HOW EVERYDAY STUFF TURNS INTO MICROPLASTICS
MICROPLASTICS are all over the news lately. Actually,these plastic bits 0.2 inches (5 mm) wide or smaller are all over everything—from our food to the insides of animals, and especially in the oceans.
Most plastic is non-biodegradable. When something biodegradable breaks down, it chemically changes into new substances. Bacteria and other microbes will digest a banana peel over a few weeks until it becomes soil. By contrast, plastic stays plastic forever. But it can still physically break into smaller pieces. This happens fastest outside, because the ultraviolet light in sunlight weakens and cracks plastic. Eventually, it breaks into smaller pieces. There’s no limit to how small those pieces can get, and that’s how we end up with microplastics. Bigger microplastics might look like individual grains of dust, just barely big enough to see with your eyes. Others are invisible without a microscope. These may be the size of human blood cells, or
