Now, new research, published Friday in Science Advances, reexamines the U.S.’s role as a plastic consumer and concludes that the country has much more work to do at home to manage its waste.

Plastic is a product that is ubiquitous in today's society, says Sarah Morath, Wake Forest professor of law and author of the book "Our Plastic Problem and How to Solve It." The World Bank ...

More information: Pseudomonas aeruginosa clinical isolates can encode functional plastic-degrading enzymes that allow survival on plastic and augment biofilm formation., Cell Reports (2025). DOI ...

In the U.S. alone, about 4 to 5 billion plastic pill bottles are thrown away each year. That’s enough plastic to circle the Earth multiple times. While they might seem harmless, these bottles ...

Every week, millions of Americans toss their recyclables into a single bin, trusting that their plastic bottles, aluminum cans and cardboard boxes will be given a new life. But what really happens ...

The global campaign to gain control of plastic waste is one of the fastest-growing environmental causes ever mounted. Yet it hasn’t been enough to make a dent in the growing tonnage of discarded ...

Scientists at RIKEN in Japan have developed a new type of plastic that’s just as stable in everyday use but dissolves quickly in saltwater, leaving behind safe compounds. The benefit of plastics ...

Evalyne Ndirangu, IAEA Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications Ayhan Evrensel, IAEA Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications “The world’s commitment to ending plastic pollution is clear ...

“We’re going back to plastic straws,” Trump announced after signing an Executive Order on Feb. 10 that declared it U.S. policy to end the use of paper straws. “I’ve had [paper straws ...

Our brains are increasingly plastic. Minuscule shards and flakes of polymers are surprisingly abundant in brain tissue, a study of postmortem brains shows. This appraisal of microplastics and ...

An alarming study that had Americans tossing out their black plastic kitchen utensils, toys and to-go packages earlier this month overstated the concern, the researchers admit. But they still say ...

Plastic pollution is a severe global issue, jeopardizing ecosystems, particularly marine life. Millions of tons of plastic waste invade oceans annually, breaking into microplastics that ...