• Sustainability

Our Oceans Are Spitting Up Microplastics Back at Us

• microplastic
• oceans
• plastic pollution

As the Ocean Conservancy explained, every year, 8 million metric tons of plastics enter our ocean on top of the estimated 150 million metric tons that currently circulate our marine environments. Many of these plastics are microscopic (smaller than 5 millimeters long) and are readily consumed by marine life as well as humans. Unfortunately, we […]

• Sustainability

Ocean Plastic Cleanup Device Up and Running After Previous Setbacks

• microplastic
• Ocean Plastic
• oceans
• plastic

Twenty-five-year-old entrepreneur Boyan Slat’s ocean clean up device is finally collecting trash after breaking apart late last year.

The Takeaway: This technology likely won’t solve the ocean plastic pollution crisis but the world is finally beginning to think through how we tackle our plastic addiction and that’s a good thing.

• Sustainability

Amazon Under Fire for Increasing Plastic Packaging

• Amazon
• microplastic
• plastic
• plastic packaging
• recycling

Reducing plastic has been a hot topic for corporate sustainability officers around the world. Our planet is literally drowning in plastic and with China’s recent policy to stop imports of plastic trash, there’s growing public pressure for retailers to drastically cut down on plastic packaging and to support recycling infrastructure. However, Amazon has made little […]

• People

Hawaii’s Beaches Get a Helping Hand

• beaches
• Hawaii
• microplastic
• Ocean Plastic
• plastic

Hoola One, a machine developed by mechanical engineering students at the Université de Sherbrooke, is being used to clean up one of Hawaii’s dirtiest beaches by filtering out microplastics. As Atlas Obscura explained, Kamilo Beach was formerly a lovely white sand beach stretch which is now a trap for countless tons of trash. Nicknamed “Trash Beach,” or […]

• Sustainability

Ocean plastic consumed by creatures in the ocean’s deepest trenches

• microplastic
• NatGeo
• ocean
• plastic
• whales

Plastic pollution is a global crisis that affects just about every ecosystem on Earth: from the Arctic to the deepest depths of the ocean. As National Geographic recently reported as part of their “Planet or Plastic” series, “a British research team captured amphipods, tiny shrimp-like crustaceans that scavenge on the seabed, from six of the […]

• People

Hero of the Week: Alex Weber, teen who discovered a huge source of ocean plastic pollution

• Alex Weber
• California
• golf balls
• microplastic
• plastic
• plastic pollution

Two years ago, a 16-year old diver named Alex Weber was swimming off Pebble Beach near Carmel, CA when she discovered something truly startling: thousands of golf balls from 5 local golf courses rotting on the ocean floor.