We can't find the internet
Attempting to reconnect
Something went wrong!
Hang in there while we get back on track
How Plastic Pollution Impacts our Environment
Summary
This overview examined how persistent plastic pollution — including the 79,000 tonnes accumulating in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch — degrades into microplastics and permeates ecosystems globally. The review underscores that fossil-fuel-based plastics' near-permanent environmental persistence creates an expanding reservoir of microplastic exposure risk for wildlife and humans alike.
Plastics often stay in the environment for a long time, especially fossil-fuel-based plastics as they don’t degrade. For example, in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch 79,000 tonnes of floating plastic have gathered in a 1.6 million square km (about 618,000 square...