Tag:
Microplastics
Hartford, CT
News
'Plastics Crisis' Costs $1.5T Annually, Study Says: 'World Cannot Recycle Its Way Out'
Researchers are warning about a "global plastics crisis" that's costing about $1.5 trillion a year in deaths and medical issues. The estimate comes from a new study published in The Lancet medical journal on Sunday, Aug. 3. Plastic production is projected to triple by 2060, and less than 10% is ever recycled. Plastics are made from fossil fuels and contain more than 16,000 chemicals. Around 8,000 megatons are polluting Earth's environment, including the most remote places on the planet. Chemicals and microplastics have been found in the brains and other body parts of humans, along with lan…
White Plains, NY
Politics
Chemistry Council Lobbyists Skirt Campaign Finance Laws: Rivertowns Activists Fight Back
In a David and Goliath standoff, 33 members of Beyond Plastics’s Lower Westchester Chapter, mostly Rivertowns residents, and 250 recycling and plastic reduction advocates met in Albany on May 7th to challenge industry lobbyists and encourage State legislators to Put People over Plastics. The group is fighting for passage of the NYS Packaging Reduction & Recycling Infrastructure Act (PRRIA) even as industry lobbyists try their best to kill it. With a strong PRRIA, New York has an opportunity to address the monumental scourge of plastic pollution and lead the nation in reducing wasteful si…
Albany, NY
News
NY’s Mounting Garbage Crisis Nears Breaking Point As Seneca Meadows Landfill Faces Shutdown
New York’s waste crisis is rapidly escalating as landfills near capacity and the state’s largest—Seneca Meadows—faces a looming closure in 2025, raising alarm statewide. Seneca Meadows, located in the Finger Lakes, currently handles 30% of New York City’s trash. If its permit expires without renewal in 2025, the fallout could overwhelm the state's waste infrastructure. At the core of this crisis is the rise of plastic production and a faltering recycling system. With microplastics entering our food, water, air, and even our bodies—and with links to serious health risks including endocrine d…
Simsbury, CT
News
Hidden Dangers: Study Reveals High Levels Of Plastics In People's Brains
A new study is raising fresh concerns about the hidden dangers of microplastics — this time inside the human brain. Researchers at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences found that plastic particles have not only reached the brain but are present at higher concentrations there than in any other organ. Even more alarming, the buildup appears to be accelerating, with plastic accumulation increasing by 50 percent over the past eight years. The study, published in Nature Medicine, involved an analysis of brain tissue collected during autopsies and stored by the New Mexico Office of…
Mount Vernon, NY
Lifestyle
We’ve Got To Ditch Single-Use Plastics
We’ve got to ditch single-use plastics. We have adopted a disposable lifestyle in which around 50% of plastic is used once and then thrown away. Today, single-use plastics present some of the biggest environmental hazards because plastic can take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade. (A plastic water bottle takes 450 years.) And when plastic breaks down into microplastics, tiny 5mm particles, the dangers increase exponentially. When you discard plastics, they remain in landfills for decades. Contrary to popular belief, only 6% of plastic (actually) gets recycled. As plastics biodegrade, they can…
Ossining, NY
Schools
Four Ossining High School Students Named Regeneron Semifinalists
OSSINING, N.Y. -- Ossining is one of the top schools when it comes to future scientists.Four Ossining High School students made the semifinals in Regeneron's Science Talent Search. Each student receives a $2,000 award, with an additional $2,000 going to the scholar’s school. Sarah Hoffman investigated Alzheimer’s disease-related protein expression and immune cell activation in the brains of male and female mice as well as humans. Hoffman found that female mice have a more severe Alzheimer’s pathology in both brain regions and concluded that research must consider sex differences. The findi…
