Biodegradable plastic

Photo: Spencer Platt (Getty Images)This story was originally published by Grist. You can subscribe to its weekly newsletter here.As international negotiators began hammering out the details of a global plastics treaty last week, legislators in the United States were busy unveiling a domestic policy to address the plastic pollution crisis.A new bill introduced by four congressional Democrats on Thursday takes aim at plastic manufacturers in an attempt to reduce the country’s reliance on single-use plastics. If passed, the…

Compostable plastic that has not fully disintegrated in a compost bin. Photo: Citizen scientist image from www.bigcompostexperiment.org.ukSeemingly every corner of our world is now littered with plastics, and only a tiny percentage of it is ever recycled. To mitigate this, many companies are offering items labeled as “compostable” or “biodegradable” plastic—but as new research finds, those may be a misnomers. 01:25Randall Park's Favorite SuperheroesMonday 5:02PMA study published this week in Frontiers in Sustainability by…

Photo: MikeDotta (Shutterstock)Most bioplastics can’t be put into the same municipal recycling streams as other plastics, since they can contaminate the other plastics and make the whole batch unusable. Many consumer-facing bioplastics, however, can be composted: unlike traditional plastic, a cup made out of some types of bioplastic could be broken down by microbes under the right conditions. In theory, that’s incredibly cool, and may make you feel better about buying something plastic: it won’t last as long in the…