Biodegradable plastics can break down naturally through the action of living organisms such as bacteria. They are made from renewable sources such as corn starch or sugar cane and don’t linger in the ...

BPA, PET, HDPE. You’re trying to do the right thing by recycling, following health alerts and shopping wisely, but you’re not fluent in molecular chemistry. So how do you decipher exactly what it all ...

Plastic was designed to last, and it has delivered on that promise a little too well. After decades of treating packaging, ...

Starting with billions of molecules of monomer in a reactor, heat and pressure are applied in the presence of catalysts, causing one of the monomer double bonds to rearrange into two "half-bonds," one ...

In 1950, global plastic production was about 2 million tons. It’s now about 400 million tons – an increase of nearly 20,000%. As a material, it has seemingly limitless potential. Plastic is ...

A new California law went into effect Jan. 1 that limits the types of plastics donning the recycling symbol. Senate Bill 343, signed into law Oct. 5, is designed to inform consumers of what is and is ...

Led by Ocean Conservancy researchers, the paper is the most comprehensive study yet to quantify the extent to which a range of plastic types—from soft, flexible plastics like bags and food wrappers; ...

Remember that old polyester base layer you could never get clean, the one stuffed back in your closet because every time you put it on it smelled like you just got back from a five-day backpacking ...

When you shop through retailer links on our site, we may earn affiliate commissions. 100% of the fees we collect are used to support our nonprofit mission. Learn more. Most of the plastics that ...