Biodegradable plastics don’t break down on their own. Researchers found ocean microbes play a key role, and results can vary widely.

MIT researchers have identified how communities of ocean bacteria cooperate to decompose biodegradable plastics, a finding that could reshape how scientists and manufacturers think about the fate of ...

Biodegradable plastics could help alleviate the plastic waste crisis that is polluting the environment and harming our health ...

Polystyrene is made from styrene building blocks and is the most widely used plastic in terms of volume, for example in packaging. Unlike PET, which can now be produced and recycled using ...

A new study led by Colorado State University Distinguished Professor Eugene Chen outlines a path to creating advanced, recyclable plastics. Published in Nature, the study describes a breakthrough ...

In a landfill, a plastic bottle can take more than a thousand years to break down. But a new process can transform polyethylene plastic in days, using bacteria to eat the waste and then turn it into a ...

Plastic pollution is a major threat to human survival, with more than six hundred thousand tons of plastics on Earth. 2 In an effort to reduce the concentration of conventional plastics, scientists ...

Plastic is an essential material in the modern world, but it's also environmentally costly to produce and a major pollutant. A material called pyridinedicarboxylic acid, or PDCA, could help address at ...

Mango Materials, a California-based company that creates biodegradable polymers for use in plastic products, has been scaling up and commercializing a biomanufacturing technology that utilizes methane ...

Japan-based materials experts have made impressive progress in the search for a better biodegradable plastic. The breakthrough starts with an abundant material: cellulose from wood pulp. Takuzo Aida, ...

Jie Wu, an engineering graduate student, was studying a type of striking white beetle found in Southeast Asia and attempting to figure out how to mimic its brilliant color when an unexpected discovery ...

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Plastic bags and other products now made from petroleum will be made from a new biodegradable corn-based plastic at a new factory to be built in eastern Iowa. Cambridge, Mass.