Choose plastic-free options for everyday products 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

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

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 person in gloves collects water samples from a shallow body of water near industrial structures.

Tech

EPA skips microplastics on US drinking-water monitoring list despite warnings about health risks

A cluster of oysters partially submerged in calm water.

Tech

Texas Gulf oysters show signs of stress as microplastics turn up in nearly all tested

A robotic device with yellow foam floats and electronic components on a blue table.

Tech

New York teachers build a snail-inspired robot that traps microplastics in water

Discarded plastic bags and debris spread across a dirt surface.

Tech

Study finds treated plastic fully breaks down in soil over 2 years, with no microplastics