Plastic is one of the most durable materials humans have ever made. That durability has made it indispensable in medicine, food packaging and transport. But it’s also created one of the defining ...

Hundreds of millions of tons of plastic are produced globally every year. New research shows how that waste can be turned ...

Plastics are chemically complex. Right from their invention, polymer scientists have had to use a range of additives to make plastics functional and useful for real-world applications. Decades of ...

Not all plastics are equal — some types and colors are easier to recycle than others. For instance, black foam and black coffee lids, which are often made of polystyrene, usually end up in landfills ...

Plastic pollution is no longer just a story of bottles and bags drifting across the surface of the sea. As larger debris breaks down, it sheds microscopic fragments that quietly seep chemicals into ...