“Take a deep breath. You have just inhaled two to eight microplastic particles”. That is how the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) opens its new report on Microplastics. Microplastic pollution puts agricultural soil, food security, and human health at risk. The report finds that the UK still has no cohesive national strategy, no legally binding reduction targets, and no regulatory limits on the primary pathways through which microplastics enter our environment. Here is ho

Sustainable plastic solutions attempt to solve the plastic problem with innovation. Rather than reducing plastic production and use, ‘sustainable’ bioplastics have been developed, and better waste management processes have been proposed instead. Improved recycling collections have been suggested as a sustainable plastics solution. The more plastic that is appropriately collected, the more plastic gets recycled. However, a more complex system of collection may confuse or demot

Plastic pollution is usually pictured as something outside the body: bottles on beaches, fragments floating in oceans or waste accumulating in landfill. Increasingly, however, scientists are finding evidence of plastic somewhere much closer to home - inside us. As plastic breaks down, it forms microscopic particles known as microplastics and even smaller nanoplastics. Humans can encounter these particles through food, drinking water and the air we breathe. Researchers have no

Biodegradable plastics (a type of bioplastic) have been developed to attempt to mitigate the plastic waste management problem. Plastic once produced, doesn’t just disappear. It’s either sent to landfill, incinerated, recycled (only 9% of plastic has ever been recycled), or ends up polluting the environment. Biodegradable plastics can be broken down by microorganisms into safe by-products such as water, natural gas and biomass. A big concern with biodegradable plastics is whet

From a plastic bottle to microplastic particles, told as if it happened in a single day 6:00 AM It began the workday at 6 AM: filled, capped, handed to someone in a hurry. It held water for twenty minutes, then was put down and, missing the recycling bin by a few steps, dropped into a drain instead. It is made of PET, which is a recyclable plastic engineered to resist breaking down. It is built for permanence, but used within minutes. 9:00 AM Rain carried it to a stream, the

Many of us rely on ready meals to feed ourselves and our families as they’re a convenient way of eating our favourite dishes. Chowing down on these meals regularly can have an adverse effect on your health, but not in the way you might think. Though there’s conflicting evidence on exactly how much is released, a body of research is warning of the plastics that leach into the food from these containers, particularly when they’re heated in the microwave. Fatty food and acidic f

It is generally well known that microplastic particles are found all over our environment, including in the food we eat. Alarmingly, one of the biggest reasons behind that is the textile industry, the third-largest consumer of plastic, standing just behind packaging and construction. Clothing items from familiar fast-fashion brands have been found to contain plastic fibres which not only end up in landfills and oceans, but consequently in our food, seriously impacting our phy

Netflix’s documentary, The Plastic Detox, explores potential health impacts of microplastic exposure in everyday life, focusing on endocrine-disrupting chemicals and fertility. Unlike other plastic documentaries, this one gives an intimate insight into plastic’s effect on human health in their home and town, rather than on plastic pollution in the oceans. It highlights the scarily vast and extensive amount of plastic that is in our daily lives. From the minute you wake up an

In 2026, The Big Plastic Count estimated that the UK bins 82 billion pieces of plastic each year, with over half, 59%, being burnt in the UK. So how much are we consuming? The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) published a report in 2019 based on research that estimated humans ingest around 5g of plastic weekly, a credit card’s worth, equating to around 50 plastic bags annually. A shocking number, shared by news outlets globally, but how true is it? Microplastics are particles

Indonesia is one of the most recent Southeast Asian countries to ban plastic waste imports. Despite the ban, the consequences of plastic waste imports inundating Indonesian communities remain, and they serve as a warning for neighbouring countries yet to impose their own bans. The Indonesian government initially attempted to create livelihoods with the waste imports. Paper mills were to use these imports to source scrap paper to reuse in their production, and local communitie

Plastic is often seen as a miracle material. It certainly has useful properties: it’s durable, versatile and cheap. But what exactly is plastic? Plastics are moldable materials made up of polymers – long chains made from repeating molecules. Almost all plastics are derived from fossil fuels such as crude oil and natural gas. These contain a mixture of hydrocarbons which are processed in various stages to make plastic: Refining - Fossil fuels are extracted and refined into pro

Perhaps you’re thinking oh - plastics aren’t my problem. Turtles getting trapped is sad, but I’m safe. You’d be wrong. The idea that plastic pollution only affects wildlife is a dangerous misconception. In reality, humans are part of the marine food web, and we’re already consuming the consequences of plastic waste. Microplastics - particles smaller than 5mm - are now found in 99% of seafood. Shrimp, mussels, fish and even sea salt have tested positive for plastic contamina

Ready meals have been around since the 1950s. Yet the plastic packaging used in them is harmful to the planet and to people. Greenpeace’s recent analysis of 24 research papers in leading scientific journals found that plastic packaging used for ready meals and takeaways poses a potentially serious risk for human health. The packaging, especially when heated, can release large amounts of microplastics and chemicals into the food that will be eaten. One study detected 326,000

The consequences of ocean plastic for marine life are devastating - and often invisible. While viral images of whales dying with bellies full of bags grab public attention, the broader damage runs much deeper. Over 100,000 marine mammals die each year due to plastic entanglement or ingestion (WWF 2021). At least 340 species have been recorded entangled in debris, especially fishing gear like nets and ropes. Once trapped, animals can suffocate, drown or suffer debilitating in

Between 24 and 29 April, 57 countries participated in a historic conference on the Transition Away from Fossil Fuels, hosted in Santa Marta (Colombia), Participants discussed how to speed up the phaseout of fossil fuels, focusing on coordinated action rather than passive debate. This stands in opposition to the yearly UN climate conferences (COPs), which have discussed the transition but have not yet produced an action plan. While conferences and reports organised by the UN a

Plastic doesn’t get into the sea on its own. It travels there usually via leakage from poorly managed waste systems. Understanding this journey is key to shoring up these systems. Around 19 million tonnes of plastics leak into the environment on a yearly basis. Of this, around 14 million tonnes enters rivers, coasts and other water systems. An estimated 11 million tonnes then reach the ocean, which equates to around 0.5% of all global plastic waste. How does this happen? In m

Here in the UK, 9.25 million tonnes of plastic waste leaves our dockyards and heads to developing countries. Why do we ship it off? Because the UK government wants to offload the responsibility of processing our plastic waste. However, this comes at the significant detriment of importing countries’ economies, environments, and health. For three decades, China imported over 70% of the world’s plastic waste, but that all changed in 2018. In the eight years since China banned th

The global trade in plastic waste reveals stark inequalities. For decades, high-income countries like the UK, US, Germany and Japan exported much of their plastic waste to lower-income nationals, often with weak waste infrastructures (OECD 2022, Plastics Treaty Briefing 2023). This practice, often referred to as “waste colonialism,” offloads the environmental burden of consumption onto those least able to manage it. As recently as 2018, Asia imported 70-80% of the world’s tr

Danone is a French food and drink giant and a major plastic polluter. In September 2022, a coalition of anti-plastic NGOs, including ClientEarth, Surfrider Foundation Europe, and Zero Waste France, issued a legal warning to Danone, in an effort to get the mega corporation to publish statistics about its global plastic pollution. However, this warning was ignored. In January of 2023, the coalition filed a lawsuit against Danone over its failure to comply with French due dilige

Millions of new clothes are produced every year for the $2.5 trillion global fashion industry. Many of these items are inexpensive fast-fashion pieces made of plastic fabrics derived from petrochemicals, such as polyester, acrylic, and nylon. Buying clothing made of plastic fabrics may seem like an affordable and harmless way to keep up with the latest trends. However, these clothes can have a major impact on your health. Every time you wash a polyester shirt or jacket, the p