The impact of micro and nano plastics on the environment

• Main Author: Mr. Sandipan Babasaheb Jige
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Zenodo 2022
• Subjects: Degradation, Plastic, Pollution, Debris and Environment etc.; Arctic
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5831839; https://zenodo.org/record/5831839

Plastic is marine debris found in our ocean and lakes it is most prevalent type of debris. It occur in all shapes and sizes but when it has shown less than five millimeter in length occur in sesame seed like size known as a micro plastics. The plastic fragments with dimensions less than a millimeter invading all terrestrial and marine environments is called nano plastics. Generally micro plastic has 0.1 micron to five millimeter and nano plastic has 0.001-0.1 micron in size. The micro plastic and nano plastic also lading contributors of marine and fresh water pollution, the study indicates that micro plastic debris distributed with different concentration in aquatic system around the world. It has shown effect on development, behavior, growth, mortality and reproduction of animals. In around the world people discards tons of plastic every year, these plastic bites break down into pieces no bigger than sesame seeds. The plastic found throughout the oceans and locked in Arctic ice and end in food chain so animals occur big and small in size. The vast majority 82 million tons of macro plastics and 40 million tons of micro plastics is washed up, buried or resurfaced along the world’s shorelines. Scientist also finds plastic bits in all kinds of animals form crustaceans to birds and whales. The small animals concentration is low on the food chain eats them. When larger animals feed on the small animals, they can end up also consuming large amounts of plastic. In the world plastic use also increased day by day 368 million tons of plastic production occur in 2019 year. The plastic produced is not disposed in correct way it breaks down into smaller particles and also shows the impact on the human body and environment in global. The increase of micro and nano plastic waste in the food chain creates a risk of animal and human deaths. The wide bioavailability and ubiquity in aquatic and terrestrial areas it is more probable that plastic is present in many food products. The majority of plastic debris land is littered or thrown into landfills without adequate safeguards shows its way into the ocean. The dumping of plastic in the environment is impossible to picture in even single day. The plastic bottle caps make up about one-third of all plastic trash because of in the time take you read this or in just few minutes about fifty thousand plastic bottles thrown away in environment.