One of the environmental legacies of Covid-19 may well be vast amounts of plastic pollution. Since the beginning of the pandemic, scientist...
One of the environmental legacies of Covid-19 may well be vast amounts of plastic pollution. Since the beginning of the pandemic, scientists have warned of the long-term threat of littering face masks and other personal protective equipment into the environment.
These large plastic items break down into microplastics, which wash into our waterways and agricultural land. Microplastics are commonly defined as solid plastic particles or synthetic fibres of the size between 1 µm and 5,000 µm, or micrometres.
The problem is of course much bigger than face masks: industrial and private activities release microplastic into the environment in different ways, where they negatively impact ecosystems. Microplastics are found in many ecosystems and even ingested by many species.
Microplastic pollution is best known as a pollutant in oceans, lakes and rivers. But microplastics also have an impact on land: they can break down the structure of soil and harm the creatures that live there, for example when it is ingested by earthworms.
The two environmental problems are related – microplastics in soils can also be transported from agricultural fields into rivers, lakes and the ocean by erosion and surface runoff.
In both water and soil, microplastics can have an extremely long life. In soil, plastic particles can last up to a hundred years or more, depending on the characteristics of the plastic particles and the environmental conditions...
