Wednesday, September 16, 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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A community hospital emergency entrance in Hillsboro, Oregon. Photo: M.O. Stevens / CC BY-SA 3.0

Nearly half of US hospitals no longer deliver babies, new report finds

Rural hospitals keep losing the fight over leaner Medicaid budgets, and a separate analysis finds reaching the nearest labor and delivery unit already takes an hour or more in fourteen states.
The U.S. Capitol. Photo: FEMA/Bill Koplitz (public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

F is for Failure and Fascism

On leadership, character, climate, prices, trade, alliances, militarism, health, civil/voting rights, even law and order.
A Navy fighter jet approaches an aircraft carrier. Photo: U.S. Navy, public domain

Pentagon Iran War Report admits to Worst Drubbing since Vietnam

The Pentagon puts the war's cost at 33.4 billion dollars, independent estimates put it at more than three times that, with strikes across roughly twenty Middle East bases.
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Photo: NOAA, public domain

Kennedy Center board warns of bankruptcy unless Trump’s name returns to building

A 57-page draft resolution ties the center's fundraising future to ten proposed inscriptions honoring the president, as a federal judge who already ruled the board overstepped weighs a related case.
Farmworkers harvest sweet potatoes. Photo: USDA, public domain

Judge orders Labor Department to rewrite farmworker wage rule after finding it unlawful

The ruling forces new minimum pay rates for the guestworker visa program that brings in most of the country's legal farm labor, with back pay possible for hundreds of thousands of workers.