Dull The Arctic Ocean is immune to ever-expanding microplastic pollution. In a new study that analyzed sediment core samples, researchers quantified the number of particles deposited since the early 1930s. As other scientists have shown, the researchers found that microplastic pollution in the Arctic is increasing exponentially, keeping pace with rising plastic production. Its production is now up to 1 trillion pounds per year, and the amount of plastic waste in the world is also increasing. expected to triple By 2060.
These researchers analyzed seawater and sediments in the western Arctic Ocean, which covers 13 percent of the total area. But in that area alone, they calculated, 210,000 tons, or 463 million pounds, of microplastics have accumulated in water, sea ice and sediment layers that have accumulated since the 1930s. In their research published in last week’s diary scientific progresshas cataloged 19 synthetic polymers in three formats: fragments, fibers, and sheets. This reflects a dizzying array of microplastic sources, including broken bottles and bag fragments, and microfibers from synthetic clothing.
Overall, the team found that levels of microplastics in Arctic sediments doubled every 23 years. This mirrors a previous study of marine sediments off Southern California, which found concentrations to double every 15 years. Other researchers have found that contamination is increasing exponentially. urban lake sediments.
The problem is likely to continue to get worse, lead author Sunkyu Kim, a marine scientist at Incheon National University, told WIRED in an email. “The influx of microplastics into the Arctic has increased exponentially over the past few decades, with an annual growth rate of 3 percent,” writes Kim. “With mass production of plastics growing by 8.4 percent annually, coupled with inefficient waste management systems, the plastic burden entering the oceans is projected to increase further over the next few decades, and therefore the amount of plastic entering the Arctic. It will increase proportionately.”
Microplastics are also becoming more prevalent in the atmosphere. By one calculation, it could rain the equivalent of hundreds of millions of crushed plastic bottles in the United States alone.a study A study of peatland areas in the Pyrenees found that in the 1960s, less than five microplastics in the atmosphere were being deposited per square meter of land each day. It’s now around 180.
The new Arctic paper “helps show that increased production is commensurate with the environment,” said Steve Allen, a microplastics researcher at the Ocean Frontier Institute who did the peatland study. To tell. “And I believe that increase will become apparent in humans as more research on human exposures emerges.”
Microplastics easily move between different environments. A previous study found 14,000 microplastics per liter of Arctic snow, which were blown in from European cities. Microplastics also reach the Arctic by sea. When you wash your clothes, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of synthetic fibers tear and end up in wastewater treatment plants and ultimately in the ocean. Ocean currents then carry the microplastics to the Arctic, where they swirl and eventually settle in sediments. Allen and other scientists reported in May that a single recycling facility could release 3 million pounds of microplastics annually, but that was from a brand new factory that filtered the runoff. .
