Cigarette butts, not straws, are the #1 source of plastic pollution in the ocean, according to new report

Unless humans make major changes, the amount of plastic polluting the world’s oceans is expected to triple within a decade, a new UK government report warns.

Inundated with more plastic than it can recycle, China says its done being the “world’s garbage dump,”  causing backups and chaos at recycling plants across Europe, the U.S., Canada and Australia

Recycling is piling up at Rogue Waste System in southern Oregon. Employees say their only option for now is to send it to a landfill. Jes Burns/OPB/EarthFix

For the last 2o years, China recycled about half of the world’s plastics and paper products. While this helped supply its manufacturing boom, the country says it has had enough.

Plastic stems from cotton swabs collected on a beach in Scotland. Credit: BBC

Scotland just cut it’s contribution to ocean plastic pollution in half by banning the sale of plastic-stemmed cotton swabs.