When Plastic Becomes Public Infrastructure What if plastic waste could help cities stay cooler? Across Africa, innovative projects are exploring how discarded plastic can be transformed into useful ...

AI-designed plastic-eating enzymes now break down PET in hours in the lab, yet the first industrial plant is on hold. A balanced look at what the evidence shows.

Plastic is everywhere..we are drowning in waste and it has huge health implications. It is not acceptable. The government has introduced the extended producer responsibility (EPR) under which almost all manufactures, importers and brand owners have 100 per cent collection target and as per records, the country has recycled 4-5 years of all the plastic waste it has produced. The revenue is equal to 4 Chandrayaan missions. So, what is happening..why then do we still see plastic waste? Let’s do a little deep dive into this EPR system and what is is adding up to, or not. I am Sunita Narain, this is my show. Please do like, do share and do subscribe. It gives me the courage to continue, knowing that I am able to make a difference. Let’s explore plastic and why the waste is everywhere, despite the EPR system and what then needs to be done India has recycled 17 million tonnes of plastic packaging waste since 2022, when the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regime came into force, according to latest data from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). If we estimate the value of this plastic recycling trade it is a whopping Rs 2500 crore (or...

Rising plastic waste is placing Bangladesh’s rivers under growing pressure, threatening aquatic ecosystems, fisheries, biodiversity and river-dependent livelihoods amid gaps in waste management. Bangladesh’s rivers are increasingly being burdened by plastic waste. Every day large quantities of plastic bags, food packaging materials, bottles and other plastic garbage generated from urban areas, industrial zones and residential areas are entiring rivers through canals, drains, and waterways. The growing pollution is interrupting river environment while posing serious threats to water species, fish reproduction areas, biodiversity and public health. According to the World Bank, Bangladesh generates around 977,000 tonnes plastic waste yearly. nearly 70 percent of this worst remains outside proper waste management system. A significant portion of this unmanaged waste is dumped in open areas, burned, or eventually reaches rivers, canals, and other water bodies through various canals. Insufficient waste management systems, rapid urbanization, increasing use of single-use plastics and lack of infrastructure are worsening the plastic pollution crisis in the country’s rivers. Plastic use in Bangladesh has increased alongside changing lifestyle and urban growth. World Bank data shows that per person use in urban areas rose from around 3 kilogram in 2005 to 9 kilograms in 2020. The situation is more severe...

More plastic packaging was collected for recycling last year, but the rate remained below the 50% target, according to the Recycling Fund’s 2025 annual report, reported by mbl.is. The rate was 39%, up 35% from the previous year’s 27%. The fund recorded a loss of more than 136 million krónur in 20…

The average child born in the UK in the 1950s was toilet trained by the age of two years and four months. Five decades later, the average child wouldn’t reach that milestone until after their third birthday. Those statistics are more than just a curious reflection of changing parenting practices. They also shed light on the growing plastic waste crisis. Later toilet training means more used diapers, and since the diaper market also shifted from mostly cloth to mostly disposable over the same decades, that all adds up to a lot more diapers being tossed in the trash. Today, more than 300,000 diapers are thrown away every minute around the globe. In wealthy countries, the vast majority of disposable diapers and other absorbent hygiene products such as incontinence products and menstrual supplies wind up in a landfill or incinerator. In parts of the world that lack good waste collection systems, diapers are often dumped or burned, resulting in plastic pollution, contaminated water, and the risk of disease. Absorbent hygiene product waste amounts to somewhere between 160 and 200 million metric tons each year and makes up nearly one-tenth of municipal solid waste by weight globally, according to a new paper...

The approach could provide a new way to reuse difficult waste while also helping produce food in places where conventional supplies are limited. Potential applications range from disaster zones on Earth to human missions deep into space. The researchers presented their results at the fall meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) during the "Undergraduate and Graduate Research in Biochemistry and Chemical Biology" symposium at McCormick Place. "Microbes are very clever. So, we are using their traits to solve the problems we created." — Lahiru Jayakody Turning Plastic Waste Into Food Plastic pollution and food insecurity are two major global challenges, and researchers at Southern Illinois University (SIU) Carbondale are exploring whether one problem could help address the other. Their goal is to use microorganisms to convert waste materials into food that people can safely eat. The research grew out of a NASA-led project focused on producing food in the resource-limited conditions of deep space exploration, where astronauts cannot depend on regular shipments from Earth. "We were trying to develop technologies for plastic upcycling to make more valuable products. We thought, why not focus on making food? Because plastic is carbon and food is carbon," explains Associate Professor Lahiru Jayakody...

I would like the Government to ban balloon releases due to the devastating impact, misery and suffering they can cause to marine life and other animals, including swallowing balloons, getting tangled ...

Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed a novel process that transforms polyethylene plastic waste into gasoline and diesel-like fuels using inexpensive aluminum-based molten salts. The method, which operates under relatively mild conditions (below 200 degrees Celsius), breaks down long plastic molecules into smaller hydrocarbons without requiring noble-metal catalysts, organic solvents, or external hydrogen. The process achieves a gasoline yield of approximately 60% and represents a significant advancement over traditional pyrolysis methods that typically require temperatures of 450-500 degrees Celsius. The research team, led by Sheng Dai and Liqi Qiu, utilized advanced analytical techniques including soft X-ray spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance, and neutron scattering to understand the chemical mechanisms involved. They discovered that aluminum-based catalytic sites create highly acidic conditions that split polyethylene chains into smaller fuel molecules. The technology has been patented and published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. The researchers note that while the aluminum-based system is cost-effective and chemically active, it has a limitation: the material is hygroscopic (absorbs water), which can reduce stability. Future work will focus on improving salt stability through confinement methods using halogens or carbon-based materials. This innovation could contribute to U.S. energy security and industrial competitiveness by providing a new pathway for converting plastic waste into valuable transportation fuels. The research was supported by the DOE Office of Science and utilized several DOE user facilities, including the Spallation Neutron Source and the Advanced Light Source.

The plan starts in October 2027 for plastic bottles, metal cans, with Wales set to run separate rules on glass.

Polyethylene is widely used in products such as shopping bags and white plastic cutting boards, and large amounts of it ultimately end up as waste. The ORNL team's method combines the plastic with molten salts containing aluminum chloride. These salts perform two jobs at once, acting as both the reaction medium and the catalyst that drives the chemical conversion. The researchers have applied for a patent for the technology, and the findings were published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. How Molten Salts Break Plastic Into Fuel To understand why the process works, the scientists closely tracked the chemical reactions that convert the polymer into fuel molecules. Using soft X-ray spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance, the team found that charged aluminum atoms bind with three other atoms, creating highly acidic catalytic sites. These sites can attack the long molecular chains that make up polyethylene and split them into smaller hydrocarbon molecules. Additional experiments using isotopic labeling and neutron scattering showed how the structure of the starting polymer influences the resulting fuel. Simpler polymer chains tended to produce gasoline-like compounds, while more complex chains generated diesel-like fuels. If the method can eventually be scaled beyond laboratory experiments, the researchers...

Some submarine canyons never touch a coastline. Some submarine canyons never touch a coastline. Researchers have largely overlooked these canyons when studying ocean trash because they assume that currents carrying litter from shore cannot reach them. About 155 miles (250 km) off Argentina, one of those canyons cuts into the seafloor with no connection to the continental shelf above it. In July and August 2025, cameras went down into it for the first time and filmed 29 pieces of human garbage. Plastic bags, food wrappers, a nylon cord with a hook still attached, and a rubber boot, scattered between 3,675 and 12,533 feet (1,120 and 3,820 meters) below the surface. Even its distance from land couldn’t keep the canyon clean. Litter turned up on most dives Seventeen dives ran from the research vessel Falkor (too), operated by the Schmidt Ocean Institute, using a remotely operated vehicle named SuBastian. The dives reached depths of 2,881 to 12,533 feet (878 to 3,820 meters) and produced roughly 240 hours of video. Litter showed up on 10 of those 17 dives. Of the 29 objects, 27 were plastic and two were rubber. Sediment buried or damaged ten items, while ten sat on the open...

Teach plastic waste education through clear, child-level messages in a rural East Sumba school, linking safer habits, new clean water access and community prevention for children and families.

Specialized microbes convert inedible materials into protein-rich snacks. A cookie made partly from molecules derived from plastic waste sounds more like a warning than a food experiment. But researchers at Southern Illinois University Carbondale are using engineered yeast to transform components of discarded plastic and agricultural waste into proteins, vitamins, fats, flavorings, and other ingredients that could one day help produce food in resource-limited environments. The approach brings together two major challenges: finding useful destinations for plastic waste and developing additional ways to produce food. The work is part of a NASA-led project aimed at producing food for deep-space exploration, where resources are limited. The same technology could eventually have uses on Earth, including in disaster zones. “We were trying to develop technologies for plastic upcycling to make more valuable products. We thought, why not focus on making food? Because plastic is carbon and food is carbon,” explains Associate Professor Lahiru Jayakody. Yeast turns waste into food ingredients The team’s prototype is a protein-rich cookie called µBites, pronounced “microbites.” Rather than putting plastic directly into food, the researchers first break waste materials into smaller chemical components that microbes can consume. Engineered yeasts then rebuild those molecules into compounds useful for...

Since their synthesis by the chemist Leo Hendrik Baekeland and the explanation of their structure by Nobel laureate Hermann Staudinger, and their use since the 19th century, plastics have become convenient materials for daily use and are preferred over glass, which breaks easily. Plastics are manufactured by industry and used every day for their convenience by people, and much more in cities and suburbs than in rural villages. A vast amount of this material is used by the consumer and most of it is thrown away as waste after a single use. India contributes more than 6.5% of the world’s plastic use. According to official estimates, the country’s plastic waste amounts to about 4.1 million metric tonnes per year. However, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has found that India generates 26,000 tonnes of plastic waste every day, which leads to 9.5 million tonnes a year. The major polluters are the cities and their suburbs, although several hundred tonnes of waste are generated in the rural areas as well, where it remains largely uncollected. The CPCB, the non-profit group Plastics-India Foundation, which works on reducing, reusing and recycling plastics, and several private companies have been involved in collecting and reusing...