A new study has confirmed the presence of microplastic contaminants in Jhelum river, locally known as Vyeth, in Jammu and Kashmir. The study suggests that improper municipal solid waste (MSW)…
Plastic is pervasive in our lives – now in everything, everywhere, all at once. But plastic’s most sinister avatar is the one that’s barely visible - microplastic. It is less…
A new study by scientists from Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Bhopal investigated the effect of anthropogenic waste on the construction of birds’ nests and recommended limiting…
Thamirabarani is a perennial river in south India that flows through the districts of Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu. Originating from the Western Ghats, the life-giving river dribbles, sprints…
Sitting near her thatched hut, Achikkannu reaches for a set of dried palmyra (Borassus flabellifer) leaves kept on a fence, made of broken fishing nets. She cuts the leaves into…
A new study by the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata, found the first record of plastiglomerates in the Indian sub-continent on Aves Island in the Andaman archipelago.…
At the 68th International Whaling Commission conference (IWC68) in Slovenia in October, member nations adopted a resolution to support international negotiations on a treaty to tackle plastic pollution. Countries will…
Public outreach campaigns educate consumers with compelling data and storytelling about carbon footprints, natural resource scarcity, and climate change. Data appeals to our intellect and stories appeal to our emotions.…
At the beginning of March, the world agreed to move forward on a landmark international agreement to control plastic pollution. Now the real work begins on vigorously turning that consensus…
Plastics today are blighted, as their impact on the environment has now been exposed. But it was not always so. In 1869, the first synthetic polymer named celluloid - marked…
Plastics, which are infinitely useful materials, are ever present in our lives today. A quick look around one’s house, whether in a city or in a village, will confirm this…
Plastics are the Anthropocene era’s ultimate convenience. The more mundane uses of plastics in our lives range from kitchenware, storage containers, and packaging materials to toys and small tools that…
Most of us forget about our waste once it is discarded into dustbins or municipal garbage trucks. Municipalities and waste management companies are only at the tip of an iceberg…
New human-made chemicals and synthetic pollutants constantly enter production across the world even as many thousands of these chemicals are already circulating throughout the planet. There's so many, in fact,…
As the COVID-19 pandemic brought sweeping changes to lifestyles, it also altered an important but seldom thought-of aspect of human existence – trash. The pandemic has drastically changed the types and…
Several reports and assessments in the recent past have tracked the sharp growth of plastic pollution and canvassed for the need to tackle plastic pollution at a global level. There…
Over the last decade, the waste industry has been quietly growing. Given the growing rates of trash generation, this is hardly a surprise. In 2012, the world generated 1.3 billion…
The largest division on the geological time scale (GTS), which depicts distinct time periods in geological history, is called eons. Eons are further divided into eras, which are divided further…
Plastic is a boon to many industries as a versatile material that can be moulded into myriad products from simple packaging bags to life-saving medical devices. When a plastic product…
In an effort to identify plastic accumulation and leakage hotspots along the Ganges river, a recent project in three north Indian cities found that roughly 10–25% of all the plastic…
