Plastic pollution is a major threat to human survival, with more than six hundred thousand tons of plastics on Earth. 2 In an effort to reduce the concentration of conventional plastics, scientists ...

In a landfill, a plastic bottle can take more than a thousand years to break down. But a new process can transform polyethylene plastic in days, using bacteria to eat the waste and then turn it into a ...

Polystyrene is made from styrene building blocks and is the most widely used plastic in terms of volume, for example in packaging. Unlike PET, which can now be produced and recycled using ...

Plastic is an essential material in the modern world, but it's also environmentally costly to produce and a major pollutant. A material called pyridinedicarboxylic acid, or PDCA, could help address at ...

Scientists have succeeded in synthesizing fumaric acid, a raw material for plastics, from CO2 powered by solar energy. Typically, fumaric acid is synthesized from petroleum as a raw material to make ...

Mango Materials, a California-based company that creates biodegradable polymers for use in plastic products, has been scaling up and commercializing a biomanufacturing technology that utilizes methane ...

Every year, 400 million tons of plastic products are produced worldwide, half of which are single-use items discarded within a year. In particular, non-biodegradable plastic waste, which takes over ...

A radical new process “vaporizes” plastic bags and bottles to help make recycled materials. American scientists say the innovative chemical procedure turns ubiquitous waste items into hydrocarbon ...

Researchers at Virginia Tech have found a way to make biodegradable packaging stronger while using less energy in the process. The research team from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and ...

A new study led by Colorado State University Distinguished Professor Eugene Chen outlines a path to creating advanced, recyclable plastics. Published in Nature, the study describes a breakthrough ...

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Plastic bags and other products now made from petroleum will be made from a new biodegradable corn-based plastic at a new factory to be built in eastern Iowa. Cambridge, Mass.

Not-so-fun fact: our oceans hold 150 times more carbon dioxide than the Earth's atmosphere. Adding to that causes ocean acidification, which can disrupt marine food chains and reduce biodiversity.