types of degradation, and wastewater treatment…
Read more
Experts believe that lost and discarded fishing-related gear is the most treacherous form of marine plastic, persisting in the marine environment for hundreds of years, continuing to catch fish and causing entanglement of marine wildlife, including birds and mammals. This is an important issue in the Northern Periphery and Arctic (NPA) region, where many remote communities…
Read more
Un equipo de investigadores del Instituto Alfred Wegener (AWI) del Centro Helmholtz de Investigaciones Polares y Marinas (Alemania) halló altas cantidades de microplásticos en el Ártico. Las muestras que recogieron para analizar en cinco regiones en el Océano Ártico contenían hasta 12.000 partículas microplásticas por litro de hielo marino. Su huella en el hielo ha…
Read more
David Attenborough’s BBC documentary series Blue Planet II caught the attention of viewers around the world last year with its shocking insight into how plastic waste is harming fish, marine animals and birds. According to a study published last year in the Science Advances journal, we have produced 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic in the past six decades,…
Read more
Researchers from the Università di Cagliari have studied the status of marine litter abundance along fishing grounds surrounding the island of Sardinia (CW Mediterranean Sea; FAO Geographical Sub-Area 11) through three years of trawl surveys. A total of 302 hauls, covering a total of 18.4 km2 of trawled surface were carried out in the framework of the MEDITS campaign, at…
Read more
Do you feel uneasy when you buy a coffee in a takeaway plastic cup? Perhaps you feel awkward buying that bottle of water? We hope so, because raising awareness of what plastic waste is doing to our oceans, our wildlife and ourselves is what UN Environment’s #CleanSeas campaign has been all about since its launch…
Read more
James Longcroft, a Scottish inventor, has created a disposable water bottle that disintegrates into nothing in salt water in just three weeks. Essentially a paper bottle with a biodegradable, waterproof liner, it is being considered a major breakthrough in combating the trash problem that is plaguing our oceans. With trash-islands the size of Texas being discovered and monitored in the…
Read more
The Ocean Cleanup is designing and developing the first feasible method to rid the world’s oceans of plastic. Every year, millions of tons of plastic enter the ocean. A significant percentage of this plastic drifts into large systems of circulating ocean currents, also known as gyres. Once trapped in a gyre, the plastic will break…
Read more
Scientists are preparing to launch the world’s first machine to clean up the planet’s largest mass of ocean plastic. The system, originally dreamed up by a teenager, will be shipped out this summer to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, between Hawaii and California, and which contains an estimated 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic. It will be the…
Read more
Consultation to start later this year as Theresa May continues drive against single-use plastic waste Cotton buds, plastic drinking straws and other single-use plastics could be banned from sale in England next year in the next phase of the campaign to try to halt the pollution of the world’s rivers and oceans. Theresa May hopes…
Read more
PT
ES
FR