Plastic

Alaska Airlines has become the first airline to renounce the use of plastic straws in an effort to raise awareness about the use of single-use plastics that pollute the world's oceans.

• By Matthew O. Berger

Groups of volunteers clean up plastic waste on a beach in Lima, Peru, during World Environment Day on June 5th, 2018.

• By Pacific Standard Staff

Campaigns against single-use plastic waste are picking up steam.

• By Ashley Hackett

Instead of shaming disabled consumers who rely on straws, let's hold producers of plastic financially responsible for their waste.

• By David M. Perry

Europe announced it will seek to ban the use of certain common plastic items, including plastic cutlery, straws, plates, swabs, and fishing gear.

• By Pacific Standard Staff

The massive amounts of plastic trash in marine environments may be leading to toxic metals entering the food chain.

• By Danielle Beurteaux

The state is moving to reduce plastic pollution by implementing a groundbreaking ban on polystyrene containers that are commonly used throughout the island in the food industry.

• By Erica Cirino

New evidence of our strong psychological need to rationalize the status quo.

• By Tom Jacobs

New research shows the extent to which our dependence on plastic is infecting, damaging, and killing coral reefs from Thailand to Australia.

• By Todd Woody

The man-made material basically never breaks down, but we keep making more and more of it.

• By Kate Wheeling

Hint: Don't go after the Great Pacific garbage patch—which, by the way, isn't really a patch at all.

• By Nathan Collins

Plastic-pouch food packaging is showing up everywhere—except at recycling facilities.

• By Elizabeth Royte

The House voted this week to ban microbeads. This is a demonstrably good thing.

• By Madeleine Thomas

A new research review finds that all the plastic debris swirling through our oceans may be endangering every species of sea turtle.

• By Kate Wheeling

For the first time ever, molecules of plastic have been found outside of planet Earth.

• By Michael Todd

You make it, you pay. Why should taxpayers foot the bill for recycling all of that wasteful plastic?

• By Elizabeth Royte

In the United States, attempts to put an end to plastic bags have been a local affair. But that doesn't mean there aren't efforts for a national ban.

• By Michael Todd

There are medical, chemical, and environmental issues associated with some pretty common plastic products. Is it time to label these as hazardous waste?

• By Michael Todd