A new solar-driven method transforms plastic waste and microplastics into acetic acid, turning pollution into a valuable chemical.

Researchers found a way to turn plastic waste into the main ingredient in vinegar using sunlight and a simple iron based material.

A plastic fishing line might take 600 years to break down in nature or a landfill. A plastic bottle might take 450 years. Dental floss might take decades. But in a Harvard lab, a recently discovered ...

What type of pollution is so tiny it can be invisible to the naked eye? Hint: Humans ingest it through the air we breathe, the food we eat and the water we drink. The answer: microplastics.

Plastic waste is one of the biggest global problems right now, with more than 400 million tons generated each year and only 9 ...

We’ve managed to accumulate so much plastic trash that it’s daunting to think about what could be done with the tons upon tons of nonbiodegradable waste. And as much as we are trying to scale back our ...

This story is a partnership between Inside Climate News and CBS News. Watch the CBS Reports documentary, "Advanced Recycling: Does Big Plastic's Idea Work?" About 48 million tons of plastic waste are ...

Humans generate a lot of plastic waste – more than 400 million metric tons a year. Plastic products have been propelling our quality of life forward for over a century, from keeping food fresh longer ...

The adoption of any new policies such as bottle bills, reuse systems, EPR or certain food packaging bans could reduce disposal by 10% to 20% by 2040. Such changes could influence new jobs and ...

Plastics are valued for their durability, but that quality also makes them difficult to break down. Tiny pieces of debris known as microplastics persist in soil, water and air and threaten ecosystems ...

Kevin A. Schug receives funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes for Health, ExxonMobil, and Weaver Consultants Group. He is affiliated with VUV Analytics, Inc. and ...