Microplastics

New research explores the scaling of waste production in urban systems, finding that solid waste increases linearly with population growth, while wastewater and greenhouse gas emissions scale differently. This highlights the need for improved waste management strategies in growing urban areas and the development of a new science of waste to ensure sustainability and reduce environmental impact.Waste is an inherent outcome of life on Earth and the functioning of human economies. Over time, living systems have adapted to…

Credit: Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology (2024). DOI: 10.1080/10643389.2023.2301052 In today's world, plastics are used extensively due to their favorable properties and affordable costs. The widespread use of these non-biodegradable materials, however, makes them a waste management nuisance and global environmental concern. It is estimated that by 2050, approximately 12 billion metric tons of plastic…

This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here.Rainn Wilson Would Love to Play ____ in Live Action | io9 InterviewOver the past several years, U.S. cities and states have passed hundreds of policies restricting the sale and distribution of single-use plastic bags. A new report says these laws have largely succeeded in their goal of reducing plastic bag use. The report — copublished by three nonprofits, Environment America, U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund, and…

This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here.Mississippi’s Water Crisis | Extreme EarthAt this point, it’s common knowledge that bottled water contains microplastics — fragments of the insidious material that can be as small as a bacterial cell. But the problem is much worse than previously known: It turns out that bottled water harbors hundreds of thousands of even tinier pieces of the stuff.A paper published Monday used a novel technique to analyze one-liter samples of bottled…

Scientists are finding microplastics unnervingly close to developing fetuses during pregnancy.In just the past few years, preliminary research has turned up microscopic bits of plastic floating in a few dozen samples of human placenta – the organ that provides oxygen and nutrients to a growing fetus.A new analysis on donated placental tissues now expands on those results and hints at an alarming trend.When researchers at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, the Kapiʻolani Medical Center for Women & Children, and…

As Hurricane Larry curved north in the Atlantic in 2021, sparing the eastern seaboard of the United States, a special instrument was waiting for it on the coast of Newfoundland. Because hurricanes feed on warm ocean water, scientists wondered whether such a storm could pick up microplastics from the sea surface and deposit them when it made landfall. Larry was literally a perfect storm: Because it hadn’t touched land before reaching the island, anything it dropped would have been scavenged from the water or air, as…

Dalhousie researchers collected air samples in Newfoundland during 2021's Hurricane Larry to better understand how microplastics travel through the atmosphere. Credit: Anna Ryan/Dalhousie University When a hurricane approaches and crosses land, severe damage can occur—often leaving an obvious trail of physical destruction. What's less obvious to the naked eye is how these storms can carry harmful microplastics across the world.…

As Hurricane Larry lashed Newfoundland in 2021, university students from Halifax headed to a rural area in its track to find out whether the ocean might whip microplastics up into the atmosphere then transport them by air to otherwise pristine communities.The results, you could say, blew their socks off."It was such, like, an astonishing result that we weren't really expecting," said Anna Ryan, a Dalhousie University environmental science masters student and the study's lead researcher. To test their theory, the…

A study quantifies the atmospheric emission of microplastics from sea spray, revealing that oceans release between 0.02 to 7.4 million tons of microplastics annually, necessitating detailed ocean microplastics inventories for accurate assessment. A new study quantifies how much microplastic is sent into the air from ocean spray. When sea bubbles pop, they launch tiny particles, like salt or organic fragments, into the atmosphere. This activity transfers a considerable amount of material, which can impact the world’s…

Schematic illustration of micro/nanoplastics captured by algae-based biohybrid robots. Credit: Diogo Pinheiro This week, we reported on new developments in lithium-ion batteries, and a real industrial pollution hat trick with stories on coal, lead and microplastics. Batteries changed In a display of Monday-morning quarterbacking of…