"Nearly 200 fossil fuel and chemical industry lobbyists plan to join this week's United Nations negotiations on the first global treaty to curb plastic pollution — a 37% jump from the previous gathering in November, an analysis released on Thursday showed."

"Coca-Cola and PepsiCo came in at the top of a global audit of plastic waste". "A new study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances has pinpointed some of the major brands responsible for plastic pollution across six continents."

"The Environmental Protection Agency may have wasted or risked millions of dollars by failing to prevent the spread of contamination hazardous to human health at a Superfund site in Pensacola, Florida, an agency watchdog report found."

"Against the guidance of scientific advisory panels, the EPA is relying on industry-backed tests to relax regulations on acephate, which has been linked to neurodevelopmental disorders. “It’s exactly what we recommended against,” one panelist said."

"A federal jury on Monday said BNSF Railway contributed to the deaths of two people who were exposed to asbestos decades ago when tainted mining material was shipped through a Montana town where thousands have been sickened."

"Dams holding vast amounts of uranium mine tailings above the fertile Fergana valley in Central Asia are unstable, threatening a possible Chernobyl-scale nuclear disaster if they collapse that would make the region uninhabitable, studies have revealed."

"Lead battery recycling is a crucial but dirty business. As a plant outside Los Angeles seeks to renew its operating permit, the community pushes back."

"Farmers spread treated human waste on their crops. It's full of forever chemicals."

"Millions of people around the world will pause on Monday, at least for a moment, to mark Earth Day. It’s an annual event founded by people who hoped to stir activism to clean up and preserve a planet that is now home to some 8 billion humans and assorted trillions of other organisms."

"Plans to build what would have been one of the largest chemical recycling plants in the country in Pennsylvania were canceled this week."