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Microplastics are particles less than five millimeters in size that begin as small particles or that deteriorate from larger plastic pieces that have entered the oceans.
Microplastics are a common pollutant found in abundant quantities on many beaches and in bodies of water. They mostly originate from everyday beauty products and clothing.
Microplastics are a common pollutant found in abundant quantities on many beaches and in bodies of water. They mostly originate from everyday beauty products and clothing.
What Are The Types of Microplastics?[1]
What Are The Types of Microplastics?[1]
Microbeads are a type of microplastic that are used in personal care products such as exfoliating shower gel, toothpaste, and makeup. All these products wash down the drain and end up in the ocean.
Microfibers are found in around 85% of clothes made from synthetic fabrics. When the clothes are washed, they release tiny plastic that flow down our drains, through water treatment plants, and out into our rivers, lakes and oceans by the billions.
Fragments are smaller pieces of plastic that break off from larger pieces of plastic.
Foam is from pieces of food containers and coffee cups that end up in the ocean and break apart into smaller peices.
Nurdles are plastic pellets usually used in manufacturing that can enter the ocean through waste water.
The Issues With Microplastics
The Issues With Microplastics
Microplastics often find their way into waterways because filters can not catch such small particles. Marine animals end up eating microplastics due to their small size, resulting in months of suffering for the animal. 93-236 thousand tons are estimated to be floating in the oceans today. Microplastics can interfere with feeding, digestion, and reproduction in many species. Additionally, microbeads can enter the food web and end up in the diets of humans.
Pictured above are the microplastics found in tiny Zoo Plankton
Ghost Gear Contributes to the Volume of Microplastic Pollution
Ghost Gear Contributes to the Volume of Microplastic Pollution
When nets, lines, or fish traps are lost at sea, they are classified as ghost gear. Ghost gear can harm and kill marine animals such as whales, dolphins, and sea turtles. As the amount of ghost gear in our oceans increase, they breakdown into smaller pieces, increasing the volume of microplastics. We need more awareness about the implications of abandoning fishing equipment at sea in order to fully understand and resolve the issue that plastic pollution in our oceans entail.[3]
Is There Any Hope?
Is There Any Hope?
In 2015, President Obama signed a law that banned microbeads. The Microbead-Free Waters Act of 2015 prohibits the manufacturing, packaging, and distribution of rinse-off cosmetics containing plastic microbeads. While this is a step in the right direction, the law only covers “rinse-off” cosmetics, including toothpaste, that contain intentionally added microbeads and are intended to exfoliate or cleanse the body. Other types of microplastics exists, however, that still contribute to pollution of our waters.[2]
1. Flowers, Matt. "Zooming in on the Five Types of Microplastics." Waterkeeper, 16
Nov. 2016, www.waterkeeper.ca/blog/2016/11/15/
zooming-in-on-the-five-types-of-microplastics. Accessed 22 May 2018.
2. "Laws and Regulations." Food and Drug Admistration, 3 Nov. 2017, www.fda.gov/
Cosmetics/GuidanceRegulation/LawsRegulations/ucm531849.htm. Accessed 22 May
2018.
3. "How Plastic Pollution Is Affecting Seals and Other Marine Life."
Worldanimalprotection.us.org, World Animal Protection, 17 Nov. 2017,
www.worldanimalprotection.us.org/news/
how-plastic-pollution-affecting-seals-and-other-marine-life. Accessed 20
May 2018.
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