Plastics 'poisoning world's seas'

Plastic bags, plastic toys, plastic money, plastic rubbish, ….
The BBC updates your knowledge for free … Read about a recent study which highlights the fact that plastic is poisoning the oceans.

By Maggie Ayre Producer, Costing The Earth

Microscopic particles of plastic could be poisoning the oceans, according to a British team of researchers.

They report that small plastic pellets called "mermaids' tears", which are the result of industry and domestic waste, have spread across the world's seas.

The scientists had previously found the debris on UK beaches and in European waters; now they have replicated the finding on four continents.

Scientists are worried that these fragments can get into the food chain. Plastic rubbish, from drinks bottles and fishing nets to the ubiquitous carrier bag, ends up in the world's oceans. Sturdy and durable plastic does not bio-degrade, it only breaks down physically, and so persists in the environment for possibly hundreds of years.

Among clumps of seaweed washed up on the shore it is common to find mermaids' tears, small plastic pellets resembling fish eggs.

Some are the raw materials of the plastics industry spilled in transit from processing plants. Others are granules of domestic waste that have fragmented over the years. Either way, mermaids' tears remain everywhere and are almost impossible to clean up.

Read more here.