Scientists have puzzled over what happens to plastic as it breaks down in the ocean – our new study helps explain the mystery

By Kate Spencer, Professor of Environmental Geochemistry, Queen Mary University of London
Nan Wu, Ecological modeller, Postdoctoral Researcher, British Antarctic Survey; Queen Mary University of London

Think of ocean plastic and you may picture bottles and bags bobbing on the waves, slowly drifting out to sea. Yet the reality is more complex and far more persistent.

Even if we stopped all plastic pollution today, our new research shows that fragments of buoyant plastic would continue to pollute the ocean’s surface for more than a century. These fragments break down slowly, releasing microplastics that sink through the water column at a glacial pace. The result is a “natural conveyor belt” of pollution…

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