Washing clothes is a significant source of global microfiber pollution

What to do about the microplastics in your laundry

Synthetic fabrics shed millions of tons of microplastics into oceans each year, largely through laundry wastewater. Here are ways to reduce the pollution.

Synthetic textiles and tires are the top sources of secondary ocean microplastics

These sources contribute more than 60% of the primary microplastics polluting the oceans, followed by city dust and road markings. City dust is made of pieces of building coatings, synthetic footwear, and other human-made objects that have broken off due to weathering and abrasion.

The prevalence of microplastics came from plastic’s affordability and versatility

Microplastics' durability and overuse have led to massive pollution that overwhelms the planet's ecosystems. Avian, terrestrial, and marine life have been observed to contain microplastics in their bodies, but reverting to paper, cotton, and other materials in manufacturing also brings environmental challenges.

Microplastics are entering human food chains through fertilized farmland

Microplastics from sewage sludge used as fertilizer contaminate agricultural soil and eventually enter our bodies through the food supply of carrots, wheat, and other foodstuffs. In Europe, farmland may absorb up to 710 trillion microplastic particles yearly.

To reduce wrinkles in clothing, research recommends gentle wash cycles with more water and tumble drying with smaller loads and longer times.

To reduce wrinkles in clothing, research recommends gentle wash cycles with more water and tumble drying with smaller loads and longer times.

We're breathing microplastics

White blood cells can't fight off microplastics and that sparks inflammation and bigger health risks. They're in our food, water, even the rain. What does that mean for us?

Research has shown that bioengineered algae can help remove microplastics

Scientists at the University of Missouri found that, like microplastics, some algae are particularly hydrophobic—they repel water—and that both can clump together to form a microplastic-algae sludge, which can then be collected to remove microplastics from water. Researchers believe this algae provides a scalable solution for microplastic removal that can be employed in wastewater treatment processes.

Mermaid tears are a lasting and hazardous form of ocean plastic pollution

Also known as nurdles, these tiny plastic pellets are extremely difficult to remove once spilled. Their chemical composition, which enhances absorption, causes them to contain higher concentrations of certain toxins than the surrounding environment.

What percentage of the world’s plastic waste actually gets recycled?

Despite growing awareness of the world’s plastic waste challenges, the numbers showing how much of the world’s plastic waste actually gets recycled are abysmal. Only 9% of the world’s plastic waste is properly recycled, and a significant portion remains landfilled, mismanaged, or incinerated. Read this article for further analysis of why this is and what can be done in the future to better manage plastic waste.

Founder of The Ocean Cleanup explains the case for cleaning oceans

Removing trash from the oceans not only saves wildlife, it may save human lives, too. The CEO and founder of The Ocean Cleanup explains how existing plastic pollution harms us and get harder to clean up over time.

Thousands of quarters and huge water bills: the economics of laundromats

There are approximately 30,000 laundromats in the US, serving the roughly 50% of apartment dwellers who do not have a washer or dryer. Shops profit when they can get their machines—roughly 30 to 40 per location, on average—to wash eight to 10 loads a day. Connections with commercial vendors help.

Americans throw away nearly 40% of their food supply

The US discards roughly 63 million tons of food per year, making it one of the largest contributors to landfill waste. Food scrap waste is the single largest category of material sent to landfills.

Multi-material 3D printing produces filament waste if only one nozzle is used

When swapping between colors or materials in a fused deposition modeling system, a considerable amount of filament is purged from the nozzle before introducing a new filament. Filament extruders can create new filament from purged elements, but the device combines colors and produces filaments of inconsistent diameter.

An investigation suggests a Scottish island became awash in forever chemicals via seafoam and seaspray—raising questions about what that means for the safety of other coastal areas.

How marine debris accumulates in giant garbage patches

National Geographic breaks down everything you need to know about The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, along with pictures. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a collection of marine debris in the North Pacific Ocean. Marine debris is litter that ends up in the ocean, seas, and other large bodies of water.

Explore the water footprint of producing various proteins, fruits, and vegetables

This interactive gallery highlights the various types of water behind the production of biofuels, foods, and materials such as cotton. Diets high in bovine meat, whose production requires 15,415 liters of water per kilogram (1,847 gallons per pound), are among the most water-intensive, whereas every kilogram of vegetables uses 322 liters of water (39 gal/lb) to produce.

The use of fungi to detoxify land and water—a process known as mycoremediation—has been used to clean up natural resources affected by the 2025 California wildfires.

What happens to golf balls after they're used?

With over 1 billion golf balls produced annually, an estimated 300 million to 1.5 billion are lost worldwide. On average, thousands of balls are left behind on each course, often ending up in ponds, forests, and beaches. While many golf courses recover and reuse some of these balls, studies suggest countless remain unretrieved.

Watch what it’s like to spend a day on the International Space Station

Microgravity makes personal care more complex on the International Space Station, where stray, floating materials must be captured to prevent them from entering vents and clogging filtration vents. No-rinse shampoo, water pouches, and other strategies help minimize obstructions.

Learn why water can take millions of years to be recycled via the hydrologic cycle

While a single drop of water spends an average of nine days in the atmosphere before precipitating back to Earth, it can spend thousands of years in the ocean before evaporating, and hundreds of thousands of years deep in rock layers before being released as steam in volcanic eruptions. Some water molecules have been trapped in Antarctic ice sheets for millions of years since they last moved through the water cycle.

Sewage on cruise ships is cleaned onboard by bacteria and advanced filtration systems

A cruise ship's onboard sewage plant processes black water, human waste or sewage, and gray water, wastewater from sinks, showers, and washing machines. Treated water is stored until the ship reaches a distance where it can legally discharge it.

Glass can be endlessly recycled without losing quality

Sand from specialized mines is thoroughly cleaned and melted at more than 1,600 degrees Celsius before being poured onto liquid tin and evenly spread out to form glass sheets. Some factories are designed to reprocess 100% of glass scraps created when cutting glass with diamond-tipped blades or lasers.

Integrated circuits are made with light and require significant purified water and chemicals

The nonstop operation of fabrication plants, which takes months to manufacture a wafer of hundreds of integrated circuits, strains local resources and generates significant chemical waste. Much of the electricity consumed is used to maintain clean room conditions within plants.

The use of fungi to detoxify land and water—a process known as mycoremediation—has been used to clean up natural resources affected by the 2025 California wildfires.

How often should you clean your water bottle?

Experts say a daily wash of a high-use bottle is key to keep away unwanted bacteria and odors. For a good clean, use water—as hot as 140 degrees Fahrenheit—mixed with soap, swirling the mixture in the bottle before letting it sit for 20 minutes. Learn more tips with this quick overview.

Various pollutants may be contributing to a male infertility crisis

Male infertility, due to declining sperm counts or quality, accounts for about half of the cases of infertility among couples. Recent research has found that global sperm counts fell, on average, by 1.2% per year between 1973 and 2018—from 104 million to 49 million per milliliter. From 2000, this rate of decline accelerated to more than 2.6% per year. (Some users may encounter a paywall.)

How goldfish cause significant environmental damage when released

Researchers have found that goldfish cause "regime shifts" in habitats as they search for food in places like lake beds, kicking up sediment that muddies the water and disrupts small invertebrates. They can also outcompete native species to further destabilize existing food webs.

Watch how deep-sea mining equipment collects and processes polymetallic nodules—metal-rich, potato-shaped rocks—from the ocean floor and creates environmentally damaging plumes of sediments.

Massive blooms of microscopic plankton called dinoflagellates produce the neon blue light seen in glowing tides.

Urushiol, the oily toxin in poison ivy, can remain allergenic on clothing for years.

Apollo astronauts left items in the moon's 'toss zone,' including golf balls, family photos, and bags of human waste, to make room for lunar rocks.

Shooting stars, or meteors, are fragments of asteroids and comets that burn up as they enter Earth's atmosphere, creating streaks in the sky called meteor showers.

Massive 3D printers have been used to build homes by stacking layers of 'concrete toothpaste,' a fire-resistant material that effectively insulates against outside noise.

Pure water does not conduct electricity because this flow of energy requires the movement of charged particles, and water is a neutral molecule.

Roughly 43 million US borrowers owe roughly $1.7T in student debt, the second-largest source of consumer debt behind mortgages.

Tattoos remain visible on your skin thanks to immune cells called macrophages

As of 2025, the most cited papers in science include a review of graphene, methods to improve image recognition, streamlining electron density calculations, and optimizing protein studies.

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

Scientists can determine Earth's past climate conditions by analyzing air trapped in microscopic bubbles within ice cores—columns of compressed snow layers that build up over hundreds of thousands of years.

Most of the observable universe's volume consists of voids and supervoids—enormous regions of space with little to no galaxies, stars, or light.

Indefinite cloning of some endangered species may not sustain their longevity because cloning success rates decrease as genetic mutations accumulate.

Electrical grids worldwide must double their power delivery capacity by 2050 to meet surging demand from AI and electric vehicles.

Ebola is a filovirus, meaning it resembles a thread under a microscope, though it sometimes twists and can resemble a bowl of spaghetti.

While El Niño moves warm Pacific Ocean waters east along the equator, La Niña moves them west, shifting where rainfall will become more common for months.

Memecoins are a type of cryptocurrency—a form of digital currency with a wide variety of uses—created around popular 'memes,' or viral internet jokes.

Lesser-known phobias include turophobia, or the fear of cheese, and nomophobia, the fear of being without your cell phone.

View the ten deadliest tornadoes in US history.

Use this tool to calculate the dollar value of your parental mental load, from meal planning to coordinating after-school care, then see resources that help generate solutions.

The syncytiotrophoblast is the outer layer of the placenta and the largest human cell, spanning an area about twice that of a king-sized bedsheet.