It’s a good news/bad news week in the Environmental News Roundup: Chesapeake Bay underwater grasses hold their ground; Connecticut sees higher beverage container return rates; another state bans EPS foam; but boy do those plastics continue to wreak havoc around the globe.

Underwater grasses hit record in lower Chesapeake Bay last year – Maryland Matters, August 11, 2025

The Chesapeake Bay’s underwater grasses, collectively known as submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV), held steady overall in 2024, decreasing by just 1%. SAV is a key indicator of Bay health, because the grasses provide essential habitat, sedimentation control, oxygenation, and shoreline protection – and they are sensitive to changes in water quality. The 2024 study results found widely differing trends in various areas of the Chesapeake across zones with low, medium, and high salinity.

Connecticut’s beverage container redemption rate rose 21% in 2024 – Waste Dive, August 8, 2025

Connecticut is one of ten states with a container deposit law in place, and one of nine states that adopted such legislation in the 1970s and 1980s. Over the past decade, return rates have fallen significantly in most areas, in part because the legislation has not kept up with economic and behavioral changes. However, Connecticut modified its law in 2021, and since then has seen return rates rise significantly as the changes have gone into effect. 

Illinois to Ban Polystyrene Containers by 2030 – Environment + Energy Leader, August 8, 2025

The Illinois state legislature recently passed the Disposable Food Service Container Act. This law will ban the sale and distribution of disposable food containers made from expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam, which will go into effect in 2030. This is a major step forward and echoes a trend among states passing similar laws to cut back on plastic pollution. EPS is particularly concerning because it breaks up but never breaks down, entering the environment and posing serious health risks to wildlife and humans alike.

New report calls plastics a “grave” danger to health as nations negotiate treaty – The New Lede, August 4, 2025

The Lancet, an independent, peer-reviewed medical journal, recently released a report entitled The Lancet Countdown on health and plastics, characterizing plastics as a “grave, growing, and under-recognised danger to human and planetary health.” Plastic production is immense and continues to grow unchecked, causing USD$1.5 trillion annually in health-related economic losses. The Lancet calls out the fact that plastics’ harms are felt disproportionately by vulnerable populations. The Lancet Countdown will act as an independent global plastics monitoring program to help illuminate trends and spotlight opportunities for corrective political action.

Buoyant, the size of a lentil and almost impossible to recover: how nurdles are polluting the oceans – The Guardian, August 12, 2025

On May 25, a container ship capsized off the southern coast of India’s Kerala province in the Arabian Sea. The sinking ship caused a serious oil slick and also disgorged thousands of sacks of plastic nurdles. The nurdles are easily mistaken for food by fish, shrimp, sea turtles, and other marine animals. Classified as microplastics, the chemicals they contain have been demonstrated to cause health problems throughout the food chain. Currently, nurdles are not considered hazardous materials, and therefore lack global enforceable shipping standards.