More
than five trillion pieces of plastic, collectively weighing nearly
269,000 tonnes, are floating in the world’s oceans, causing damage
throughout the food chain, new research has found.
Data collected by scientists from the
US, France, Chile, Australia and New Zealand suggests a minimum of
5.25tn plastic particles in the oceans, most of them “micro plastics”
measuring less than 5mm.
The volume of plastic pieces, largely
deriving from products such as food and drink packaging and clothing,
was calculated from data taken from 24 expeditions over a six-year
period to 2013. The research, published in the journal PLOS One, is the
first study to look at plastics of all sizes in the world’s oceans.
Large pieces of plastic can strangle
animals such as seals, while smaller pieces are ingested by fish and
then fed up the food chain, all the way to humans.
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