Plastic rain new threat, wildlife expert warns

Plastic rain is the new acid rain, the head of The Wildlife Trusts has said, as microplastics from the sea are polluting our soil.

Tiny particles of plastic, from bottles and other waste are degrading to microplastics in the oceans and then rising into clouds as water vapour that later falls as rain. A study in the journal Science found that over 14 months, more than 1,000 metric tons of microplastic particles fell into 11 protected areas in the western U.S. each year, the equivalent of 120 million plastic water bottles.

Craig Bennett, CEO of The Wildlife Trusts, said that the world is not yet taking the plastics crisis seriously, but if we do not stop using the material we will see implications for human health.

He told The Daily Telegraph: “This will be taken as seriously as we have taken fossil fuels and acid rain. The real story that we're going to be talking about five to 10 years from now is the impact of plastics and particularly microplastics on human health.”

The wildlife campaigner pointed out that although we have seen “pictures of turtles drowning in the sea because they've eaten plastic bags,” the impact of plastics raining down on us, and entering our food chain has not been widely explored.