The amount of plastic debris at the bottom of oceans has tripled in 20 years trends now
View
comments
The amount of microplastics found at the bottom of oceans has tripled in 20 years, researchers have found.
Tiny pieces of plastic debris – smaller than the human eye can see – have been building up on the sea floor at a depth of more than 100 metres, the study reveals.
Their accumulation mimics the increasing amount of plastic products used by society for things like packaging, bottles and clothing, scientists said.
And it shows the world is still far from achieving a reduction in single-use plastic, they warned.
Tiny pieces of plastic debris – smaller than the human eye can see – have been building up on the sea floor at a depth of more than 100 metres, the study reveals
The team analysed five sediment cores that were extracted in the Balearic Sea – which lies to the east of Spain and south of France – in November 2019.
Each core was 37cm long and allowed the researchers to see how many microplastics were on the sea floor from 1965 – when plastics started to be mass-produced – onwards.
Their results, published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, revealed that since the turn of the millennium
