Microplastic Discovered in “Pristine” High-Altitude Pyrenees Mountain Air
Previously detected in rivers, oceans, and snow, microplastic has now been found in the high-altitude air surrounding the Pic du Midi (2,877 m)—by an international…
Microplastics News
People With Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Have More Microplastics in Their Feces
Microplastics — tiny pieces of plastic less than 5 mm in length – are everywhere, from bottled water to food to air. According to recent…
Transforming the Plastic Lifecycle Into a Circle
360 million metric tonnes of new plastic was produced in 2018. Here’s where it all went, and why the world must transform plastic use from…
How Is It Raining Plastic?! [Video]
Every year, more than 1,000 tons of plastic rain down onto national parks and wilderness areas in the western U.S. In this week’s episode, we…
The Mysterious Ocean Plastic Sink: Gone With the Rivers
Plastics are a growing problem for natural ecosystems around the globe, and in particular for our marine and freshwater environments. Rivers are the leading source…
Plastic Planet: Tracking Pervasive Microplastics Through the Atmosphere and Across the Globe
Really big systems, like ocean currents and weather, work on really big scales. And so too does your plastic waste, according to new research from…
NASA Satellite Lets Scientists Track Ocean Microplastics From Space
Scientists from the University of Michigan have developed an innovative way to use NASA satellite data to track the movement of tiny pieces of plastic…
Tracking Ocean Microplastics From Space – See the Great Pacific Garbage Patch Like Never Before
Satellites reveal ocean microplastic fluctuation in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and releases from the Yangtze River in China. An estimated eight million tons of…
Bacteria-Sized Metallic Robots Take On Microplastics – And Win by Breaking Them Down
Small pieces of plastic are everywhere, stretching from urban environments to pristine wilderness. Left to their own devices, it can take hundreds of years for…
Science and Social Media Show How Ship’s Plastic Cargo Dispersed From Florida to Norway
A ship’s container lost overboard in the North Atlantic has resulted in printer cartridges washing up everywhere from the coast of Florida to northern Norway,…
Microplastics Found in Europe’s Largest Ice Cap – In a Remote and Pristine Area of Vatnajökull Glacier
In a recent article in Sustainability, scientists from Reykjavik University (RU), the University of Gothenburg, and the Icelandic Meteorological Office describe their finding of microplastic…
Plastic Pollution in the Deep Sea: A Geological Perspective on a Global Problem
A new focus article in the May issue of Geology summarizes research on plastic waste in marine and sedimentary environments. Authors I.A. Kane of the Univ. of…
Microbiologists Have Found a Way to Use Bacteria to Remove Microplastics From the Environment
Microbiologists have found a way to use bacteria to trap microplastics, removing them from the environment and making them easier to recycle. Today at the…
Polymer-Eating Enzymes Make “Biodegradable” Plastics Truly Compostable
Polymer-eating enzymes embedded in plastic allow programmed degradation. Biodegradable plastics have been advertised as one solution to the plastic pollution problem bedeviling the world, but…
Microplastics Turn Into “Hubs” for Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria and Pathogens
It’s estimated that an average-sized wastewater treatment plant serving roughly 400,000 residents will discharge up to 2,000,000 microplastic particles into the environment each day. Yet,…
Plastic Pollution Is Everywhere: Research Reveals How It Travels
Plastic pollution is ubiquitous today, with microplastic particles from disposable goods found in natural environments throughout the globe, including Antarctica. But how those particles move…
Microplastics in Our Drinking Water – Significant Source of Microplastics in Human Diet
Emerging environmental contaminants, both chemicals, and particulates, have been a concern for risk scientists for many years. Methods for reducing health and environmental risks from…
Mount Everest: Microplastics in the Death Zone
Scientists have identified the highest recorded microplastics ever found on Earth — at an altitude of more than 8,000 meters (26,000 feet), close to the…