Banning Plastic Bags Works to Limit Shoreline Litter, Study Finds
At tens of thousands of shoreline cleanups across the United States in recent years, volunteers logged each piece of litter they pulled from the edges of lakes, rivers and beaches into a global database.
One of the most common entries? Plastic bags.
But in places throughout the United States where plastic bags require a fee or have been banned, fewer bags end up at the water's edge, according to research published Thursday in Science.
Lightweight and abundant, thin plastic bags often slip out of trash cans and recycling bins, travel in the wind and end up in bodies of water, where they pose serious risks to wildlife, which can become entangled or ingest them. They also break down into harmful microplastics, which have been found nearly everywhere on Earth.
Using data complied by the nonprofit Ocean Conservancy, researchers analyzed results from 45,067 shoreline cleanups between 2016 to 2023, along with a sample of 182 local and state policies enacted to regulate plastic shopping bags between 2017 and 2023.
They found areas that adopted plastic bag policies saw a 25 to 47 percent reduction in the share of plastic bag litter on shorelines, when compared with areas without policies. The longer a policy was in place, the greater the reduction.
'These policies are effective, especially in areas with high concentrations of plastic litter,' said Anna Papp, one of the authors and an environmental economist and postdoctoral associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Medscape
27 minutes ago
- Medscape
Key Abstracts in Early-Stage NSCLC From ASCO 2025
Dr Jonathan Goldman of the University of California, Los Angeles, highlights key abstracts in early-stage NSCLC from ASCO 2025. Dr Goldman begins with updated results from CheckMate 816, comparing neoadjuvant chemotherapy (chemo) vs chemo + nivolumab. Median overall survival (OS) in the nivolumab arm remains unreached vs 73.7 months with chemo alone. Event-free survival (EFS) is durable at 59.6 vs 21.1 months, as evidenced by 5-year EFS of 49% in the combination arm. Next, he reviews the NeoADAURA trial evaluating neoadjuvant osimertinib ± chemo in resectable EGFR-mutated stage II-IIIB NSCLC. Major pathologic response was higher in osimertinib-containing arms (26% and 25%) vs 2% in the chemo arm, although long-term outcomes remain pending. Dr Goldman also discusses the SWOG/NRG S1914 trial of perioperative stereotactic body radiotherapy ± atezolizumab, which did not show improvements in OS or progression-free survival (PFS). He then highlights a prospective, low-dose CT screening study of the Mississippi Delta cohort, which showed a 4.7% lung cancer detection rate overall and 4.5% in patients with incidental pulmonary nodules — underscoring the utility of low-dose CT as a modality in early detection. In closing, he reports on two studies in small cell lung cancer. The IMforte study showed that lurbinectedin + atezolizumab in 1L maintenance improved PFS (HR, 0.54). In the DeLLphi-304 study, second-line tarlatamab improved OS compared to chemo (HR, 0.6), which is a potentially practice-changing update.
New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
Repeal of Clean Energy Law Will Mean a Hotter Planet, Scientists Warn
When President Joseph R. Biden Jr. signed the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, he called it 'the most aggressive action ever, ever, ever to confront the climate crisis.' Now, Republicans are poised to undo the law, and scientists are warning the result would increase the likelihood that the Earth will heat up by an average of 3 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels by the end of this century. 'We're already in an era now where climate change is going to be increasingly dangerous,' said Jonathan T. Overpeck, a climate scientist and the dean of the University of Michigan's School for Environment and Sustainability. That amount of warming — 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) over the course of a century — may sound small. But 2024, the hottest year on record, was the first calendar year where the global average temperature exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, and it delivered deadly heat, violent hurricanes, severe drought and devastating wildfires. The Biden administration's strategy to fight climate change consisted of tax breaks to nudge the country toward clean energy and away from fossil fuels, the burning of which is heating the planet, paired with strict limits on pollution from smokestacks and tailpipes. That would have put the United States on track to cut emissions about 40 percent below 2005 levels by 2035, closer to the goal that scientists say all industrialized nations must meet in order to keep global warming within relatively safe limits. The United States is currently the second biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, behind China. But it is the country that has pumped the most carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Forbes
an hour ago
- Forbes
VibeAI: The Next Interface For B2B Applications
Daniel Saks is the CEO of Landbase, an intelligent go-to-market automation company, and cofounder of unicorn AppDirect. getty In a recent Forbes Technology Council article, I wrote about how the rise of AI-native B2B applications would open the door to a new generation of B2B software—built not around static dashboards or manual workflows, but around continuous intelligence, automation and adaptability. In 2025, that prediction is playing out faster than most anticipated. What's increasingly clear is this: The most important shift isn't just in what software can do—it's in how we interact with it. We're entering the Vibe era. From Vibe Coding To VibeAI The term "vibe coding" was popularized by AI OpenAI cofounder Andrej Karpathy to describe a new software coding model where natural language and AI co-pilot technologies replace traditional code writing. Developers no longer write every line; instead, they describe their intent, and the AI builds, debugs and iterates with them. This approach isn't limited to engineering. Across every business function—from sales and marketing to accounting—we're seeing the rise of applications that behave like 'vibe collaborators.' LANDR technology is helping professional musicians use AI-mastering technology process and enhance their music. (No wonder nearly 60% of musicians now use AI technology within their music projects.) Meanwhile, management consultancy Deloitte is leveraging its AI tools and technologies to help its analysts and consultants improve efficiency, gain deeper business insights and deliver more value to clients. Pfizer is also leveraging the Tempus' AI-enabled platform to help researchers further advances in oncology therapeutic development. These vibe collaborators proactively surface ideas, act and ask for approval only when needed. They're fast. They're intelligent. And they work the way people think—not the other way around. To describe this broader shift, I'm introducing a framework that I like to call VibeAI. Vibe stands for: • You view AI-generated outputs or strategic suggestions relevant to your role. • You interact with those suggestions to preview, modify or evaluate outcomes. • You build new strategies or outputs via natural language, using AI as a co-creator. • You edit quickly and intuitively to make it your own. This isn't a new feature of software as we know it, but a completely new interface that recasts vertical and functional applications. In finance, for example, a VibeAI tool might recommend budget adjustments, run scenario planning and manage board reporting preparation—all through an interface. In HR, AI could identify employee frustration, recommend compensation levels and draft job descriptions. In product development, AI could help turn ideas into prototypes and then provide instant feedback. These VibeAI applications, in other words, leverage proprietary data and domain-specific models to create capabilities for businesses that we have never seen before. This is in contrast to general-purpose AI, which has recognizable limits. To drive real outcomes, systems need context—historical performance, intent signals, benchmarks and feedback—and the ability to act on them in real time. General-purpose AI doesn't provide this. But VibeAI will. The Vibe Is Shifting Automation is undergoing a renaissance. It happens now and then. Every few years, chips make a remarkable leap. Platforms and even individual applications do, too. And so do interfaces—the very means with which we interact with our devices and systems. Punch cards? The C prompt? And then the little GUI that said, 'Hello?' They all made significant contributions to how we interact with our machines. And lately, Google, Instagram and even X are doing similar things. Now, we are on the cusp of another massive change. The next transformation will be defined by AI. But this time, it's not just about interacting with devices and systems—it's about rethinking how work gets done. At Landbase, we've been exploring these ideas in the realm of digital demand generation—working to provide AI to make targeting and automation strategies accessible to businesses of all sizes. This hands-on perspective has shown me just how rapidly AI is changing not just what's possible, but who can participate. And we're far from alone. Across the tech landscape, a new generation of tools is emerging. Tools like Bolt and Lovable are transforming how software is written. Thanks to AI, you tell the software your desired outcome and it writes, edits and deploys software for you. Similarly, Perplexity has reinvented what we think of search with an advanced AI-powered interface that answers an inquiry with intelligent, relevant information that includes sourcing. It even prompts users to ask it questions and dig deeper into their interests. Which brings me back to VibeAI. VibeAI is more than a framework. It's a blueprint for the next generation of intelligent software—designed to collaborate with humans, not just support them. VibeAI isn't just a new interface. It's a new way of working. To prepare for this new era, you're going to have to make some changes to your organization. You'll need to develop new use cases for AI technology. Hardware platforms may need upgrading. Workflows will need to be adjusted as AI use expands and manages more tasks for workers. Employees will need to be trained in crafting effective prompts so they can iterate with AI in the most effective way possible. And guardrails will need to be erected in intelligent ways. AI will test organizations to develop detailed plans for managing intellectual property, security, privacy, quality assurance and more. This will require human intervention on an ongoing basis. As I often say, 'We're creating technology that enhances human intelligence rather than replacing it.' Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
