Latest news articles about ocean plastic. Discover stories about waste crisis in the sea, and companies who are invested in marine clean-up. read news about microplastics and the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Read articles about waste sharks and bubble barriers which attempt to clean plastic out of the water and protect the marine environment.
A new scientific study has found that there are now 171 trillion pieces of plastic estimated to be floating in the world’s oceans. The data suggests this is an increase from an estimated concentration of 16 trillion pieces in 2005. Authors of the study, spearheaded by the non-profit 5 Gyres Institute and published in the […]
Suzuki GB has launched a new campaign in collaboration with sustainable apparel manufacturer, OceanR, to help remove plastics from our oceans. This new initiative will see Suzuki committing to the removal of 1kg of plastic waste from the oceans with every outboard sold in the UK from now until the end of March 2023. As […]
Campaigners are calling for the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to classify the small plastic pellets known as nurdles as marine pollutants and impose stricter controls on how they are handled, after a series of devastating spillages. So-called nurdles are lentil-sized pieces of plastic – used as building blocks for most of the plastic items produced […]
An innovative system called a Bubble Barrier, where a ‘curtain’ of air bubbles is placed along a waterway to remove plastic debris from the water, has been implemented in the municipality of Katwijk, the Netherlands. The Bubble Barrier, developed by Dutch start-up The Great Bubble Barrier, consists of a bubble curtain, a catchment system, and […]
Remote operated ‘waste sharks’, which collect rubbish from the surface of the water are being trialled off the south Devon coast. WasteSharks have been introduced as part of Plymouth’s Preventing Plastic Pollution project and are being tested first in Turnchapel, before operating in the wider Cattewater. Developed by RanMarine Technology, the remote operated vehicles (ROVs) […]
Our oceans are drowning in plastic. At least 14 million tonnes of plastic ends up in the ocean every year, and plastic now makes up about 80 per cent of all marine pollution. By 2050, marine plastics will have outweighed the total mass of fish in the world’s oceans. One team of researchers at the […]
A US-based YouTuber and ‘guitartist’ known as Burls Art has teamed up with ocean cleanup company 4Ocean to build a custom electric guitar out of recycled ocean plastic including discarded straws and bottle tops. In the video, which can be seen below, the luthier begins by taking a diving trip with 4Ocean in South Florida […]
Ocean plastic is providing a habitat for a new community of otherwise coastal species, according to a new commentary published in the peer-reviewed journal, Nature Communications. The authors reported coastal species growing on pollution hundreds of miles out to sea in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, more commonly known as the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch.” […]
The X-Press Pearl disaster, in which a cargo ship carrying chemicals caught on fire off the coast of Sri Lanka in May 2021, has resulted in the spillage of an estimated 70 billion nurdles (spherical pieces of plastic) into the ocean. According to a study published in the Environmental Journal of the American Chemical Society, […]
The results from the Marine Conservation Society’s annual Great British Beach Clean have revealed that beach litter is going down, but plastic pieces remain the most prevalent form of litter on UK beaches, with 75 per cent of all litter collected being plastic or polystyrene. The beach clean event, which this year took place from 17 – […]
Environmental campaign the Ocean Cleanup has completed its trial of its sweeping ocean cleaning system and collected the most debris from the Pacific Ocean Garbage patch. The final trails were completed in early October, with large hauls of plastic waste being cleaned from the ocean. While on the mission, the organisation collected a lot of […]