Marine Litter

Plastics created using the principles of “green chemistry” are designed to reduce or eliminate the use and generation of hazardous substances throughout their life cycle. This means nontoxic, renewable feedstocks, a manufacturing process that yields little or no waste, and a final plastic that, when discarded, degrades into harmless products on a human rather than a geologic time scale.

Environmentalists are calling on European countries to achieve a minimum 50%
reduction in marine waste as part of commitments they must make
under EU law.

The volunteers put up an excellent performance this year. They were divided into more than a 100 groups. Thin plastic waste accounted for 24 percent of the waste collected on Sunday. Most of the waste will be recycled to reduce the garbage that moves to the dump yard,” said Thilak Raj of Chennai Trekking Club.

It's not just animal life that is suffering. Bottom trawling is a ghastly process that brings untold damage to sea beds that support ocean life. It's akin to using a bulldozer to catch a butterfly, destroying a whole ecosystem for the sake of a few pounds of protein. We wouldn't do this on land, so why do it in the oceans?

By John Rooney Today, the members of the benthic habitat mapping team of the PIFSC Coral Reef Ecosystem Division (CRED) and other CRED staff began a 3-week mission (SB-13-11) to survey around the i...

By Jeremy Hsu, Astrobiology Magazine, SPACE.com One of the first visitors to Jupiter's icy moon of Europa could be a tiny submarine barely larger than two soda cans.

Contrary to popular myth that most ocean pollution is oil spilled from ships, most of it is land-based litter. "The most dangerous litter is our throw-away plastic because of its longevity and capacity to increase in toxicity, eventually returning to the human food chain in a more lethal form," reports Iglehart.

Most cities pay for waste collection through flat-rate monthly fees or property taxes regardless of how much trash is being thrown away. Conversely, pay-as-you-throw programs create an economic incentive for people to generate less waste.

Photographer William Miller captures the disturbing reality of one of America's most polluted waterways.

Stormwater drains criss-cross the city and get choked due to dumping of garbage from encroachments, causing water stagnation and a potential health hazard

This is the second update from Ocean Conservancy Conservation Biologist and Marine Debris Specialist Nicholas Mallos, writing from the GYRE Expedition in Alaska.  Read his first update here. Survey...

City of Los Angeles Moves to Become the Largest City In North America to Phase Out Plastic Bags

The City of Los Angeles today became the largest city in the country and 77th jurisdiction in the State of California to adopt an ordinance to phase out the use of plastic grocery bags.

Engineers seek a cheaper biodegradable polymer.

Researchers find that some of the worst locations for accidents at sea are also some of the most environmentally sensitive areas.

A recent poll shows that the public are in favour of a revival of deposit-and- return systems. The chief bottle washers, however, remain unconvinced

Ecopeneurs from PlasticShore display construction material that includes plastic collected from the west coast of Vancouver Island.

They collected Styrofoam, plastic bottles, hard plastics and other junk from Rugged Point Provincial Park, on the west coast of the north Island. Items found by the group are typically sent to the landfill, but this time around about half was taken to Ellice Recycle.

The U.S. Coast Guard told WDSU that the M/V Celeste Ann struck a platform located 15 miles west of Southwest Pass at about 9:18 a.m. on 14 June.  All 20 people onboard, including 4 crew, were rescued before the boat sank.

The world’s cavalier disposal of plastic items, especially plastic water bottles, fishing gear and plastic bags, unknowingly causing the deaths of millions of land and sea mammals, fish, birds and ...

The ocean is massive, and a lot of the problems facing it are too. It can feel overwhelming to look at these issues. Here are a few things that you and I can do, on an individual level, to help make change.

The new venture, Common Good Recycling, is run by inCommon, a local nonprofit that aims to strengthen struggling neighborhoods and fight poverty.

NOAA Fisheries Biologist Matthew Parry also contributed to this post. The sea life around Hawaii’s remote Midway Atoll is swimming easier after NOAA recently removed 14 metric tons of debris from i...