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Plastic is ubiquitous. It’s in our homes, offices, and schools. Its longevity is sometimes a good thing, like those handy recycled park benches that can withstand the elements. Yet plastic’s staying power comes with some serious environmental drawbacks.
It doesn’t decompose like organic matter, so it often breaks up into tinier and tinier pieces called microplastics (particles less than 5 millimeters) that proliferate in our bodies, the soil, alpine environments, and oceans. These plastics have nasty health and environmental impacts.
Once plastic ends up in a marine environment, for example, it enters ocean currents like particulate smog and can collect into plastic trash islands. The mass of one of these islands—the Great Pacific Garbage Patch—is estimated to be approximately 80,000 tons, a weight equivalent to 500 Jumbo Jets. Ocean plastics impact aquatic life like seabirds and sea turtles who ingest the microplastics or get caught in