“Researchers surveyed inland, riverine, and coastal habitats across six metropolitan regions across Australia including Hobart in Tasmania, Newcastle in New South Wales, Perth in Western Australia, Port Augusta in South Australia, Sunshine Coast in Queensland, and Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.

Dr Denise Hardesty, senior research scientist from CSIRO and co-author on the study, said that with up to 53 million metric tonnes of plastic waste estimated to enter the aquatic ecosystems by 2030, it was ‘heartening to see a significant decrease in plastic pollution’ on Australian beaches and coasts.

‘Three quarters of the rubbish we find on our beaches is plastic, and flexible plastics such as food packaging are the most harmful to wildlife,’ said Dr Hardesty. ‘Along with a 39% reduction in plastic waste in coastal areas, we also saw a 16% increase in areas we surveyed with no plastic debris at all.'”

From Oceanographic Magazine.

“Native to South America, water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) has become invasive in waterways across the globe. It’s known for quickly forming dense mats that clog waterways and harm native species, and municipalities have launched campaigns to eradicate the plant also known as ‘water cancer’ in parts of the Middle East.

Despite its reputation as a nuisance, water hyacinth has been shown to clean polluted water, effectively removing agricultural runoff and heavy metals.

Previous studies have shown that water hyacinth can also absorb microplastic, but less well-understood is how they do it and why the plants aren’t harmed in the process. The new study from China sheds light on both questions.

Researchers collected water hyacinths from a river near Shanghai and cultivated them in a greenhouse. They placed seven plants in clean water as a control group, and another seven exposed to a concentration of 50 milligrams per liter of microplastic particles in water, designed to mimic heavily polluted water ‘hotspots.’

Within 48 hours, plants in the latter group removed 55-69% of the polystyrene microplastic particles present. After five days, they removed as much as 78% of the pollution.”

From Mongabay.

“A group of technology companies is investing in a new form of carbon capture that aims to cut emissions from household waste in an effort to reduce landfill use and to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. 

Frontier, an umbrella group of tech companies including payments firm Stripe, internet giant Google and software company Salesforce is investing just under $32 million in a carbon-capture-and-storage project in Norway in the hope of removing 100,000 metric tons of carbon from the atmosphere between 2029 and 2030. 

Under the plan, carbon-dioxide emissions that are generated when trash from the Norwegian capital Oslo is burned to produce energy for heating will be captured and then stored under the North Sea. The initiative is part of a larger carbon-capture project known as the Northern Lights project.”

From Wall Street Journal.

“RIKEN researchers have now developed a new type of plastic that can work just as well as the regular stuff when it’s needed, and break down readily into safe compounds when it’s not. It’s made of what are known as supramolecular polymers, which have reversible bonds that function like sticky notes that can be attached, removed and reattached, according to the team.”

From New Atlas.