Microplastics everywhere
A new atmospheric transport model demonstrates how microplastics enter and move through the atmosphere. The model, created by researchers at a consortium of US universities, demonstrates that roads, the ocean and agricultural dust are the biggest dispersers of plastic into the air: plastic on roads is kicked up by the spin of car wheels; plastic floating on the surface of the ocean is flung up by the churning of waves; and microplastics already present in soil fertiliser are blown into the air as a component of dust. The Pacific Ocean and Mediterranean Sea were found to be the most significant dispersers of microplastics that are deposited back onto the land. Once in the atmosphere, such particles can remain airborne for up to 6.5 days, allowing them to be spread across the world, ultimately cropping up in unexpected places such as the human bloodstream and the guts of Antarctic insects.