People have been chewing on substances made from plants, grasses, and resins for a long time. The Ancient Greeks chewed mastic gum, made from the resin of the mastic tree. The Chinese used ginseng plant roots and the Mayans and Aztecs used chicle, a natural tree gum, as a base for making a gum-like substance. But modern-day chewing gum was mainly commercialized in the United States where the American Indians chewed resin made from the sap of spruce trees.
Read MoreBoyan Slat, born in 1994 in the Netherlands, has devoted his time and energy to investigating how to clean up plastic pollution in the oceans since he was 16. He quit his Aerospace Engineering studies at TU Delft University to be able to work full-time on bringing his ideas to life. In 2013 he founded The Ocean Cleanup, a foundation that develops technologies to extract plastic pollution from the oceans and prevent more plastic debris from entering them.
Read MoreThe problems with plastic pollution are getting worse by the day. The estimated 8 million tons (yes, really) of plastic that ends up in the ocean every year is expected to double by 2025 and is estimated to rise to 60 tons per minute by 2050 if today's plastic use and lack of adequate waste management continues. These vast amounts of plastic have increasing impact on the environment and marine life.
Read MoreMicroplastics pollution in oceans, rivers and lakes are not only made of microbeads and broken down pieces of plastic coming from bags, bottles etc. On the contrary, multiple studies have found that synthetic fibers coming from our clothes make up the biggest share of microplastics in the environment. (for example, according to a study by IUCN nearly 34%).
Read MoreNot only are plastics an issue for our health, they also pose problems when they´re disposed of. In Europe almost 30 % of plastics are recycled and almost 40% are used in energy recovery processes, leaving more than 30% to go to landfills. In the US these numbers are almost 10% for recycling, 15% for energy recovery and 75% for landfills. According to the United Nations Environmental Program, between 22 percent and 43 percent of the plastic used worldwide is disposed of in landfills.
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