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An incredible waste … disposable slippers add to a massive pile of waste in the hotel industry.

The dark truth about hotel slippers

I never wear them. But the housekeepers in every hotel I stay in continue to unwrap them from their plastic coverings and put them by my bed regardless.

  • Lee Tulloch

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Hutcheon said single-use plastics used outside the home lead to the most litter.

‘Nothing seems to be happening’: Is Queensland falling behind on plastic bans?

Queensland paused its single-use plastics road map two years ago and is yet to decide a new direction.

  • Julius Dennis
Kedron Brook, Brisbane.

The Brisbane creeks with 4000 microplastics in just a kilo of sludge

QUT researchers sampled sediment from Kedron Brook, Enoggera and Bulimba creeks four times a year looking for plastics. They found a lot.

  • Julius Dennis
Plastic-free advocate Sarah Rhodes pictured at her home in Mosman with her collection of glass storage containers and sustainable kitchenware.

You can get plastic out of your body. But it's not easy

In a new study, some participants were able to halve the levels of plastic-related chemicals in their blood, but only after an odyssey to build a plastic-free food chain.

  • Liam Mannix
Drowning in plastic: How hard can it be to live for a week without single-use plastic?

Tooth powder and blocked drains: My week without single-use plastic

Single-use plastic is ubiquitous, but alternatives are growing. It should be simple for an environment reporter to live for a week without it, right? Wrong.

  • Bianca Hall
plastic

Can you really ‘detox’ from plastic?

Plastic is everywhere – in our clothes, couches and the materials used to build our homes – but experts say you can minimise your exposure in these simple ways.

  • Nina Agrawal
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Ellie Tam.

‘Plastic anxiety’: Is this the next big shift in activewear?

Growing concerns about the effects of plastics on our health and the environment are changing what modern consumers want from their workout gear.

  • Lauren Ironmonger
Microplastics found on a beach at Manly Cove. They are ubiquitous.

Away from the headlines, microplastics field grapples with tricky questions

The year was 1966. The Soviets landed on the moon, the Beatles were more popular than Jesus, and plastic was still a miracle.

  • Liam Mannix
Were we wrong about microplastics?

The ‘bombshell’ science that casts doubt on claims about microplastics

New findings have some scientists concerned about the technology used to detect tiny pieces of plastic in the body.

  • Sarah Knapton
Infrared imaging shows how hot a sportsfield in Gables gets.

On a hot day, astroturf can reach up to 75 degrees. That’s only the start of its problems

Rubber crumb and synthetic turf have proliferated on sporting fields and playgrounds in Australian cities, but are a growing problem for climate adaptation as well as PFAS and microplastic pollution.

  • Caitlin Fitzsimmons