We can't find the internet
Attempting to reconnect
Something went wrong!
Hang in there while we get back on track
Microplastics
Summary
This review synthesizes the current state of knowledge on microplastics — particles under 5 mm derived from both intentional manufacture and fragmentation of larger items — covering their diverse polymer types, shapes, sizes, and densities, and describing how these properties influence their environmental sources, fate, and ecological effects. The authors note that microplastics are now detected in virtually every environment studied, from deep ocean sediments to the atmosphere, highlighting the pervasive nature of this suite of contaminants.
Plastics less than five millimeters in size are very diverse and include many different polymers, chemical ingredients, shapes, sizes, densities, and colors, and so they are a suite of contaminants with different sources, fates in the environment, and effects. Some are made tiny (e.g., microbeads in consumer products, or “nurdles,” which are premanufacture pellets), while most are fragments of larger items (e.g., clothing, tires, bottles, cups, etc.). They are found everywhere they are looked for, including remote mountains and deep-sea trenches. They are ingested by many marine animals with varying effects; many are later egested, but some penetrate into various tissues of the body. Because they cannot be cleaned up, ways must be found to stop their flow into the waters.