A dozen companies are responsible for 70% of the branded packaging pollution found on UK beaches and the environment, charity Surfers Against Sewage has said. Almost 4,000 citizen science volunteers across the UK collected litter along 13,000 miles of coasts, countryside, streets, rivers and green spaces over the past 12 months, producing data […]
Scotland has become the first part of the UK to implement a ban on many of the most problematic single-use plastics, as legislation comes into force. The ban means it will be an offence for businesses in Scotland to provide the items – which include plastic cutlery, plates and stirrers. Around 700 million of these […]
Scientists are calling for the production of new plastics to be capped in a bid to cut pollution and tackle the climate crisis. In March 2022, 175 countries unanimously agreed to adopt a global plastic treaty to stop plastic pollution. Not only is the treaty set to address the issue of plastic waste, but it will address the “full lifecycle of plastics,” from the extraction […]
Tiny particles that rub off of tyres are likely harming freshwater and coastal estuary ecosystems. The first study, published in Chemosphere last month, found that exposure to tyre particles had harmful effects on organisms from coastal estuaries, while the second, published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials, found the same for freshwater organisms. Both studies grow out of […]