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How to make plastic less of an environmental burden

Plastic has long been an ecological problem. But emerging technologies and more awareness could make the ubiquitous material part of a circular economy.
  1. Sarah DeWeerdt

    1. Sarah DeWeerdt is a science writer based in Seattle, Washington.

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An illustration showing colourful molecules forming a plastic bottle and dismantled to form a plastic chair.

Credit: Jan Kallwejt

There’s a soap dish for sale at a beauty products shop in São Paulo, Brazil. An off-white disc with a smooth, rounded shape like a river stone, it is just one of millions of plastic soap dishes on offer in shops around the world. But, although most plastics are made from petroleum, some of the plastic in this dish started out as methane generated by a water-treatment facility in California.

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Nature 611, S2-S5 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-03644-1

This article is part of Nature Outlook: The circular economy, an editorially independent supplement produced with the financial support of third parties. About this content.

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