Plastic Pollution

Plastics have transformed every aspect of our lives. Yet the very properties that make them attractive--they are cheap to make, light, and durable--spell disaster when trash makes its way into the environment. Plastic Soup: An Atlas of Ocean Pollution is a beautifully-illustrated survey of the plastics clogging our seas, their impacts on wildlife and people around the world, and inspirational initiatives designed to tackle the problem. With striking photography and graphics, Plastic Soup brings plastic pollution to brilliant life for readers. According to some estimates, if we continue on our current path, the oceans will contain more plastic than fish by the year 2050. Created to inform and inspire readers, Plastic Soup is a critical tool in the fight to reverse this trend.

Plastic pollution is one of the most damaging environmental issues we face today. And no one is more passionate about solving this problem and protecting our world than kids! This new title in the Get Started With STEM series gives young science enthusiasts all the information they need to investigate and do their part to help solve this problem now and for the future. Packed with facts, discussion topics, imaginative ideas for activities, experiments, and investigations, this book will have students eager to use their science skills and knowledge to tackle plastic pollution head on.

Plastic products and packaging are integral to modern daily life. Plastic is durable, cheap, light and can be flexible or rigid, with multiple uses, however plastic is also making the planet a victim of its own success. Plastic pollution has become an epidemic, afflicting land, waterways, coastlines and oceans. More than 8 million tonnes of plastic enter the world's oceans each year, killing marine life as it breaks down into billions of microplastic pieces, without decomposing. Consumption of plastic has increased exponentially, but while recycling is well established, only a small proportion of plastic is recovered for recycling or energy recovery. How can we reduce the amount of plastic waste, increase recycling and minimise impacts on the environment? What are governments, industry, retailers and consumers doing to eliminate the use of plastic packaging to reduce landfill waste and ocean pollution? This book offers confronting facts on the impacts of plastic,but also features strategies aimed at tackling plastic pollution. Now is the time to save our planet from the growing perils of plastic.

"Plastic bags don't belong in the sea!" Everybody has a taste for Stanley - and the other ocean creatures just keepmistaking him for a delicious treat - but this is no ordinary jellyfish. Most jellyfish have dangly-gangly tentacles, but Stanley has two handles... Other jellyfish have a magical glow, but Stanley has stripes... Because Stanley (spoiler alert) is a plastic bag! A beautifully illustrated picture book with a powerful message about plastic pollution from environmental expert Sarah Roberts. The perfect gift to introduce children to the issues of plastic in our oceans Brilliant for teachers to read to children in class when introducing them to pollution issues This book is made of material from well-managed FSC-certifiedforests and other controlled sources

Millions of tons of plastic slip into oceans every year. Some floats and travels slowly with the currents, endangering the health of marine animals. The rest is hardly visible but is far more dangerous. Tiny bits of plastic sprinkle the ocean's surface or mix into the sandy seafloor and beaches. It ends up inside birds, fish, and other animals, harming them-and ultimately humans. Experts struggle with fear and hope as they work to stop the flood of plastic threatening living organisms across the globe.

A refreshing take on an all-too-important topic. Neo spends all his time playing his favorite video game, joining forces with other Earth-bots to defend the planet against invading aliens. But when his sea creature neighbors won’t stop pleading with him to help them clean up the plastic that’s ruining the ocean, Neo reluctantly agrees to check it out, and he’s shocked by what he discovers. There’s an actual invasion taking place right outside his door — a plastic invasion! And it’s too big to handle on his own! Sure to inspire real Earth-bots — er, children — everywhere to heed Neo’s call to protect the oceans from plastic!

Much of what you've heard about plastic pollution may be wrong. Instead of a great island of trash, the infamous Great Pacific Garbage Patch is made up of manmade debris spread over hundreds of miles of sea--more like a soup than a floating garbage dump. Less than nine percent of the plastic we create is reused, and microplastic fragments are found almost everywhere, even in our bodies. In Thicker Than Water: The Quest for Solutions to the Plastic Crisis, journalist Erica Cirino brings readers on a globe-hopping journey to meet the scientists and activists telling the real story of the plastic crisis. New technologies and awareness bring some hope, but Cirino shows that we can only fix the problem if we begin to repair our throwaway culture. Thicker Than Water is an eloquent call to reexamine the systems churning out waves of plastic waste.

Plastic has become a ubiquitous part of modern life. A cheap, lightweight material, it is used in everything from food packaging to consumer electronics and microbeads in cosmetic products. However, we are becoming increasingly aware of the problems our reliance on plastic is causing in the environment. For example, recent campaigns have highlighted the build-up of microbeads in the marine environment and the damage this is doing to wildlife, and the problem of marine litter, often in very remote locations. There are also concerns over exposure to plasticisers and their possible consequences for health. The plastics industry is under increasing pressure, not only from the government and environmental groups, but also from consumers, to improve the environmental impact of their products. This book presents an introduction to the uses of plastics and an overview of how they interact with the environment. It is a valuable resource for students studying environmental science as well as researchers working in the plastics industry, and policy makers and regulators concerned with waste disposal and environmental planning and conservation.