Sources:
- Bioplastics
- Phys.org: News on Plastics
- The Conversation: articles on single use plastic, articles on plastic pollution, articles on microplastics
- 15 Oct 2025 CERTIFIED BIODEGRADABLE PLASTICS BREAK DOWN IN SOIL AND COMPOSTING FACILITIES / Resource / review examining agricultural mulch films, tree guards, and composting applications shows that certified biodegradable materials mineralise through microbial activity rather than accumulating as persistent microplastics.
Bacteria which eat plastics
Plastic-eating bacteria can help waste self-destruct / BBC News 30 April 2024
https://www.nsf.gov/news/genetically-modified-bacteria-break-down-plastics-saltwater
These are references from the talk 'Plastics and Environment' (13 Oct 2025). Slides are available on the Talks page.
[1] ‘Worrying’ amounts of microplastics in chalk stream / Jon Cuthill for BBC South 1 Sept 2025
[2] Plastics: all around us and inside us / Rose Busquets and Marcel Jansen in The Conversation 20 Aug 2025
The Plastic Diet / Which? September 2025
Quotation from A Climate of Truth / Mike Berners-Lee / Cambridge University Press 2025
Microplastics, pregnancy and the placenta / Priya Bhide and Nelima Hossain in The Conversation 1 Sept 2025
Microplastics are in our brains / Sarah Hellewell, Anastazja Gorecki, and Charlotte Sofield in The Conversation 28 Aug 2024
[11] Scientists Reviewed 7,000 Studies on Microplastics. Their alarming conclusion puts humanity on notice / Raubenheimer, Chemistry International Jan-Mar 2025 (original work: Twenty years of microplastic pollution research—what have we learned? / Thompson et al, Science Vol 386, Issue 6720 19 Sept 2024
[3] Plastic particles in bottled water / Vicki Contie for National Institutes for Health, 23 Jan 2024 (original work: Rapid single-particle chemical imaging of nanoplastics by SRS microscopy Qian et al, Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 16 Jan 2024)
[4] Countdown on health and plastics / Landrigan et al, Lancet Volume 406, Issue 10507 P1044-1062 6 Sept 2025 (open access but you will have to register)
[5] Are bioplastics better for the environment? / Anja Kreiger in Ensia, 16 July 2019
[12] Considerations for compostable plastic packaging / UK Plastics Pact. These are guidelines for companies designing packaging: but look at the complexity of the recommendations. This is not a simple 'compostable is best' situation.
[6] Recycling can release huge quantities of microplastics / Karen McVeigh in The Guardian, 23 May 2023 (original work: The potential for a plastic recycling facility to release microplastic pollution Brown et al, Journal of Hazardous Materials Advances Volume 10, May 2023)
Recycling in the UK follow the money.
Just 9.5% of plastic made in 2022 used recycled material / Sandra Laville in The Guardian 10 April 2025
[7] Global producer responsibility for plastic pollution / Cowger et al, Science 24 April 2024
[8] The campaign to reduce plastic pollution / Oceana
[9] Global plastics talks collapse / Esme Stallard and Mark PoyntingforBBC News 15 Aug 2025
UN plastics treaty chair to step down with process in turmoil / Emma Bryce and others in The Guardian 7 Oct 2025
[10] A plastic bag’s 2000-mile journey shows the messy truth about recycling / Bloomberg 22 March 2022
[13] What happens to the plastic in dishwasher pods? / Matt Fuchs in Time magazine, 29 Sept 2025. Time devotes a whole article to one product.
Note added: since the talk was written some of the work reporting microplastics in human tissue has been criticised by other researchers - see Second Nature 049 for more on this.
Originally posted as a child page Scrapbook Pages. Categories: plastics, pollution.
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