Saturday, August 1, 2026

Tag: plastic

California becomes first state to ban plastic produce bags

The bill, known as Senate Bill (SB) 1046, stipulates that stores can only provide so-called “precheckout bags” if they are compostable or made from recyclable paper. 

Wax worm saliva can degrade stubborn plastic within hours, scientists find

Wax worms (Galleria mellonella) could both digest and biodegrade plastic, causing visible damage to a PE-plastic bag in just 40 minutes.

The plastics paradox facing humanity

Properly addressing the plastics problem involves not only interrogating corporate tactics but also understanding that some plastics provide societal benefits.

Many Dollar Store discounts packed with toxic chemicals: Report

"With their high profit margins, dollar stores must do more to ensure that all of these products are safe."

Coors becomes largest US beer brand to replace plastic rings with...

“So we’re eliminating plastic rings from our packaging, starting this year and finishing by 2025."

‘Whole life cycle of plastics’ approach could reduce pollution—WWF expert

“We need to create proper systems for controlling and regulating plastic pollution, at local, national and global levels.”

Microplastics from Africa and North America found 9,439 feet above sea...

How did these tiny pieces of plastic managed to make such a journey?

Microbes are evolving to digest plastic, study finds

The study notes that the type and amount of enzymes correlates with location-specific pollution trends, showing just how ever-growing plastic pollution is causing these organisms to evolve.

Plastic trash in the ocean is a global problem, and the...

A study published in 2020 that concluded that the U.S. is the largest global source of plastic waste, including plastics shipped to other countries that later are mismanaged.

Nearly 29,000 tons of COVID plastic now floats in the oceans,...

A new study calculates for the first time how much of that waste is ending up in the oceans and what it is doing once it gets there.

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The headquarters of CalSTRS, the California teachers' pension fund at the center of The Lever's reporting. Photo: Coolcaesar / CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Watchdog reporting examines a pension officer’s fossil fuel trades and a fire truck monopoly

The Lever's latest investigations trace a California retirement chief's oil and gas stock trading and a spreading set of antitrust suits over who builds America's fire engines.

ProPublica journalists strike over AI policy, exposing labor fault lines inside investigative media

The NewsGuild says two years of bargaining stalled over job security and artificial intelligence, and the union has taken its case to federal labor regulators.
Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory

U.N. Expert Francesca Albanese Slams U.S. “Complicity” as Trump Meets Netanyahu Despite ICC Warrant

We speak to Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, about Israel’s continued impunity from international law.
The Mississippi State Capitol building in Jackson

Mississippi pension fund sues Apollo Global Management over downplayed Epstein ties

The fund manages retirement savings for hundreds of thousands of Mississippi teachers, police officers and other public workers, and a shareholder case like it can force a company to hand over internal records.
A Flock Safety automated license plate reader mounted on a solar powered pole. Photo: Tony Webster / CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Movement Against Big Tech’s Flock Cameras Transcends Partisanship—and It’s Winning

Much like the resistance to AI data centers, the opposition to Flock surveillance cameras has brought the left and the right together against billionaires who are trying to force America into becoming even more of a police state.