Green Column: Raising Awareness of Plastic Waste

Researchers have developed a low-temperature process converting plastic waste into liquid fuel as a way to re-use discarded plastic bags and other products.  The most common waste we all see worldwide is the standard polymer, low-density polyethylene (LDPE), which is used to make many types of containers, medical and laboratory equipment, computer components and, of course, the ubiquitous plastic bags.Plastic Bag Beach.Recycling efforts are in place in many parts of the world, but much of the polyethylene waste ends up in landfills, dispersed…

Everyday our plastic waste makes its way from land to sea through stormwater runoff, rivers, wind, or just chance. And since at least the 1970s researchers have been attempting to quantify just how much and where it's going. The most recent attempt, which was published on June 30 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, estimates that the number in surface waters is anywhere from 7,000 to 35,000 tons, surprisingly, "far less than expected," according to the study authors.

Peter Lehner, executive director of the Natural Resources Defense Council, contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. When I started visiting our Santa Monica office, I was thrilled to get up early (I was on East Coast time) and go down to the beach to body surf.

Goa State Pollution Control Board signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a cement company to use the plastic waste generated across the state.

Guiyu (China) (AFP) - Mountains of discarded remote controls litter the warehouse floor. In a dimly-lit room, women on plastic stools pry open the devices, as if shucking oysters, to retrieve the circuitry inside.

THIS is an unusually busy moment in the unhappy history of efforts to curb climate change. In two weeks at the end of June the world’s three biggest polluters unveiled carbon-reducing measures. In China and America these are more ambitious than previous policies. But they fall far short of what is needed to rein in the relentless rise in global carbon emissions.