microplastics
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What are microplastics?
Microplastics are small plastic pieces, less than 5 mm (0.2 inch) long, that pollute the environment. They come from cosmetics, synthetic clothing, and plastic bags and bottles.
Microplastics are divided into primary and secondary types. Primary microplastics include microbeads, plastic pellets, and synthetic textile fibers that enter the environment directly. Secondary microplastics result from the breakdown of larger plastics through weathering.
Microplastics are not biodegradable, so they accumulate and persist in the environment. They pollute oceans, freshwater ecosystems, and air. Microplastics have been detected in various aquatic species, drinking water, beer, food products, and even human tissues and organs.
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How are microplastics made or formed?
Microplastics, plastic pieces smaller than 5 mm, result from plastic pollution and are classified as primary or secondary anchor text.
Primary microplastics include plastic pellets, plastic fibers, and microbeads found in personal care items anchor text. They enter the environment directly through different channels, such as product use or unintentional loss from spills during manufacturing or transport anchor text.
Secondary microplastics result from the breakdown of larger plastics due to weathering from wind abrasion, wave action, and ultraviolet radiation from sunlight anchor text.
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Where can microplastics be found in the environment?
Microplastics are found in various environments due to their non-biodegradable nature. They accumulate in oceans and freshwater ecosystems, with millions of tons of plastic pollution entering oceans annually. They are also a source of air pollution, present in dust and airborne particles.
Microplastics have been detected in drinking water, beer, and food products, including seafood and table salt. They have been found in human stool samples, tissues, and organs, as well as in aquatic organisms. Additionally, microplastics are found on Arctic beaches, sea ice, and in Antarctica.
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How do microplastics enter rivers, lakes, and oceans?
Microplastics enter rivers, lakes, and oceans through various pathways. Primary microplastics, such as microbeads from personal care products and plastic fibers from synthetic textiles, directly enter the environment via wastewater systems, household laundry, or unintentional spills during manufacturing or transport. Secondary microplastics originate from the breakdown of larger plastics through weathering, wave action, wind abrasion, and ultraviolet radiation. Since the ocean is downstream from almost every terrestrial location, it receives much of the plastic waste generated on land.
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What problems can microplastics cause for animals and people?
Microplastics persist in the environment, accumulating in ecosystems and the food chain. Animals mistake them for food, leading to reduced energy and potential toxicity. Microplastics have been found in various aquatic species, including crabs, and are suspected of moving up the marine food chains.
They have been detected in drinking water, beer, seafood, and table salt. A study has found microplastics in human organs, and the health implications of this are still uncertain. Microplastics in the arteries may raise the risk of heart attack, stroke, and death.
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What are some ways to reduce microplastic pollution?
Microplastic pollution is a growing concern, with microplastics accumulating and persisting in various environments.
To reduce microplastic pollution, you can support organizations and campaigns that raise awareness of plastic pollution and encourage the reuse and recycling of plastics. You can also avoid health and beauty products that use plastic microbeads. Some countries have also placed bans on microbeads.
Additionally, microorganisms can break down synthetic microplastic polymers, offering a potential remediation strategy for microplastics already in the environment.
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microplastics, small pieces of plastic, less than 5 mm (0.2 inch) in length, that occur in the environment as a consequence of plastic pollution. Microplastics are present in a variety of products, from cosmetics to synthetic clothing to plastic bags and bottles. Many of these products readily enter the environment in wastes.
Properties
Microplastics consist of carbon and hydrogen atoms bound together in polymer chains. Other chemicals, such as phthalates, polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), and tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA), are typically also present in microplastics, and many of these chemical additives leach out of the plastics after entering the environment.
Primary and secondary microplastics
Microplastics are divided into two types: primary and secondary. Examples of primary microplastics include microbeads found in personal care products, plastic pellets (or nurdles) used in industrial manufacturing, and plastic fibres used in synthetic textiles (e.g., nylon). Primary microplastics enter the environment directly through any of various channels—for example, product use (e.g., personal care products being washed into wastewater systems from households), unintentional loss from spills during manufacturing or transport, or abrasion during washing (e.g., laundering of clothing made with synthetic textiles). Secondary microplastics form from the breakdown of larger plastics; this typically happens when larger plastics undergo weathering, through exposure to, for example, wave action, wind abrasion, and ultraviolet radiation from sunlight.
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Environmental and health impacts
Microplastics are not biodegradable. Thus, once in the environment, primary and secondary microplastics accumulate and persist. Microplastics have been found in a variety of environments, including oceans and freshwater ecosystems. In oceans alone, annual plastic pollution, from all types of plastics, was estimated at 4 million to 14 million tons in the early 21st century. Microplastics also are a source of air pollution, occurring in dust and airborne fibrous particles. The health effects of microplastics inhalation are unknown.
By 2018, in marine and freshwater ecosystems combined, microplastics had been found in more than 114 aquatic species. Microplastics have been found lodged in the digestive tracts and tissues of various invertebrate sea animals, including crustaceans such as crabs. Fish and birds are likely to ingest microplastics floating on the water surface, mistaking the plastic bits for food. The ingestion of microplastics can cause aquatic species to consume less food and therefore to have less energy to carry out life functions, and it can result in neurological and reproductive toxicity. Microplastics are suspected of working their way up the marine food chains, from zooplankton and small fish to large marine predators.
Microplastics have been detected in drinking water, beer, and food products, including seafood and table salt. In a pilot study involving eight individuals from eight different countries, microplastics were recovered from stool samples of every participant. Scientists have also detected microplastics in human tissues and organs. The implications of these findings for human health were uncertain.
Reducing microplastics pollution
Between 1950 and 2015, some 6,300 million metric tons of plastic waste were generated. The majority of this waste, about 4,900 million metric tons, ended up in landfills and the environment. On the basis of trends from that period, researchers estimated that by 2050 the amount of plastic waste in landfills and the environment would reach 12,000 million metric tons. Nonetheless, the potential dangers of escalating plastics pollution, especially pollution from microplastics, remained largely ignored by governments and policy makers.
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To help overcome this obstacle, organizations such as the United Nations Expert Panel of the United Nations Environmental Programme engaged more than 100 countries in educational campaigns aimed at raising awareness of plastics pollution and encouraging reuse and recycling of plastics. Other international cooperative programs were established to address marine wastes, including microplastics pollution. In 2015 the United States passed the Microbead-Free Waters Act, which prohibits the manufacture and distribution of rinse-off cosmetics products that contain plastic microbeads. Many other countries also placed bans on microbeads.
Remediation of microplastics already in the environment is another key component of reducing microplastics pollution. Strategies under investigation included the use of microorganisms capable of breaking down synthetic microplastic polymers. A number of bacterial and fungal species possess biodegradation capabilities, breaking down chemicals such as polystyrene, polyester polyurethane, and polyethylene. Such microorganisms potentially can be applied to sewage wastewater and other contaminated environments.