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When you casually fling a plastic bottle or a wrapper out the car window, you could be sending the plastic on an odyssey that may eventually take it to the sea — even if that is thousands of kilometres away — via the nearest drain that could be emptying into a stream, which may be meeting a river that merges with a bigger river, which finally snakes its way to a sea or an ocean.Seems far-fetched? Consider this. In 2021,

About 70 years ago, at the dawn of the ‘plastic age’, it was forecast that this synthetic material would touch all aspects of modern life. It has, and how! Today, plastics are all around us, including places they were not meant to be in – deep in our lungs, in our bloodstreams, in many foods and even in excreta.Last year, researchers at Amsterdam’s Vrije Universiteit detected microplastic pollution in almost 80% of

Lowe’s India, the global capability centre for the $97-billion US home improvement giant Lowe’s Companies, recently organised a 5km ‘Plog Run’ for its employees at Bengaluru’s Nandi Hills. Equipped with gloves and bags, over 100 associates cleared 344kg of plastic and paper waste from the foothills. The litter consisted of plastic wrappers, cigarette butts, bottles, bottle caps, and other single-use micro plastics – one of the most harmful pollutants threatening human and animal life. The initiative was organised in collaboration

CHENNAI: More than 80% of the 177kg litter collected during a clean-up drive at Elliot’s beach in Besant Nagar on Thursday was single-use plastics. Volunteers, who spent around 90 minutes to collect the waste strewn on the beach sands over a 10,500sqm area, collected around 1.68grams per square metre area. Union minister of earth sciences Kiren Rijiju launched and participated in the beach clean-up organised by the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) and National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR)

Samsung Electronics announced its new Less Microfiber filter, an external washing machine filter designed to significantly reduce plastic microfiber emissions during laundry cycles. The new washing machine external filtre has been designed with inspiration from apparel maker Patagonia and the global ocean conservation organisation Ocean Wise. The company says that the filter builds on the success of last year’s Less Microfiber Cycle to substantially cut microplastics and enable sustainable laundry washing. The new filter is now available in Korea and

World Ocean Day serves as a reminder of the significant role that oceans play in our daily lives. They provide essential food and chemicals that are useful in treating humans, and are vital components of the biosphere. The day takes place annually on the 8th of June, and the objective of the same is to raise public awareness about the consequences of human activities in the ocean.Kundali Bhagya fame Shraddha Arya throws a light on the importance of oceans. On

World Ocean Day is an important global observance dedicated to raising awareness about the significance of the world’s oceans and the need to protect and preserve them. Here are 10 things to know about World Ocean Day: Date and Background: World Ocean Day is celebrated annually on June 8th. It was officially recognized by the United Nations in 2008, but the concept of a day dedicated to the ocean was proposed by the Canadian government in 1992 at the Earth Summit

PANAJI: The world’s first chatbot allowing citizens to report plastic dumps in public places is set to be tested in Goa by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) – India. It will be launched on Thursday and citizens can use WhatsApp to connect with the chatbot. It will ask several questions to understand the type and quantity of plastic dumped. Location and photographs of the dump can also be shared.Data collected

DEHRADUN: The administration of Dehradun cantonment has been fighting plastic menace by using its waste in making eco-bricks, park benches, plastic sheets, and other items.Under the effort to minimise the use of plastic inside the cantonment, it is also promoting alternative to plastic bags in the market places by setting up ‘thaila-ghars’ (bag houses) where they sell cloth bags made of old clothes and bedsheets by the women empowerment centres, at cheap prices.Informing more about the environment-friendly steps taken under