MEET THE PLASTIC-EATING BACTERIA

TINY ORGANISMS COULD HAVE A MASSIVE IMPACT ON OUR ENVIRONMENTAL PLASTIC PROBLEM

AT LEAST 14 MILLION TONNES OF PLASTIC IS OFFLOADED INTO OUR OCEANS EVERY YEAR. This pollution has a severe impact on marine ecosystems. Once plastic enters the ocean, it can then suffocate and entangle animals and can affect human health.

Microplastics are also ingested by many marine species, both those that are preyed upon by other species and those we catch for food. Once ingested, microplastics can leach the toxic contaminants that have collected on their surfaces into the bodies of the organisms that consume them. Those toxins can accumulate and be transferred up the food chain, from marine life into humans, whenever we eat something that has been taken from the sea.