Two of the planet's more pressing environmental stressors have the potential to alter the growth and reproductive output of plants found right along the world's coastlines, a new study suggests.
Environment
Aug 2, 2024
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Which packaging type for a 12-ounce, single-serve container of orange juice would you choose as the most sustainable option:
Environment
Jul 30, 2024
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Plastic pollution has emerged as one of our most pressing environmental issues with the increasing use of disposable plastics. As they are non-biodegradable, plastics accumulate in the environment, altering habitats and natural ...
Environment
Jul 26, 2024
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Mongolian herder Purev Batmunkh sighs as he picks through waste strewn across a field—the refuse of an unsightly and deadly waste pollution problem affecting swathes of the steppe.
Environment
Jul 26, 2024
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You would be hard-pressed to find a corner of the world free from microplastics, plastic particles measuring less than five millimeters. They contaminate our drinking water, accumulate in the food we eat and have been found ...
Environment
Jul 25, 2024
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Along the shores of Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor and the Schoodic Peninsula are the vast, briny waters of Frenchman Bay. With 98 square miles of water and 39 islands, the bay is vital to shorebirds, fish, lobstermen and ...
Environment
Jul 24, 2024
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Toxic "forever chemicals" are increasingly being used in US pesticides, threatening human health as they contaminate waterways and are sprayed on staple foods, a study said Wednesday.
Environment
Jul 24, 2024
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If you ask someone where plastic ends up, they will usually say the ocean. It's not a surprising answer because we have known since the 1970s that plastic is accumulating in the subtropical oceans, far from land.
Environment
Jul 23, 2024
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If not the root of all evil, chemical pollution is surely responsible for a good chunk of it. At least, that's how it feels sometimes when reading the news and the latest research.
Environment
Jul 23, 2024
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President Joe Biden's administration on Friday announced plans to phase out single-use plastics in all federal operations by 2035, as part of a broader effort to combat what it deemed a rising global crisis.
Environment
Jul 19, 2024
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A plastic material is any of a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic organic solids used in the manufacture of industrial products. Plastics are typically polymers of high molecular mass, and may contain other substances to improve performance and/or reduce production costs. Monomers of plastic are either natural or synthetic organic compounds.
The word plastic is derived from the Greek πλαστικός (plastikos) meaning capable of being shaped or molded, from πλαστός (plastos) meaning molded. It refers to their malleability, or plasticity during manufacture, that allows them to be cast, pressed, or extruded into a variety of shapes—such as films, fibers, plates, tubes, bottles, boxes, and much more.
The common word plastic should not be confused with the technical adjective plastic, which is applied to any material which undergoes a permanent change of shape (plastic deformation) when strained beyond a certain point. Aluminum which is stamped or forged, for instance, exhibits plasticity in this sense, but is not plastic in the common sense; in contrast, in their finished forms, some plastics will break before deforming and therefore are not plastic in the technical sense.
There are two types of plastics: thermoplastics and thermosetting polymers. Thermoplastics are the plastics that do not undergo chemical change in their composition when heated and can be moulded again and again; examples are polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE). Thermosets can melt and take shape once; after they have solidified, they stay solid.
The raw materials needed to make most plastics come from petroleum and natural gas.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
