The 'godfather of microplastics' talks about the challenges of halting plastic pollution
by Fast Company
Fast Company— Thirty years ago, while counting barnacles, limpets, and seaweeds along rocky shores, I started noticing a daily tide of litter, mostly plastic. As a marine biology PhD student at Liverpool University, I kept removing it, but the next day, there’d be more. [Photo: University of Plymouth] I’m now a leading international expert on microplastics, a term I coined on May 7, 2004, to describe fragments of plastic measuring as small as a millionth of a meter. As I work to help reduce the grip of...
Fast Company—The only way to end plastic pollution is by limiting how much plastic we produce. An international agreement to end plastic pollution is due to be sealed this year in Busan, South Korea. At the penultimate round of negotiations, held in Ottawa, Canada, Rwanda and Peru proposed a target to cut the weight of primary plastics produced worldwide by 40% by 2040, compared with 2025. This is the first time that a limit on the production of plastic has been considered at the U.N. talks aiming to develop an international legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution. Of the...
www.counterpunch.org—Plastic Pollution is a Crime Against People and the Planet. Louisiana’s “River Parishes,” located along the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, shoulder some of the worst industry impacts in the United States. As a result, this region has acquired a grim reputation as “Cancer Alley.” Stretching across 85 miles of rural land along both banks of the Mississippi River are around 200 industrial More
One Green Planet—Mombasa’s Struggle Against Plastic Pollution is a Global Crisis. The global plastic pollution crisis is escalating at an alarming rate, with 400 million tonnes of plastic produced annually.