If you buy a smoothie in Portland, Oregon, the drink might come in a compostable plastic cup, a choice a thoughtful owner might make to make their operations more sustainable. You might think, at a ...

It’s no longer a secret that single-use plastic is harming the planet. Not only does the process of creating these materials emit enormous amounts of planet-warming gases, but they also can take ...

It was hailed as a wonderful thing: During the oil boom in the 1950s, chemists began to render the waste coming out of refineries into plastic — plastic packaging, plastic furniture, plastic fibers ...

If you've ever been turning over your compost heap and found months-old "compostable" plastic items that were still mostly intact – well, you're not alone. New research states that 60% of such ...

Most “compostable” plastic won’t break down easily in a backyard compost bin. And the process can take so long at an industrial composting facility that many facilities that take food waste refuse the ...

Most people know by now that the disposable plastic used for take-out food is an environmental hazard. Containers, cups, utensils, straws — very little of it gets recycled and very much of it ends up ...

Materials scientists are cooking up environmentally friendly polymers from natural sources like silk, plant fibers and whole algae. Economics and acceptance remain hurdles. By Boyce Upholt / Knowable ...

Seemingly every corner of our world is now littered with plastics, and only a tiny percentage of it is ever recycled. To mitigate this, many companies are offering items labeled as “compostable” or ...

If you see plastic that claims to be compostable, a new study suggests you should think twice before using it to dump food and garden waste. Researchers have found only 40 per cent of plastic billed ...

They're often touted as 'eco-friendly', but a new study may have you second guessing buying compostable bags. Sourceful, a Manchester-based sustainable packaging startup, analysed more than 20 ...

We can’t lie to ourselves anymore. Plastic is oil. It doesn’t biodegrade (instead it photodegrades, breaking into smaller and smaller pieces). It’s poison to animals and a scourge for our wildlands ...