According to a research paper published in Nature Communications, the concentration of micro-plastics in Antarctica is 10 times higher than assumed, which suggests that there is a presence of 12-21 million of it in the ocean. It is the first study which points towards the issue.
Any plastic which is less than 5 millimetres in diameter comes under micro-plastic and can enter the ocean through various methods in which the most famous are through cosmetic, clothing and industrial processes.
Only three common types of plastic wastes – polythene, polypropylene and polystyrene, used for packaging purposes were studied. As per the studies, across 65 years, 17 million of waste has polluted the ocean covering 10,000 kilometres and currently 80 % of the garbage constitutes micro-plastics.
The research was carried on by researchers of the National Oceanography Center from the UK who used spectroscopic imaging technique for pinpointing the plastic residuals and 200 metres deep water was filtered up for the process. They also raised concern over the issue by indicating towards it that every year 8 million tonnes of micro-plastic invade the ocean and if this keeps going on then the amount will become identical to the number of fishes in the ocean.
Eduindex News 
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