Planet or Plastic? is National Geographic’s multiyear effort to raise awareness about the global plastic trash crisis. Come to this page often to learn more, and find out what you can do to ...

Plastic bags start out as fossil fuels and end up as deadly waste in landfills and the ocean. Birds often mistake shredded plastic bags for food, filling their stomachs with toxic debris. For hungry ...

Inside your refrigerator and pantry, plastic is everywhere ... that replacement compounds may be just as problematic. Such patterns have repeated multiple times throughout environmental health ...

Despite global concerns over the accumulation of plastic waste, the drive to produce new plastics shows no signs of slowing down. According to OECD data, the world’s annual plastic production ...

Plastic is a really useful man-made material that has transformed our lives, but what happens after we throw it away is causing a big problem for our planet. Plastic waste can last for hundreds of ...

You see photos of plastic pollution in the ocean, but it can be hard to connect that to the plastic you're buying and using every day. Here are three ways the plastic you throw away can end up in the ...

Plastic surgery is often associated with cosmetic procedures like nose jobs or liposuctions. And while these are an important aspect of what plastic surgeons do, they're not the only focus. These ...

A rising tide of plastic waste is choking our oceans, threatening fragile ecosystems and killing sea life. While plastic has revolutionised our way of life since it was invented in the 1950s, the ...

Some of the worst offenders, which can take decades to degrade in landfills, are polypropylene—which is used for things such as food packaging and bumpers—and polyethylene, found in plastic ...

In the form of bottles, tires, packaging and piping, millions of tons of plastic waste are dumped every year in the world's waterways, often ending up in the oceans. And their amount could almost ...