Concerns about microplastics are not new. They’ve been growing for more than a decade. Over the past two years, however, many creative solutions have emerged to address the problem on a local level, ranging from hoovering beaches to shooting bubbles up from river bottoms.
Still, experts say there’s a need for a huge, coordinated effort if we want to curb the global issue: The world produces over 460 million tons of plastic annually, and much of that material breaks down into tiny pieces that now litter our planet.
(Credit: SIVStockStudio/Shutterstock)
SIVStockStudio/Shutterstock
The term microplastics was coined by marine ecologist Richard Thompson in 2004 after he discovered tiny bits of plastic littering British beaches. Since then, scientists have found microplastics — fragments less than 5 millimeters wide — nearly everywhere: in the deep sea, in Arctic ice, in the air. Even inside us.
A 2019 study in Environmental Science & Technology ...
