Change the way you buy and use plastic Archives | The Cool Down

A pyramid tea bag submerged in water with text about microplastic and nanoplastic particles in tea.

Food

'Premium' pyramid tea bags are just plastic mesh, and they shed billions of microplastics into your cup

Map illustrating the Great Pacific Garbage Patch's position between Hawaii, the United States, and Mexico, with garbage concentration indicated.

Tech

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch isn't an island — it sprawls between Hawai'i and California

A marina scene with boats and colorful buildings filled with people along the waterfront.

Business

Massachusetts town renews push to enforce ban on plastic bottles under 34 ounces

Plastic pellets on a beach.

Tech

1 billion plastic pellets from English port spill reach beaches 30 miles away

Brazil's Amazon River basin.

Tech

In Brazil, even a remote Amazon park has microplastics in 8 of 10 fish

A graphic showing how micro-robots clean the ocean and soil.

Tech

Researchers steer magnetic microrobot swarms to remove 94% of microplastics from water

An asphalt road between two corn fields.

Tech

PVC boosts 'forever chemical' uptake in crops, while tire-wear particles suppress it, study finds

A water tower.

Home

Texas officials say foul-smelling tap water fueled false 'human remains' rumor

Women cleaning up the beach.

Outdoors

Florida diver's 60-second beach cleanup spotlights true scale of beach trash issue

A hand in a glove holds a test tube labeled “Cerebrospinal fluid test” filled with yellow liquid.

Tech

Italian study links higher nano- and microplastics in spinal fluid to greater odds of ALS

A woman attaching a metal water bottle to a backpack.

Tech

Parents push back after New Jersey school district bans metal, glass water bottles over safety fears

A takeout container on a table next to a bottle of sauce and stacked plates.

Tech

California officials vote to curb event water bottles and draft a ban on foam products