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Pushing plastics

Masks and gloves found in the Mediterranean Sea by members of Opération Mer Propre, or Operation Clean Sea, in mid-May, just after France lifted some of its coronavirus lockdown restrictions.

French nonprofit warns 'COVID waste' could harm the environment

Environment

Opération Mer Propre, or Operation Clean Sea, is a nonprofit group that cleans the waters of France’s Mediterranean coast. In addition to the usual waste they find, they’re now picking up masks and gloves.

French nonprofit warns 'COVID waste' could harm the environment
A man picks through a huge heap of plastic trash

‘More waste, better taste’: This Garbage Café offers food in exchange for plastic

Environment
‘More waste, better taste’: This Garbage Café offers food in exchange for plastic
Ethane crackers pollution, carbon emissions

New ethane cracker factories raise climate change and pollution concerns

Environment
New ethane cracker factories raise climate change and pollution concerns
a big pile of plastic garbage

America's grungy 'recycled' plastic is creating wastelands in Asia

Pushing plastics
America's grungy 'recycled' plastic is creating wastelands in Asia
A hand holds small micro-plastics.

As the world grapples with plastic, the US makes more of it — a lot more

Pushing plastics
As the world grapples with plastic, the US makes more of it — a lot more
Workers in a dark building sort trash from a conveyor belt.

Inside the long war to protect plastic

Pushing plastics

Single-use plastic is clogging oceans and landfills. The industry that makes it has waged a decades-long campaign to keep it on the market.

Inside the long war to protect plastic