Try to go an hour without touching something plastic. Come on, I dare you. The stuff is everywhere. Think about it. Everything from your toilet seat to the electronic devices you constantly use ...

Microplastics are turning up in oceans, soil, drinking water, and human tissue. Learn where they come from, why they matter, ...

Researchers led by Takuzo Aida at the RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS) in Japan have one-upped themselves in ...

C&EN’s latest podcast, Inflection Point, leans on our 100-year archive to trace headline topics in science today back to their disparate and surprising roots. In each episode, we explore three ...

We don’t often think of our clothing as plastic, but much of it is. Polyester, nylon, acrylic and other synthetic fibers are commonplace in the blended fabrics we wear every day. As a result, textiles ...

Plastic pollution is destroying oceans — but in some places, marine life is adapting to it. From floating ecosystems on trash islands to corals growing on abandoned nets, the ocean is turning waste ...

The surging tide of microplastics is already an environmental and health threat, but as the world heats up — driving increasingly extreme weather — it’s transforming them into “more mobile, persistent ...

How did we get here? How did this revolutionary material invade every aspect of our lives and drive a global consumer culture of "make, take, and waste"? How can we break the cycle before it’s too ...

Upward of 57 million tons of plastic pollution ends up in the environment each year, the majority of which comes from uncollected and unmanaged waste, new research found. Researchers at the University ...

With conventional waste management systems falling short, many scientists are turning to nature for innovative solutions to the issue of plastic waste. One promising avenue is microbial degradation: ...