In the fight against pollution, several regions in the U.S. have banned the use of plastic straws. Alternative materials exist, but most options are either too expensive to scale up, go limp in drinks ...

Hundreds of millions of plastic utensils end up in landfills every year, each with a design as bland as the food it once served. Engineers have concocted biodegradable plastics made from plants to ...

Regular, petroleum-based plastic doesn’t biodegrade. But this year’s crop of Earth Day — inspired ads shows plant-based plastics doing just that: an empty SunChips bag fading into the soil, a Paper ...

Motivated by our growing problem with plastics, which are environmentally damaging both to produce and after they're disposed of, scientists are tinkering away with more eco-friendly forms of the ...

Plastic-free alternatives to some common products. Metal straws, canvas shopping bags, glass cups and metal water bottles are all products that aim to reduce the use of single-use plastics that are ...

A new study suggests that bioplastics—plastics that are made from biological material instead of from petroleum and/or are engineered to be biodegradable—contain as many toxic chemicals as ...

In the summer of 2021, researchers from the nonprofit 5 Gyres carried a crate filled with samples of plastic trash to a dock in Long Beach, California. Inside mesh bags were 22 different items (from ...

With rising risk to the environment and human health, the race for biodegradable plastics is gaining pace—with several projects under way at Flinders University in South Australia. Published in ...

Plastic waste is a major problem in the world's oceans, which is why some groups have developed bioplastics that break down in the sea. Even those aren't entirely eco-friendly, though, which is why ...

In a potential milestone for space exploration, scientists have successfully grown algae under simulated Martian conditions using equipment made from biodegradable bioplastics — a step that could ...