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We know our oceans and coastlines are choking on plastic. We've all seen plastic bottles, food wrappers and plastic bags polluting beaches. We've all been horrified by the stories of marine creatures like seabirds and whales starving when their stomachs become packed full of plastic.

Scientists have shown that up to 12 million tonnes of plastic is entering our oceans every year - that's a rubbish truck full every minute. Single-use plastic packaging for food and drink is a particularly common part of the problem.

But how does plastic actually get into our oceans? ( And how do we stop it?)

About a fifth of marine litter is made up of fishing gear and other materials lost at sea by accident, industrial losses, or illegal dumping. And we know that roughly 80% of litter in the seas comes from land.

Our plastic rubbish

The sheer amount of plastic that has been generated in the past 60 years is mind boggling. New research shows that we've produced plastic as heavy as 1 billion elephants since the 1950s. Even more staggering is the amount that has rapidly become waste. Just 9% of this plastic has been recycled. That means the majority of plastic waste has simply been dumped in landfills or burned.

However, when plastic waste is collected and transported to landfill sites, it can be at risk of escaping into the environment. Even when it's in landfills, plastic is at risk of blowing away and ending up in rivers or oceans.

Even more of a risk is plastic litter. That's plastic that either that isn't collected where good waste managements systems are lacking, or plastic that is simply dropped or left behind on streets or in the environment. These plastic items can be carried by wind and rain into our drainage networks or rivers that then flow into the sea. Major rivers around the world carry an estimated 1.15-2.41 million tons of plastic into the sea every year - that's up to 100,000 rubbish trucks.

Holidaymakers visiting beaches and leaving behind their bottles, food packaging and cigarette butts on the sand directly contribute to plastic getting into the ocean.

Ironically, the tourism industry that has enabled more people to visit beautiful beaches is suffering as the growing problem of plastic pollution is turning visitors off destinations where the problem is most visible.

Plastic products that go down the drain

Many people were horrified to discover that tiny pieces of plastic known as microbeads have been added to all sorts of personal care and cosmetic products that are washed directly down the drain - from face scrubs to shower gels to toothpaste. As many of these microbeads are too small to be filtered out by wastewater plants, these plastic pieces are remaining in water that may end up flowing into the ocean.

That public outrage at these microbeads polluting our oceans combined with concerted campaigning has led to governments across the world banning products from containing microbeads, including NZ, the UK, US and Canada.

But plastic in cotton buds, facewipes or sanitary products that are flushed down the loo, and even plastic fibres in clothing that shed in the washing machines still pose a risk for plastic entering the ocean.

Industrial leakage

Finally, lax standards in industrial processes are responsible for some plastic getting into the environment, either when products containing plastic aren't disposed of properly, or escaping during the production and or transporting of products. For example, thousands of the tiny plastic pellets used to make plastic products, known as nurdles or mermaid's tears, are washed up on UK shorelines every year, polluting nearly three quarters of UK beaches at a count in February this year.

Once plastic is in our oceans, it flows on ocean currents all across the world - so even uninhabited islands in the Pacific and the Arctic are becoming dumping grounds for plastic.

That's why we have to tackle the problem at source. To end ocean plastics we need corporates to reduce the amount of single-use plastic they are selling, to cut down on the plastic that is thrown away in the first place. We also need governments to improve waste management systems and boost the re-use of plastic through initiatives that boost resource efficiency and a circular economy. We need to close the loop on plastic, ensuring it stops escaping into our environment and flowing into the oceans. Marine life simply cannot stomach any more plastic.

We're calling on the NZ Government to take comprehensive action to eliminate pointless plastics. Sign the petition!

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We know our oceans and coastlines are choking on plastic. We've all seen plastic bottles, food wrappers and plastic bags polluting beaches, and been horrified by the stories of marine creatures like seabirds and whales starving when their stomachs become packed full of plastic.

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The Ocean Cleanup launches to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

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Great Pacific Garbage Patch cleanup has begun | Engadget Today

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Article #3

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Center for International Environmental Law

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Plastic is a pollutant of unique concern, as it does not break down quickly and instead accumulates in the environment as more is produced. It carries toxic impacts throughout its lifecycle - from the impacts of oil and gas drilling, to plastic refining and manufacture, to waste management, to plastic pollution that ends up in our oceans and environment. Taken in aggregate, these impacts from the lifecycle of plastic can be measured in human health and climate change. Yet just as the world is coming to realize the dangers of plastic pollution and take action to prevent it, the petrochemical industry is poised to invest billions to expand plastic production by 40 percent in the next few decades. If they succeed, plastic will outweigh fish in our oceans by 2050.

An urgent, global effort is needed to stop the flood of plastic pollution at its source. CIEL works at multiple levels to confront the plastic crisis - advocating for an international treaty on plastic pollution and other measures at the global level, supporting communities in local infrastructure fights to stop the plastics build-out, and exposing the deep impacts plastic has on our health, climate, and planet throughout its toxic lifecycle.

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Plastic | Center for International Environmental Law

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Plastic is a pollutant of unique concern, as it does not break down quickly and instead accumulates in the environment as more is produced. It carries toxic impacts throughout its lifecycle - from the impacts of oil and gas drilling, to plastic refining and manufacture, to waste management, to plastic pollution that ends up in ...

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Article # 5

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The Last Plastic Straw

The Last Plastic Straw is a project of Plastic Pollution Coalition. Did you know that over 500,000,000 plastic straws are used each day in the United States? In only the past twenty years, people have come to expect plastic straws in every drink, in an example of extreme waste being generated for minimal convenience. These short-lived tools are usually dropped into a garbage can with no further thought, instantly becoming a source of plastic pollution.

The Last Plastic Straw and Plastic Pollution Coalition are building momentum around a worldwide movement, so plastic straws become a relic of the past. In the short term, we work with our Coalition to encourage eateries to no longer automatically give plastic straws; we educate individuals to refuse plastic straws and spread the "straw free" message; and we work to change local regulation to stop this unnecessary plastic pollution.

In the long run, this collective engagement around the gateway issue of plastic straws will meaningfully shift the way individuals and businesses think about plastic pollution - and about our society's disposable culture on a larger scale.

Take Action

Level 1: Make a personal commitment to say "no" to plastic straws. Whenever ordering a drink, politely request "no straw, please." Encourage your friends and family to take the pledge, too!

You've got more power than you think. Want to take your impact even further? Use your own paper, glass, bamboo, or stainless steel straw instead, and start a conversation.

Level 2: Reach out to some local eateries in your neighborhood or town and ask them to change their protocol to only serve straws upon request. Simply leave these informational cards with your bill!

Level 3: Encourage those eateries to make a change to non-plastic straw options - like paper, glass, or stainless steel - if diners do request a straw. We have a business-specific pledge for them to sign, too! Print these table tents for eateries to explain the straws upon request protocol.

Level 4: Host a screening of STRAWS the film in your community to start a wave of change.
TAKE THE PLEDGE
30 Alternatives to Plastic Straws

Plastic straws are designed to only be used one time for a convenient few minutes and then discarded to pollute our planet for centuries to come. And while there are certainly some individuals who do need a plastic straw, the vast majority of the world's population does not.

If you are totally on board with eliminating single-use plastic straws, but you still need or prefer to enjoy your beverages with a straw. Check out our list of plastic straw alternatives "

Featured Blog Posts
How To Be a Last Plastic Straw Agent for Change The Problem of Plastic Straws (And How Each of Us Can The Sea Turtle Who Became the Anti-Plastic Straw Poster Child Make a Difference)
Teachers: D iving Into Plastic Pollution
Watch Short Films & Sign Up for Online Classroom Discussions
Join us in helping to empower students to make strides in understanding the problem of single-use plastic and reducing its use!

We have compiled several short films that students can watch to learn about plastic pollution, and afterwards join us for an online discussion about what they can do to address single-use plastic pollution right now. We've got expertise, enthusiasm and resources to share to help your students create projects of their own.

Jackie Nuñez, Founder & Program Manager, The Last Plastic Straw, and featured in the short documentary STRAWS, will be hosting the online discussions, along with other Plastic Pollution Coalition staff.
Learn more & Sign UP
The goal of each online discussion is to help students craft individual or group projects to reduce single-use plastic pollution. These ACTION projects can be individual, in their home, in their community, anywhere that makes sense for you and your students right now.

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The Last Plastic Straw is a project of Plastic Pollution Coalition. Did you know that over 500,000,000 plastic straws are used each day in the United States? In only the past twenty years, people have come to expect plastic straws in every drink, in an example of extreme waste being generated for minimal convenience.

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Most plastics have a chemical history that makes starting a new life a challenge. The dyes and flame retardants that make them perfect for say, a couch cushion or a bottle of detergent, make them tough to transform into a desirable end product-one of the reasons just 10% of plastic in the United States gets recycled. Now, researchers have created a plastic with a special chemical bond that helps it separate out from those additives, turning it back into a pure, valuable product that can be reused again and again.

To make the new material, researchers tweaked a type of vitrimer, a glasslike plastic developed in 2011, by adding molecules that change the chemical bonds holding it together. These new bonds, called dynamic covalent diketoenamine bonds, require less energy to break than those in traditional plastics.

As a result, the new plastic can be broken down into its constituent parts using just a solution of water and a strong acid at room temperature, the researchers report today in Nature Chemistry. The process doesn't require a catalyst to set off the reaction, either, making it easy to collect high-quality recycled plastic from the resulting slurry. But the plastic isn't at risk of falling apart ahead of schedule-researchers say the powerful acid required to break it down isn't something most users are likely to encounter.

Traditional recycling methods produce dirty gray pellets (known as nurdles) that few manufacturers want to use, but this chemical recycling process creates plastic on par with brand new material. What's more, the new method doesn't require extra sorting. To demonstrate, the team mixed their material with shards of CD cases, plastic straws, and similar waste. Even in the presence of these other plastics, the new material's molecules separated out.

The next big question is whether manufacturers will use it and recycling plants will accept it. Because the new plastic byproducts are more valuable-and because plants likely wouldn't need a total overhaul to produce them, this sustainable plastic could one day shift the global economics of plastic recycling.

doi:10.1126/science.aax7790

More from ScienceShots

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Just 10% of U.S. plastic gets recycled. A new kind of plastic could change that

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Most plastics have a chemical history that makes starting a new life a challenge. The dyes and flame retardants that make them perfect for say, a couch cushion or a bottle of detergent, make them tough to transform into a desirable end product-one of the reasons just 10% of plastic in the United States gets recycled.

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Plastic waste has become one of the largest burdens of our modern world, but Bengaluru Airport has found a novel way to re-purpose the material.

Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru (BLR) has received approximately 11 tonnes of plastic waste from the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP).

The plastic will be used in trials to determine if roads within Bengaluru Airport's campus can be paved with waste plastic. This follows a move in which the airport banned all single-use plastics and has increased the work it has been doing to ensure the airport remains as sustainable as possible.

Bangalore Airports Limited (BIAL), operators of BLR Airport, has announced that in line with its plans, it needs more than 50 tonnes of plastic to pave approximately 50km of internal roads.

BIAL has conducted lab tests by blending the plastic with bitumen and the results revealed that this mix is acceptable. The polymerised road has a strong binding ability that can withstand extreme weather conditions compared to the wear and tear one sees from asphalt. Asphalt is expected to last three years under the conditions experienced at an airport, while the plastic counterpart is expected to double this.

This move could go a long way in reducing the plight of plastic inflicted on the world. Additionally, reusing plastic in this way will reduce the carbon footprint of the airport substantially.

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Bengaluru Airport to pave roads around the site with plastic waste

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Plastic waste has become one of the largest burdens of our modern world, but Bengaluru Airport has found a novel way to re-purpose the material. Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru (BLR) has received approximately 11 tonnes of plastic waste from the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP).

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Article #4

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We at Plastic World Recycling, Inc. are committed to local and global environmental sustainability. We believe it is very important to protect our environment from any type of waste. We believe that recycling reduces hazards to nature and the environment. Recycling lowers production costs and creates jobs on almost all levels - manufacturing, office, trucking, shipping & handling, and sales.

It is our goal to provide high quality products at very competitive prices to meet our customer's needs and expectations. We pride ourselves on customer satisfaction, and we do our best to serve our customers in the quickest and most efficient way possible. Please allow us to do business with you.

Plastic Recycling Facts

Less than 35% of households and less than 10% of businesses in the U.S. recycle... More

Materials Wanted

The materials that Plastic World Recycling are currently processing include, LDPE, HDPE,... More

About Plastics

Low-density polyethylene (LDPE) is a thermoplastic made from the monomer... More

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We at Plastic World Recycling, Inc. are committed to local and global environmental sustainability. We believe it is very important to protect our environment from any type of waste. We believe that recycling reduces hazards to nature and the environment. Recycling lowers production costs and creates jobs on almost all levels - manufacturing, office, [...]

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TOKYO -- With China and Southeast Asia slamming their doors on plastic waste imports, advanced economies are scrambling to curb their mounting stockpiles through bans on single-use products and waste-to-energy plants.

Now forced to confront the plastic on their own shores, governments and companies are stepping up to explore options for turning waste into a valuable resource.

In June the Group of 20 agreed to completely stop plastic from polluting the oceans by 2050. G-20 nations will hold a working-level meeting in Japan this fall to discuss ways to address plastic waste.

The ubiquitous material turned into a major global concern after China stopped taking imports of recyclable plastics, which were used to produce clothing and other materials. The country imported about 7 million tons in 2017.

Beijing banned these shipments at the end of that year, citing increased pollution in its rivers and seas. U.S. exports to China plunged to about 40,000 tons in 2018 from 1.1 million tons in 2014, and Japanese exports dropped to 50,000 tons from 950,000 tons.

Southeast Asia quickly emerged as an alternative destination, with the U.S. shipping about 200,000 tons of plastic waste to Malaysia, and Japan sending about 190,000 tons to Thailand.

Still, the region could not completely replace China. Japan exported about 1 million tons of plastic waste in 2018, compared with 1.4 to 1.6 million tons in the years prior. The surplus is believed to remain inside Japan.

The situation is only growing more dire as Southeast Asia follows China's footsteps in banning plastic imports. The Philippines and Malaysia have announced plans to send back past shipments.

Just a little leftover grime can hinder the recycling process at less-sophisticated facilities. "Plastics that can be recycled in advanced economies can end up being dirty garbage in countries like the Philippines," according to Japan's Environment Ministry.

An amendment to the Basel Convention banning exports of soiled plastics is set to take effect in January 2021.

Currently, about 60% of Japan's plastic waste is burned. "Promoting thermal recycling is counterproductive for combating climate change," said Hideshige Takada, a professor at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, referring to the process of turning heat from burning plastics into energy.

Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said last month he will communicate to the international community Japan's efforts to reduce plastic waste in the oceans.

Europe is said to burn about 40% of its plastics and send another 30% to landfills. The European Parliament voted in March to ban the manufacturing of single-use plastics. The U.S., meanwhile, sends 70% of its plastics to landfills.

Chemical companies worldwide have begun to take action, launching the Alliance to End Plastic Waste and pledging $1.5 billion for environmental measures. About 500 industry insiders met in Tokyo in July.

Plastic made the convenience of modern life possible. The question is whether it can also be turned into a valuable resource.

Asei, based in Japan's Ibaraki Prefecture, recycles plastic waste into pellets, which can then be used to make clothes and other products. The company sends 80% of its output to China.

"There is a shortage of recyclable materials in China, and our shipments will likely increase in the future," Asei's president said.

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Plastic waste searches for a new home as Asia shuts its gates

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TOKYO -- With China and Southeast Asia slamming their doors on plastic waste imports, advanced economies are scrambling to curb their mounting stockpiles through bans on single-use products and waste-to-energy plants. Now forced to confront the plastic on their own shores, governments and companies are stepping up to explore options for turning waste into a valuable resource.

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Nearly 50 years ago, scientists studying the North Atlantic Ocean started noticing that tiny fragments of plastic were turning up in their plankton and seaweed samples. The microparticles, they found, absorbed toxic chemicals and were then eaten by flounder, perch, and other fish. Until recently, though, researchers thought these ingested plastics stayed in a creature's guts and possibly its liver. Removing a fish's entrails before serving it up appeared to eliminate the risk of eating plastic.

But recent research suggests that these tiny bits of plastic move into fish flesh. And now seafood is the third largest contributor of chemical-laden "microplastics" of sources analyzed so far for the average American consumer, behind bottled water and air. "Plastic is now part of our food system," says Kieran Cox, a marine ecologist and PhD candidate at the University of Victoria in British Columbia who led the study.

Microplastics are bits of material that are smaller than 5 millimeters, the width of a pencil-top eraser. The vast majority of this debris comes from "single use" plastic products such as bottles, bottle caps, straws, and bags. The study, which was published in June in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, estimates that Americans are eating, inhaling, and drinking at least 74,000 pieces of microplastic a year. But that's a "drastic underestimate," Cox says, because no one has measured microplastic content in major food groups such as meat, dairy, and grains.

It's hard to say what consuming all this plastic means for human health. We don't yet have standardized analytical measures to assess people's exposures, says ecotoxicologist Jane Muncke, managing director of the independent Swiss charity Food Packaging Forum, who was not involved in the University of Victoria study. Such standards, along with biomonitoring studies to measure levels of microplastics in blood and urine, are critical to enforcing regulations designed to protect our health.

More than 9 billion tons of plastic has been produced since the 1950s. Today about 40 percent is used for packaging, mostly for single-use food and beverage containers.

When marine biologists first discovered plastic particles fouling the ocean's surface in 1972, they measured about 3,500 particles per square kilometer in the North Atlantic Ocean's Sargasso Sea. The problem increased dramatically in the years following: In an analysis of samples taken from the same region between 1986 and 2008, reported in the journal Science, researchers found an average of 20,328 particles per square kilometer, with a peak concentration of 580,000 particles per square kilometer in 1997.

Lakes and rivers transport a massive amount of this plastic debris, and up to 14 million tons of it reaches the ocean each year, researchers estimated in a 2015 study. They predicted a tenfold increase in just six years if current management practices continue. In a recent survey of the Great Lakes that hasn't been published yet, chemist Sherri Mason, sustainability coordinator at Penn State Behrend, found 230,000 particles of plastic per square kilometer in Lake Ontario. Since Lake Ontario is the last lake in the Great Lakes chain, Mason points out, much of that plastic will flow into the St. Lawrence River, which empties into the North Atlantic.

Plastics can take hundreds of years to break down in marine waters, fragmenting into smaller and smaller pieces, which litter the sea surface by the trillions. Researchers now find microplastics wherever they look, from the deepest ocean trenches to the remote reaches of the Arctic.

Marine species mistake these plastic particles for food, filter feed them by accident, or ingest them by eating contaminated prey. Freshwater species also absorb microplastics through their gills and possibly their skin. Some 220 species and counting, including fish and shellfish, have gobbled up these particles, with a mounting array of negative effects. Microplastics can physically harm fish, crustaceans, and other animals by blocking their intestines, puncturing their organs, or filling their stomach with garbage.

Once in a fish's gut, these bits cause problems after entering the circulatory system, cells and tissues, including the liver and even the brain, altering how the animal hunts and feeds. Ingestion of microplastics has also been linked to inflammation, altered immune response, reduced feeding activity, and growth problems in offspring. These findings come primarily from lab studies that expose organisms to higher doses than have been seen in the wild. Still, public health experts worry that if exposures are chronic, lower doses could cause problems for marine life and humans.

And though scientists once assumed that people could reduce the risk of eating seafood simply by gutting their fish, recent studies suggest that's no longer a safe assumption. A team of Malaysian researchers reported in Scientific Reports in 2017 that the flesh of two species of dried fish had even higher levels of microplastics than their organs. And in August, in a study published in Food Additives & Contaminants, Iranian researchers reported finding microplastics in the flesh of all five seafood species they analyzed.

Until recently, most studies of microplastics in fish ignored their flesh in favor of the gastrointestinal tract. That's partly because researchers thought microplastics stayed in the GI tract and partly because the particles that enter muscle tissue are so small that many labs don't have the tools to detect them. Likewise, few studies have investigated whether microplastics can concentrate, or " biomagnify, " in animal flesh as they move up the food chain from prey to predators, and thereby pass along bigger doses, and potentially bigger risks, to humans.

When the Iranian researchers examined that question in fish, crabs, and prawns taken from Persian Gulf fishmongers in their August study, they found no evidence that microplastics from crustaceans concentrated in the flesh of the fish that ate them. But they did report that 82 percent of the samples tested had the particles in their muscles-so families who eat local seafood are getting plastic with their meal.

Americans eat more salmon than almost any other fish. Canadian scientists reported finding microplastics in the guts of juvenile chinook salmon earlier this year in the journal Environmental Pollution. No one has yet reported finding these plastic fragments in salmon flesh, but it's probably just a matter of time before someone does. The potential of finding microplastics in such a popular seafood "is a major concern," says Judith Enck, a visiting professor at Bennington College in Vermont and former regional administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Scientists have also documented microplastic contamination in farmed fish and shellfish. Whether farmed species pick up this plastic from the fishmeal they're fed remains an open question.

It remains unclear what, exactly, these particles do to us after we eat them, but it's probably not good. Persistent chemicals like PCBs (once used as coolants and lubricators in refrigerators and electrical equipment) and other contaminants lurking in our waterways glom onto particle surfaces. These plastic bits also carry with them endocrine-disrupting bisphenols, phthalates, and other toxic additives.

Earlier this year, an international team of researchers identified more than 900 chemicals associated with plastic packaging, including 16 linked to cancer, hormone disruption, and other health hazards. But it's tricky to get a true picture of which chemicals we're being exposed to. Plastic manufacturers guard their recipes as proprietary and the chemical reactions are so complex that even producers don't always know what's in the final product. So toxicologists have to guess what to test for.

Plus most studies are done on one chemical at a time, even though we're constantly exposed to a chemical soup, says Maricel Maffini, an independent consultant and food safety expert who contributed to the analysis: "We have little to no data on how the body reacts to collective and chronic exposures to chemicals." Making matters worse, toxicology studies usually test chemicals on adult animals, even though fetuses are more vulnerable.

And it appears that plastic particles may be able to cross the placenta to the fetus. In unpublished experiments in rodents presented at a meeting on microplastics in March, Phoebe Stapleton, a Rutgers University developmental toxicologist, tagged nanoplastic particles (generally defined as smaller than a micron, about the width of a human hair) with fluorescent labels to track their movement. Then she exposed the lungs of pregnant rats to the particles for about two weeks, and saw the particles move first to several tissues in the mother, and then to many of the same tissues in its developing pup. More research is needed to explore the implications of these preliminary results, but they support earlier published work showing that plastic nanoparticles cross placentas donated by women after their babies were delivered.

Even though Stapleton's results still have to be vetted through peer review, her approach was "pretty solid," says Tracey Woodruff, director of the Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment at the University of California-San Francisco. "We know that industrial chemicals pass through these barriers because we've measured them in the fetal liver and placenta," Woodruff says. The same thing has also been seen with particulate matter in air pollution, she says, and the finding that plastic nanoparticles can cross the placenta is consistent with the air pollution science.

"The facts tell us that potentially the entire human population is exposed to micro- and nanoplastics," says Muncke, of the Food Packaging Forum. Last October, researchers reported preliminary results of a small pilot study that found microplastics in the stool of eight people from eight different countries. The study, published in the peer-reviewed Annals of Internal Medicine last week, analyzed just one sample per person and did not determine whether the microplastics moved into the bloodstream or liver or had any health impacts.

With plastics production forecast to increase exponentially, we'll likely continue to be exposed to more and more of the material. "The seafood industry would be well served by getting out in front on this issue," Enck says, by working on laws to reduce plastic pollution. She believes that as concerns about plastics in the food system grow, people will stop buying seafood, starting with products like shrimp, oysters, and mussels that Americans typically eat whole.

Cox is hesitant to suggest that people stop eating fish, which is a valuable source of protein and nutrients around the world. The biggest source of microplastics found in our diet so far is bottled water, he says. By cutting out bottled water, you not only reduce how much plastic you ingest, but also how much you throw away.

Muncke thinks corporations bear the responsibility for this scourge. "Plastic producers have no right to distribute their products across the globe and into our foodstuffs," she says - "especially if the consequences are unknown."

Lead image: Until recently, most studies of microplastics in fish ignored their flesh in favor of the gastrointestinal tract. That's partly because researchers thought microplastics stayed in the GI tract and partly because the particles that enter muscle tissue are so small that many labs don't have the tools to detect them. Courtesy of Shutterstock/Rich Carey

This story appeared first in Mother Jones. All rights reserved. This article may not be reproduced without express permission from FERN. If you are interested in republishing or reposting this article, please contact info@thefern.org.

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Today's special: Grilled salmon laced with plastic | Food and Environment Reporting Network

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Nearly 50 years ago, scientists studying the North Atlantic Ocean started noticing that tiny fragments of plastic were turning up in their plankton and seaweed samples. The microparticles, they found, absorbed toxic chemicals and were then eaten by flounder, perch, and other fish.