There are lots of different agricultural plastic products on the market, but we can't test them all. Science requires that we focus on specific compositions so that we can conduct thorough and controlled experiments🔬.

An investigation of attitudes toward plastics in four countries—The public is concerned and wants solutions www.cell.com/cell-reports... #PlasticPollution #PlasticWaste

Our new study: illicit discharges from plastic recycling plants importing waste increase microplastics in irrigation canals by up to 132 times. Pollution is moving to agricultural areas and the Mediterranean. Recycling is not the solution the problem is systematic link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Big Soda and Big Oil want us hooked on plastic. Together, they're working in lockstep to stop "any cap on plastics production," and make sure that efforts to meaningfully address the plastic pollution crisis fail. @joshvoorhees.bsky.social of @fieldnotes.co and @davisallen.bsky.social explain.

this has gone under the radar, but this crisis has also caused a global spike in the cost of plastic, which seems almost certain to increase the cost of food similar to energy we need to defossilize food systems, reducing dependence on single-use plastics, shifting to more sustainable reuse models

Manufacturers often replace one harmful chemical with a similar, untested substitute—a cycle known as the "toxic treadmill." To break it, scientists propose a "Six Classes" framework to evaluate entire groups of chemicals like PFAS and phthalates at once. Story by Liz Kimbrough for #Mongabay.

Big Soda companies rely on plastic to "cheaply package their products," while oil and gas companies view plastic "as a financial lifeline in a world trying to slowly wean itself off its reliance on fossil fuels for power generation and transportation." Read on:👇

Have you ever wondered what *really* happens to your recycled plastic? 🤔 It's probably not what you think. Read the truth behind plastic recycling in our latest guide HERE 🔗 - bit.ly/TruthBehindP...

Erm... "what dosage would show any effect?" Microplastics are not a threshold pollutant. They're not even one material.... ?! There's no 'safe' dose that human enzyme systems can handle before swamped....

Plastic pollution is a global environmental crisis, but what if we could design plastics that automatically break down after use? 🧪 My latest article for @mongabay.com looks at a recent study that used clever chemistry to do just that. news.mongabay.com/2026/03/prom... #CircularEconomy #Plastics

I'm thrilled to say Plastic Inc is out today, shifting the lens on plastic from where it ends up to where it comes from — the fossil fuel industry. "Deeply researched, sharply written & totally compelling," says @elizkolbert.bsky.social "Breath-taking & revelatory"— @christopherleonard.bsky.social

"Out of all interventions modeled, restricting the primary production of plastic was the most effective way to reduce health impacts, and was substantially more effective than improving waste management and recycling alone."

Contrary to predictions, "Nature is slowing down, and its ability to regenerate is failing in the face of climate change." A new analysis finds the speed of species turnover in ecosystems worldwide has slowed by a third since the mid-1970s. 🌎🌿🧪 e360.yale.edu/features/eco...

Here is the true cost of #plastic #recycling. Wastewater from recycling plants fills the Mediterranean coast of Türkiye with #microplastics. Most of this microplastics comes from recycling facilities which imports plastic waste from the EU and the UK.

"Beth Gardiner is right to argue that plastic is not merely a recycling failure (‘They pushed so many lies about recycling’: the fight to stop big oil pumping billions more into plastics, 19 February). It is something far more consequential: an oil growth strategy." #PlasticPollutes

150 year old cotton and wool fibres found in UK lake sediment. Published yesterday in @cp-iscience.bsky.social: the paper I’ve been working on with colleagues from Keele and Loughborough Universities and beyond www.cell.com/iscience/ful... #microfibres

In 2018, in Fashion Revolution’s Loved Clothes Last fanzine, we shared a graphic about how long different textiles take to decompose. It reflected what many of us believed: that natural fibres biodegrade quickly and therefore disappear. But science evolves. And so must we. #sustainablefashion

I am co-author on a new peer-reviewed paper Natural textile fibres preserved in a 150-year lake sediment record Stanton, T et al 2026 www.cell.com/iscience/ful... Researchers from @lborouniversity.bsky.social and @keeleuniversity.bsky.social recovered textile fibres dating back to 1876

Cotton was the dominant fibre type, accounting for 70% of all fibres identified and present throughout the entire core. Natural fibres such as cotton and wool were still structurally identifiable more than a century after deposition. #sustainablefashion

Textile pollution research has focused primarily on synthetics. Because we assumed plastic was the only problem in terms of microfibres, lab methods often dissolved everything natural to isolate and count synthetics. This study shows that natural fibres are long-lasting in aquatic environments.

This does not mean natural fibres are equivalent to synthetics. It does not mean they do not biodegrade.
It does mean the story is more complex than those charts doing the rounds on social media that suggest natural textiles simply vanish in a short time. #sustainablefashion

Sustainability strategies that promote natural fibres as straightforward substitutes for plastics risk overlooking environmental persistence and the potential for fibres to carry or release associated chemicals. If we care about our material future, we need better science, not better slogans.

Solutions? This research became the jumping-off point for writing The Nature of Fashion (@chelseagreenbooks.bsky.social, 2025) – an exploration not of easy answers, but of better questions. #naturewriting

This thread is gold.

📣 The new Chair leading #PlasticsTreaty talks has been elected: Julio Cordano of Chile. @enb.iisd.org’s Noémie Laurens breaks down the three main issues that the new Chair will have to face this year at INC 5.4. 👇

After two failed attempts to finalize the global #PlasticsTreaty, effective leadership is widely seen as critical for restoring momentum. On Feb 7, governments will meet to select a new chair. Learn where talks stand and why this meeting matters: https://bit.ly/45QnL5v

‘UN chemicals panel talks end with little progress as procedural skirmishes eclipse science’ Read the article by Michelle Langrand in Geneva Solutions: genevasolutions.news/climate-envi...

The first meeting of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Panel on Chemicals, Waste, and Pollution ended in paralysis. Obstruction and geopolitics blocked agreement on basic rules needed for the Panel to function. Read our full statement 👇 www.ciel.org/news/isp-cwp...

Are 'natural' fibres always 'better'? Some do seem to hang around... Our new paper on fibre persistence: ‘Natural’ fibres in lakes: a 150-year sedimentary perspective on persistence: iScience www.cell.com/iscience/ful...

📢 New publication: How should we communicate about scientific uncertainty - especially around environmental & health risks like microplastics? 🗣️💬 We ran an online experiment with 1,126 participants in Austria and found:

'The feeling of the smell of burnt plastic'.... absolutely capture the synasthesia of GenAI overwhelm

Interesting photo to illustrate that article, as the plastic produced for all those water bottles is part of what is keeping the fossil fuel industry alive. Finding ways to provide safe drinking water that doesn’t use single-use PET bottles should be a bigger priority.

One-Third of Pacific Island Fish Contaminated With Microplastics. Ahead of February’s Global Plastics Treaty negotiations, new data reveals the contamination rate of Fijian fish far exceeds worldwide averages. insideclimatenews.org/news/2801202...

🧪 Nanoplastic exposure disrupts bile acid metabolism and gut microbiota, driving systemic metabolic collapse. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Ottawa wins Federal Court appeal allowing single-use plastics ban to stand www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/art... #singleuseplastics

🔬 NEW STUDY "In the new study, which compared different types of plastics across 30 experimental pond ecosystems, researchers found that fossil fuel plastics can lead to 'top down' effects by killing off the animals that eat algae." #PlasticPollutes #BreakFreeFromPlastic

Global health impacts of plastics systems could double by 2040 www.lshtm.ac.uk/newsevents/n... #plasticpollution #plasticslifecycle #humanhealth #globalwarming #airpollution #toxicchemicals

have a few papers in review that examine this issue, and the reality is that ‘circular’ claims often camouflage a reliance on chemical recycling technologies that are toxic and unproven these claims should be understood as a strategy by corporate interests to distract and delay meaningful action

This is not a sign of a functioning waste and resources system ... something is going horribly wrong. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Biodiversity collapse threatens UK security, intelligence chiefs warn - “It is unlikely the UK would be able to maintain food security if ecosystem collapse drives geopolitical competition for food” Story by @fionaharvey.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/environment/...

New research reveals an unappreciated public health crisis: people living in slums in the developing world are increasingly burning the toxic plastic trash that surrounds their communities as a last-resort fuel to cook and heat their homes.

Are our bodies full of #microplastics or not? There’s a way to resolve this debate, and scientists must hurry, writes Debora MacKenzie - This week’s furore is microplastics researchers’ ozone moment. If they fail, the plastics lobby will step into the breach www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Q How pervasive are micro and nanoplastics, really? A. Not yet known. Sensible advice: ."..squabbles in science can... throw out common-sense policies that curtail plastic use... we do not know what the future of microplastics research holds. We will have to keep doing it to find out."

Interesting to see the Guardian's @dpcarrington.bsky.social weighing in on this. My take, as someone covering microplastics heavily for the past year (and currently sitting at a 200+ person conference with many of the scientists in question): www.theguardian.com/environment/...