Nov 23 Watch 3:34 How plogging turns an ordinary workout into a ‘treasure hunt’ By Julia Griffin After moving from a Swedish ski resort to Stockholm, Erik Ahlstrom noticed a lot of litter during his daily bicycle commute. So he decided to do something about it. In 2016, Ahlstrom began organizing groups to pick up trash while… Continue watching
Oct 11 Watch 8:07 Loss of Chinese export market drives new ideas for repurposing recyclables China’s decision to buy less recyclable material from the U.S. has prompted major questions about how we handle waste in America. What will we do with our abundance of plastic bottles and pizza boxes, if exporting them is no longer… Continue watching
Oct 10 The Plastic Problem By Travis Daub By 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the oceans. PBS NewsHour takes a closer look at this now ubiquitous material, how it’s impacting the world and ways we can break our plastic addiction. Continue reading
Oct 05 Watch 7:03 Tiny Easter Island deals with giant trash problem By Jeffrey Brown, Mike Fritz Easter Island off the coast of Chile has a major trash problem. It’s near what’s known as a “trash vortex” in the middle of the South Pacific and floating waste is constantly washing ashore. Local officials estimate the growing population… Continue watching
Oct 05 A massive plastic cleanup project provokes hope and skepticism By Vicky Stein While The Ocean Cleanup has been hailed as one solution for ocean plastic pollution, some researchers have expressed concern. Continue reading
Oct 04 Watch 8:05 Why your recyclables might have no place to go By Paul Solman, Sarah Clune Hartman Until this year, China had been America's -- and the world's -- number one recycling market. But China has shut its doors to plastic waste, which could result by 2030 in more than 100 million tons of trash with nowhere… Continue watching
Sep 26 Watch 9:36 Why it will take more than basic recycling to cut back on plastic By Amna Nawaz, Lorna Baldwin In the 70 years that plastic has been around, humans have created 9 billion tons of it -- most of which still exists. Are the existing strategies for tackling plastic pollution -- namely reusing and recycling -- really making any… Continue watching
Sep 25 Watch 6:02 Plastic lasts more than a lifetime, and that’s the problem By Amna Nawaz, Lorna Baldwin Around the world, waves of plastic are washing ashore and clogging landfills. Even though plastic pollution is now one of the largest environmental threats facing humans and animals, our appetite for the virtually indestructible material keeps growing. Amna Nawaz and… Continue watching
Sep 25 What if we could put our plastic trash to good use? By Jamie Leventhal Humans produce 420 million tons of plastic annually, most of which lands in the environment. With these two innovations, plastic could have a useful second life. Continue reading