An ambitious project to clean up the ocean’s plastic pollution got underway over the weekend as members of The Ocean Cleanup project began towing their system out to sea. If it works as expected, they’ll try to take a bite out of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch — a huge collection of floating trash that’s three times the size of France, or about double the size of Texas. The Ocean Cleanup System 001 consists of a 2,000 foot (600
The fact that plastic is harming the environment is no secret. While steps are being taken to reduce the usage of plastic, it is already present in every aspect of our lives – even salt. According to a recent study by a team of the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay, the presence of microplastics has been detected in some table salt brands in the country. These microplastics are really tiny particles of plastic, that are less than 5 mm in diameter. A
Marks and Spencer (M&S) will start phasing out plastic cutlery across its in-store cafés next month in a move it claims will remove 75 million pieces of plastic from its waste stream annually. M&S currently hands out 75 million pieces of plastic cutlery in its cafe’s each year The phase-out will begin 1 September, with M&S set to replace plastic knives, forks and spoons with wooden alternatives. It builds on plans to replace plastic straws with biodegradable paper alternatives in cafes. Once the
Boyan Slat is a 23-year-old Dutch inventor, and founder of the highly ambitious Ocean Cleanup project. And in a little over a week, the group will embark on a complex plan to reduce the size of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch by half within the next five years. The initiative has been a long time coming, having first been started by Slat in 2013 at the tender age of 18. Five years later, having raised over $31 million for the project,
We are witnessing a Golden Age of travel, with more and more people realising .. the importance of maintaining a healthy work life balance. India ranked seventh in the world in terms of travel and tourism’s total contribution to GDP in 2017. In CY2017, foreign tourist arrival in India stood at 10.177 million and reached 2.12 million in CY 2018 (up to February), making the country earn foreign exchange of around US$ 2.706 billion, from the tourism sector. This in turn sets the
For his latest venture, entrepreneur Sivaraj Muthuraman has found a better use for the plastic waste that usually makes its way into landfills Sivaraj Muthuraman made headlines a couple of years ago, when he designed and developed the concept of an eco-friendly three-seater cab which runs on solar power. The project did not take off on a larger scale, due to various reasons. He then established Tea2Go, employing teapreneurs who sell tea on bicycles, and more recently, he launched Veg2Go, an
TOKYO — The Ministry of the Environment will include some 5 billion yen in its fiscal 2019 budget request to commission the development of biodegradable plastic products and subsidize companies producing paper alternatives to plastic items in a bid to reduce marine plastic waste, according to ministry officials. Biodegradable plastics are made from plants such as corn or sugarcane and can be broken down by microorganisms in soil. The material was first developed in the 1980s and is used in wrapping
With the State Government banning use of plastics from January 1, 2019, an awareness campaign “Plastic pollution-free Tamil Nadu” was initiated here on Saturday in which people were encouraged to use alternative products for plastic materials. At a function held at Corporation Girls Higher Secondary School at Karungalpalayam, Minister for School Education K.A. Sengottaiyan, Minister for Electricity P. Thangamani, and Minister for Environment K.C. Karuppannan inaugurated the campaign. Mr. Karuppannan said that the public access the portal, http://www.plasticpollution freetn.org/ explained the single-use
One of the worst culprits of single-use plastic waste are plastic water bottles that are discarded as soon as the drink has been finished. According to campaigners, Ban the Bottle, plastic water bottles can take between 400 and 1,000 years to decompose. Furthermore, it takes three times the amount of water to produce a plastic bottle than it does to fill one. But many clever and eco-conscious people are coming up with great ways to combat the problem. One of these is
For the millions of sun seekers who head to Thailand’s resort island of Phuket each year in search of stunning beaches and clear waters, cutting down on waste may not be a top priority. But the island’s hotel association is hoping to change that with a series of initiatives aimed at reducing the use of plastic, tackling the garbage that washes up on its shores, and educating staff, local communities and tourists alike. “Hotels unchecked are huge consumers and users of single-use
