Plastic and microplastic in marine environment

Modern lifestyles and Malmost all product categories incorporated plastic. It is one of the most widely used materials on earth. In contrast to metals, plastic is lightweight, strong, malleable material that is cheap. As useful as these characteristics are when plastics are used in everyday life, they can also be very hazardous when they are discarded into the environment. Because plastics are nearly indestructible and contain toxic material, plastic can seriously damage the environment (UNEP, 2005).

- Afreen Parveen

Plastic is the most prevalent type of marine debris found in our ocean and Great Lakes. Plastic debris can come in all shapes and sizes, but those that are less than five millimeters in length (or about the size of a sesame seed) are called “microplastics.”

Microplastics come from a variety of sources, including from larger plastic debris that degrades into smaller and smaller pieces. In addition, microbeads, a type of microplastic, are very tiny pieces of manufactured polyethylene plastic that are added as exfoliants to health and beauty products, such as some cleansers and toothpastes.

How is plastic made, and what kinds are there?

Various synthetic organic compounds can be considered plastic, and these can be manufactured by polymerization and can consist of repeating units (monomers) that are joined together to form copolymers. Plastic is a synthetic organic polymer made from petroleum and serves an extremely wide variety of purposes, including packaging, building and constructions household items, sports equipment, vehicles electronics and agriculture. The amount of plastic produced every year is more than 300 million tons, half of which is used for small single-use items like shopping bags, cups and straws.