The substantial rise of takeaway boxes and masks used during the Covid-19 pandemic has brought the world s plastic waste crisis to attention. It is estimated by the World Economic Forum that Earth is on track to have as much plastic in the oceans as fish weigh by 2050. However, there are new hopes of preventing further pollution as the bacteria, Ideonella sakaiensis, was found in Japan back in March 2016. This bacteria is capable of decomposing plastic, particularly the kind of plastic called PET, commonly used to make bottles. At that time, it was difficult to confirm the effectiveness of this bacteria in large-scale commercial plastic wastes but recently, new plastic-eating microorganisms have been discovered. This proved that, through evolution, more organisms have adapted to be able to decompose plastic. For example, a scientist in Pakistan reported a fungus able to degrade plastic in 2017 and in March 2020, German scientists identified new strains of plastic
looked into how remote learning has changed since the first lockdown. I interviewed two students from different schools to get some different perspectives: Sky Millar, from a secondary school in Tooting, and Maryam Namivar from Wimbledon High School. learning was better, in terms of learning and for their mental health. ‘I think it’s much better now as school’s are much more prepared and there’s more communication which makes lessons more engaging’ said Sky. Similarly, Maryam told me: ‘Remote learning is definitely better this lockdown. Firstly, it’s compulsory we have our cameras on for all our lessons