Tiny Plastic Pieces Found to Be Polluting Every Ocean on Earth

An international team of scientists has found that grain-of-sand size and smaller pieces of plastic are floating around in all of the oceans of the world. The team has reported on its findings in in the journal Environmental Science and Technology. Worse, according to the BBC, those little bits of plastic are making their way into the food chain as fish eat them.

Suspecting that there was more plastic pollutants than meets the eye, the research team took sand samples from various beaches all around the world, and found concentrations of plastic particles in all of them, regardless of how remote they were. Even remote atolls that have never been inhabited were found to have plastic bits mixed in with the sand, leading the research team to conclude that the tiny plastic pieces are now simply another component of ocean water.

In analyzing the plastic particles, the researchers found they came from the likely suspects, plastics that make their way into the soil in landfills. This includes polymers such as nylon, polyester and acrylics. The team believes the tiny pieces of plastic are the result of larger pieces being torn and crushed against the sand on beaches. Once crushed, they are carried out to sea where fish eat them and in turn are eaten by other larger prey, including humans.

Scientists have known about the tiny pieces of plastic in the environment for many years, but until this survey was done, the extent of the problem was not known. The BBC reports that experts in Britain have been measuring the little bits for at least two decades and have found that the numbers of such bits has increased every year.

The problem of course, is that plastic is toxic. In most animals it can cause birth defects, mental illness and problems with many of the reproductive organs.

As part of this new research, the team all studied the environments in which the tiny pieces of plastic were found and discovered one of the major sources for them appears to be residue from the washing of clothes. Many clothes are now made with plastic fiber coatings to make them last longer, but each time they are washed, a tiny bit of them are released into the sewer system and quite often make their way to sea via rivers and streams.

Following up on their findings they examined several specimens of clothes being washed in a home washing machine and found that one load spewed on average 1900 fibers, and number that when multiplied by the millions of washings that go on every day in the world adds up to a total the team wasn't even willing to try to guess.