Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers have begun mass-producing disposable face shields for medical workers fighting Covid-19, which come flat-packed and can be folded into shape. More
Brooklyn artist Robin Frohardt has used old plastic bags to create foods such as tomatoes and sushi rolls for an installation in New York's Times Square. More
Sushi wrapped in shopping bags and beer frothing with styrofoam bubbles are among the unappetising images in Sweet Sneak Studio's Microplastic Photo Series that explore the impacts of plastic pollution. More
A new range of facade cladding tiles made of recycled PVC construction waste, designed by Dutch studios Overtreders W and Bureau SLA, has been used on a permanent building for the first time. More
Dutch designers Iris van Daalen and Ruben Thier's The Plastic Mine is a series of home accessories made from plastic clumps gathered from a factory floor. More
Designers disagreed about whether we can live without plastic at the inaugural Dezeen Day conference, with architect Arthur Mamou-Mani saying "we still need" the material and designer Nienke Hoogvliet arguing that "we shouldn't produce any more". More
Most ocean plastic starts off in rivers. From bubble curtains to googly-eyed trash wheels, here are four technologies designed to intercept river plastic before it gets to the sea. More
Kazakhstani designer Enis Akiev has developed a method for turning single-use plastic packaging into tiles, by emulating the organic process of rock formation. More
An easily biodegradable material that could be "part of a global answer" to single-use plastic pollution has won its inventor, British designer Lucy Hughes, the international James Dyson Award. More
New York designer Charlotte McCurdy has fashioned a water-resistant jacket from a plastic made of algae. More
Dutch designer Richard Hutten clashed with the CEO of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation at the Dezeen Day conference last week, with the two speakers disagreeing over the role of plastic in the circular economy. More
Dutch non-profit The Ocean Cleanup has launched the Interceptor, an autonomous system for collecting plastic pollution from rivers before it reaches the sea. More
French designer Dorian Renard has applied traditional glassblowing techniques to a series of plastic furniture and sculptural pieces, in a bid to present the maligned material in a new light. More
Amsterdam-based Studio Drift has created an installation of 3,000 blue blocks, which each represent the plastic used to make an individual supermarket bag, at the Van Abbemuseum for Dutch Design Week. More
The UK government has called for experts to help it develop standards for bioplastics and biodegradable plastics, amid rising concern over greenwashing. More
University of Sussex graduate Lucy Hughes used fish waste to create MarinaTex, a compostable alternative to single-use plastic that has won her this year's UK James Dyson Award. More
Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs talked to design gallerist Rossana Orlandi about her Guiltless Plastic initiative in a discussion hosted by Istituto Marangoni London. More
Industrial design studio PriestmanGoode swaps single-use plastic for ground coffee beans and rice husk in its overhaul of throwaway cabin service goods from meal trays to toiletries. More
Sam Jacob has reimagined a famous Eames textile for his London Design Festival installation Sea Things, to highlight the threat ocean plastic poses to marine life. More
Corn husks, wool and yoghurt pots are some of the materials used in a series of experimental spectacles by British eyewear brand Cubitts. More
