In 1999, Captain Charles Moores, an oceanographer, collected water samples from the North Pacific Ocean. Upon researching, he and his team discovered that along with macro plastics, i.e the large pieces of plastic visible to the naked human eye, microplastics were also present in the waters.
Microplastics are classified as pieces of plastic smaller than 5 millimetres but larger than 1/1000th millimetres. They are usually formed when larger chunks of plastic are broken down or when microfibres get detached from synthetic fishing gear, polyester clothing, etc.
Since that research, scientists and oceanographers have been trying to understand the scale of plastic pollution, the most recent study being in 2021. Previous studies have shown that there are more than 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic in the ocean, weighing more than 22,67,50,000, i.e approximately 22 crore kg.
Another study has shown that while microplastics are present in the ocean, they are also present in the air we breathe. This isn’t only limited to the coastal areas but everywhere.
A recent study has discovered that along with the ocean and air, microplastics are also present in the water we consume, including both tap and bottled water. They also discovered that an average person consumes about 1769 tiny microplastics each week through their water diet.
Yet another study conducted in environmental research has found that microplastics are also found in common fruits and vegetables. Apples had the highest count of micro-plastics with around 1,95,500 tiny particles present per gram. Through normal food and water consumption, it is found that an average person intakes about 5 grams of plastic each week, similar to the size of a credit card.
“Plastic is everywhere,” Thava Palanisami, a microplastic researcher at the University of Newcastle, Australia told, “We live in plastic and our life is plasticized.”
