The life of microplastic: how fragments move through plants, insects, animals – and you
The story starts with a single thread of polyester. … Along with billions of other microscopic, synthetic fibres, our thread travels through household wastewater pipes. Often, it ends up as sewage sludge, being spread on a farmer’s field to help crops grow. Sludge is used as organic fertiliser across the US and Europe, inadvertently turning the soil into a huge global reservoir of microplastics. One wastewater treatment plant in Wales found 1% of the weight of sewage sludge was plastic. … Spread on the fields as water or sludge, our tiny fibre weaves its way into the fabric of soil ecosystems. … With the passage of time, our plastic thread has still not rotted, but has broken into fragments, leaving tiny pieces of itself in the air, water and soil.
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