Learn more

A new study from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) found that some plastic straws break down quicker than others, while others dont break down at all. Latest figures suggest that there are 437 million to 8.3 billion plastic straws on the worlds coastlines. But while they are everywhere, scientists still dont know how long they take to break down into equally harmful microplastics. The researchers used straws from eight materials In a study published in the journal ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, WHOI scientists Collin Ward, Bryan James, Chris Reddy, and Yanchen Sun se