7.3 Micro- and Nanoplastics

97

Weathering

Macroplastic

Nanoplastic

Microplastic

Figure 7.1

Effect of micro- and nanoplastics on marine life.

which has an increasingly damaging impact on the ecosystem. Microplastics have

been reported from the water surface of open ocean to estuaries, subtidal segments,

and deep oceans. There have been reports of microplastic in considerable concen-

tration in Arctic sea ice.

The major characteristics of micro- and nanoplastics are

1. Being smaller in size, they can travel farther and faster in the environment.

2. They are efficient sorbents of other pollutants and often release sorbates to the

surroundings – for example, heavy metals, persistent organic pollutants, antibi-

otics, etc. The chemicals hence released leads to direct toxic effects on aquatic

fauna at the tissue, cellular, and molecular level.

3. Being micro- and nano-sized, they can move through various trophic levels and

gets incorporated into the food chain.

4. They also can migrate through tissues.

The existence of micro- and nanoplastics can now be considered as ubiquitous as

their widespread distribution, starting from open oceans to marine life from where

it travels up the trophic levels to human beings and other landforms. Hence, they

have invaded a wide variety of life forms and the ecosystem.

7.3.1

Microplastics

Microplastics can be broadly classified as primary and secondary. Primary

microplastics constitute plastic particles that are directly released into the envi-

ronment as microsized pellets, beads, etc. These include waste scrapings from

various production industries and wearing and tearing from day-to-day opera-

tions. Secondary microplastics, on the other hand, are the microplastics that are