There is growing concern about the threats microplastics may pose to human health.
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The findings of this recent study adds to a growing body of evidence linking microplastics with health harms.
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Microplastics are created when everyday products – including clothes, food and beverage packaging, home furnishings, plastic bags, toys and toiletries – degrade.
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Next time you do your laundry, think like an astronaut – wash your clothes as little as possible.
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We sampled sewage sludge from 13 wastewater treatment plants across three states. We found every resident adds microplastics to farmland, in dried sewage sludge (biosolids) used as fertiliser.
A fisherman on the River Nile.
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The River Nile is contaminated with microplastics.
You may hardly feel a raindrop, but for some tiny insects, one drop can have an intense impact.
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Microplastic pollution is a growing problem − one lab is looking at tiny insects as inspiration for how these pollutants might move through water.
A worker sorting plastic bottles at a recycling plant in Lagos.
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Recycled plastics are not safe if the chemicals used in creating them in the first place are harmful.
Laundry washwater is a major source of microplastic fibers that can end up in water and soil.
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Your washing machine is polluting the ocean.
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Five reasons to avoid glitter, even on Christmas cards or baubles.
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Microscopic flakes of polystyrene can enter brain cells and cause harm, a new study in mice has shown.
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Media coverage of the dangers of plastic pollution can distract from what is actually needed, says an author.
Most of the world washes their clothing by hand.
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Simply trying to avoid synthetic clothing won’t fix our microfibre pollution problem
More than 8 million pumpkins are thrown away over Halloween each year.
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Halloween is a sustainability nightmare – but it doesn’t have to be.
Researchers on the frozen surface of Lake Kallavesi prepare to take a sample of the sediment down below.
Timo Saarinen
Since the 1950s, billions of tons of plastic have been produced and much of it ends up in the environment – even at the bottom of lakes in Finland.
A Risso’s dolphin entangled in fishing line.
Andrew Sutton/Shutterstock
New research shows that relatively large microplastic particles can make their way into the body tissues of marine mammals.
In Canada and around the world, biosolids are widely used to improve agricultural farmland soil. Biosolids being sprayed on an agricultural field.
(Branaavan Sivarajah)
We need to pay close attention to the potential impacts that high levels of microplastics might have on environments and find ways to reduce microplastic levels in Canada’s wastewater stream.
California Tourism
Researchers even found textile fibres in very remote lakes with limited human presence.
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Microplastic pollution in lakes could affect the food web, all the way to people fishing and harvesting mussels, as well as sources of drinking water.
Northern fulmar.
Beth Clark
Some of the world’s most threatened birds are exposed to plastic pollution – even far out to sea.
Fish in a kelp forest off San Benito Island, Mexico.
Photo by Reinhard Dirscherl/ullstein bild via Getty Images
Humans rely on the ocean for food, jobs and other resources, but these systems are being stressed to the brink.