Bottled water creates a great deal of waste, both in the production stream and as physical garbage. It has no place in our national parks. Unfortunately, bottled water interests -- especially Coke -- disagree.

The next time you feel a certain malaise that often accompanies being environmentally aware these days, shut off the device, step outside, find the biggest blue or green expanse around, and jump, hike, or climb in.

It is politically difficult to use cassava in the production of plastic bags instead of as nourishment in the midst of a global food crisis.

The bottom line is recycling is good, but it's not going to get us even close to the goal of zero landfill waste. A consumer economy centered around compostable products is a lot sounder and could even be tasty.

While hundreds of tons of plastic garbage have been removed from the area, much more remains. We've ignored this problem for decades; that has to end before this special place is ruined forever.

I've heard for decades the same story of the ocean getting a fraction of the attention, funding and protection it deserves and needs. I know you have, too.

Everywhere I look I see plastic. From the lid on my morning coffee to the flossers that I wedge between my kids' teeth before bed, it's as ubiquitous as it is convenient.

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What do mushrooms, tires and soda bottles have in common? They are all being used, recycled or even upcycled through innovative programs that prevent waste from entering the environment.

Around the dump, impoverished Brazilians live, work and play in the discards of consumerism. Toxic chemicals, fetid liquid, and a river of plastic trash all pollute the salt water around the mangroves, which eventually runs out to the sea.

About 80 percent of the pollution that ends up in our oceans is plastic, including sandwich bags that choke sea turtles and monofilament fishing line that ensnares sea lions and seals. All the plastic talk culminates next Thursday, at an all-day conference at Rio+20 called Plasticity.

Humans have incredible technological skill and drive to produce and expand. This skill and drive, however, is not yet matched by a drive to collectively curtail the massive environmental damage we are wreaking on the Earth and the systems that keep us alive.

Sun Valley Elementary school students in San Rafael, CA are urging Crayola to create a take back program for their Crayola markers.

Unless they're recycled or sent to landfill, plastic bags slowly degrade outdoors, often reaching the ocean and interfering with life there. So how are local stores and shoppers dealing with grocery bags today?

The thing that has made bisphenol A so controversial is the fact that it is used in plastic containers and plastic bottles and the linings of tin cans. But lo and behold there has been some good news on that front.

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Plastic does not biodegrade in a meaningful timeframe. Thus, some portion of it accumulates in the environment. The more we produce, consume, and recycle, the more will come into the world and accumulate in landfills, on land, in rivers, and the sea.

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