The process of recycling can actually make plastics more hazardous to human health, according to a recent Greenpeace report that calls on the United Nations to rule it out as a scalable fix for plastic pollution. More
Spanish design studio Nagami has completed a shop interior for sustainable clothing brand Ecoalf near Madrid that is almost entirely 3D printed from recycled plastic. More
In our latest competition, Dezeen has teamed up with PlasticFree to give 100 readers a chance to attend Incredible Future NOW – an interdisciplinary forum of talks focusing on the climate crisis in New York City. More
The sale of single-use plastic tableware and certain takeaway containers will be prohibited in England starting this autumn, the UK government has announced. More
Environmental organisation A Plastic Planet has launched an online platform to help architects and designers source plastic-free materials for their projects and avoid the "minefield of misinformation" around more sustainable alternatives. More
Los Angeles streetwear brand Rose In Good Faith has collaborated with sex toy manufacturer Doc Johnson to create a pair of shoes using plastic recycled from sex toys. More
Dezeen Showroom: textured recycled plastic is used to create the minimalist Juno 02 chair, which design brand Studio Irvine has created for Italian brand Arper. More
California-based industrial designer Reiten Cheng has developed a recycling machine that can be 3D printed using open-source instructions and used to turn PET bottles into filament for additive manufacturing. More
Charlotte Böhning and Mary Lempres of Doppelgänger have developed a bioplastic version of polystyrene foam that is made from the exoskeleton of mealworms and breaks down in soil in a couple of weeks. More
World leaders from 175 countries have agreed to draw up a legally binding UN treaty that will regulate plastic production and pollution on an international scale for the first time. More
Massachusetts Institute of Technology chemical engineers have invented a new type of plastic that is twice as strong as steel and could one day be used as a building material. More
Danish brand Sinful has created a range of three sex toys using ocean plastic collected in Southeast Asia. More
Discarded plastic medical equipment from hospitals across Europe was melted into a filament and 3D-printed to create the mobile toilet cubicle The Throne, designed by Spanish studio Nagami for the To.org foundation. More
Rotterdam studio The New Raw has recycled misprints and prototypes from its previous experiments in additive manufacturing to 3D print a limited edition chair called Ermis. More
Thinking of using plastic in your project? Our latest Dezeen guide includes more than 11 types of plastic commonly used in architecture, design and interiors, with links to hundreds of projects for inspiration. More
The winners at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics will be crowned on podiums designed by Japanese artist Asao Tokolo, which were made from 24.5 tonnes of discarded household plastics. More
Toy brand Lego has created its first prototype bricks using recycled PET plastic from discarded bottles. More
Berlin startup Made of Air has developed a bioplastic made of forest and farm waste that sequesters carbon and can be used for everything from furniture to building facades. More
German designers Kai Linke and Peter Eckart have created an exhibition for the London Design Biennale in which disposable plastic cutlery is displayed as archaeological artefacts. More
New York artist Hugo McCloud has created a series of artworks that contain no paint or glue, only thousands of small plastic pieces cut from single-use bags and melted together to form a motif. More
