News: It’s literally raining plastic–that is, “multicolored microscopic plastic fibers.” Previous research has found microplastics in mountains in Europe, at the bottom of the ocean, and in lakes, rivers, and groundwater around the world … and now in rainwater samples collected in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, USA.
“Almost anything that’s made of plastic could be shedding particles into the atmosphere.” “More than 90% of plastic waste is not recycled.”
We consume microplastics as we eat and drink. We breathe plastic particles that are in the air. Microplastics also combine with heavy metals and bacteria and factor into antibiotic resistance. Even if we stopped using plastics globally today, microplastics may continue to circulate through our air and water for centuries.
There is nothing positive about plastic pollution. This is a problem directly created by humans.
Read more: It’s raining plastic: microscopic fibers fall from the sky in Rocky Mountains (Maanvi Singh, The Guardian, 13 August 2019).
Go to the source: It is raining plastic (Gregory Wetherbee, et al., USGS, 2019).
