Compared with the obvious environmental issues we hear about every day, littering often takes a backseat-but it’s more pressing than we may think.

Some may say that a banana peel out of your car along the motorway would be a harmless action. Actually, they are wrong. A banana peel can take up to two years to decompose(分解)，and with a third of motorists admitting to littering while driving, that’s a whole lot of discarded banana peels, or much worse. An orange peel and a cigarette butt has a similar biodegrading(生物降解)term to that of a banana, but tin and aluminium cans last up to 100 years, and plastic bottles last forever, so do glass bottles and plastic bags.

Despite the fact that longer-lasting materials will serve to damage the environment and its animals for longer, we can’t only measure the severity of a certain type of rubbish by its lifetime. For example, despite having a fairly short biodegrading span, more than 120 tons of cigarette-related litter is thrown away in the UK every day. Similarly, our regular littering here and there has caused the UK’s mouse population to increase by 60 million. This suddenly isn’t so mysterious when you consider that since the 1960s our annual littering has increased by an amazing 500%.

It’s not a cheap habit either: UK taxpayers spent $500 million on keeping the streets clean. So, it’s not surprising that if caught fly-tipping, you could face a $20, 000 fine. Regardless of how severe the punishment might seem, however, among the reported cases only 2, 000 were punished out of 825, 000, so we still have some way to go in making sure people observe the rules.

To take back our beautiful cities, we need to do more than simply not leaving rubbish where it ought not to be. We need to care more about the world around us.

You are drinking plastic,I’m drinking plastic and we’re all drinking plastic.Bottled water drinkers may be drinking the most plastic of all.

A new study released by Orb Media evaluates that on average,a liter of bottled water from big brands like Dasani,Aquafina,and Nestle,contains roughly 10.4 tiny plastic bits.The world drinks them in swiftly,consuming roughly a million plastic bottles a minute,as The Guardian evaluates.Aquafina and Dasani both said that their bottled water is tested on strict standards.Nestle said the company hasn’t found microplastics in its water bottles beyond a “trace(微量)level”.Evian did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In our modern,plastic-filling world,these little plastic bits-many thinner than a human hair-seem to be very common everywhere.We don’t know exactly what these plastic parts are doing to our bodies,but we’re drinking them in anyway.That’s an alarming possibility,because in the ocean,these little plastics are doing harmful things to fish.In some species,they’re even slowing down growth and reproduction.

While there isn’t clear evidence yet that the plastics in single-use water bottles can increase cancer risk,we know that bottles containing a chemical called Bisphenol A(BPA) do.The hard BPA plastics in certain reusable water bottles can lead to higher risks of breast cancer,and other diseases.And a few studies suggest the softer kinds of single-use water bottles can have similar chemicals inside.

The tiny plastic bits aren’t just in our bottles.They come out of our taps,too.The tiny plastics are also swimming in the seas and disturbing the way fish eat.In some countries,microplastics are even slipping into the salt markets.Even Dasani wrote in its statement:“It’s clear the world has a problem with plastic waste.”

Conifers (针叶树) are generally better than broad-leaved trees at purifying air from pollutants. But deciduous (落叶的) trees may be better at taking in particle-bound pollution. A new study led by the University of Gothenburg shows that the best trees for air purification depend on the type of pollutants involved.

Trees and other greener in cities provide many benefits that are important for the well-being of residents. Leaves and needled on trees filter air pollutants and reduce exposure to poisonous substance in the air. But which trees purify the air most effectively? Researchers from the University of Gothenburg have collected leaves and needle from eleven different trees growing in the same place in the Gothenburg Botanical Garden (GBG) to analyse which cub-stances they have absorbed.

“This tree collection provided a unique opportunity to test many different species of trees with similar environmental conditions and exposure to air pollutants,” said Jenny Klingberg, a researcher of the GBG

A total of 32 different pollutants were analysed, some of which are bound to articles of various sizes. Others are gaseous. This project has focused on paths (多环芳烃). In cities, traffic is the biggest source of these pollutants, which are released due to incomplete burning in engines.

“Our analysis show that different species of trees have different abilities to absorb air pollutants. Conifers generally absorb morn gaseous paths than broad-leaved trees. Another advantage of conifers is that they also act as air purifies in winter, when air pollution is usually at its highest,” said Jenny Klingberg.

“This study contributes to improving our understanding of the ability of trees to clean the air and which species are best at absorbing air pollutants,” said Jenny Klingberg. This known-edge is important for urban planning when designing sustainable cities. While trees and green-era can contribute to better air quality in cities, at the end of the day, the most important measure is to reduce emissions.