The Negative Effects of Microplastics on Marine Environments and Possible Solutions

Sophia Averza
ENST233—Section 0103
November 1, 2021

I, Sophia Averza, pledge on my honor that I have not given or received any unauthorized assistance on this
assignment/ examination
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Introduction

Microplastics are debris that are less than 5mm in diameter formed from plastic waste on

land that contaminate the ocean and environment (National Geographic Society, 2019). They are

composed of plastic that is broken down from into its smaller pieces (National Geographic

Society, 2019). Therefore, microplastic is made from plastic. Plastic is typically made from,

polyethylene (National Geographic Society, 2019). But can also be made from polypropylene,

polyethylene terephthalate, and nylon (National Geographic Society, 2019).

Microplastics pose a threat to the environment. They take hundreds of years to

decompose because of the polymers it is made with (National Geographic Society, 2019). Since

microplastics take considerable amounts of time to decompose, they infest ecosystems on land

and in water until they are fully broken down (National Geographic Society, 2019).

Microplastics endanger marine life by ingestion. Not only do microplastics affect marine life, but

it can harm humans as well. They can compromise safe drinking water and food for human

consumption (National Geographic Society, 2019). Microplastics impact both the health of

species in the marine environment as well as humans negatively, but when taken the proper

precautions swiftly, humans can eliminate these health effects.

Sources of Microplastics

Microplastics are created through battered human-made plastic products which are

released into the environment over time. These small pieces of plastic are commonly sourced

from synthetic textiles, tires, city dust, road markings, marine coatings, personal care products,

and plastic pellets (Boucher & Friot, 2017).

Microplastics are typically formed from plastics that were designed for the utility and

convenience of humans. Synthetic textiles are the materials found in most clothing. They make
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up more than half of the material content and composition (Boucher & Friot, 2017). Synthetic

textiles are unnatural fibers that use plastic chemical components (Boucher & Friot, 2017). This

is a large amount of textile, especially given every person requires the necessity of clothing.

With washing and wearing, smaller particles that fray off these clothes. The fibers unravel when

washing, and they cannot be filtered through wastewater management because the particles are

too small (Boucher & Friot, 2017). Through everyday wear, movement, bushing against objects,

and washing causes the fibers of the textiles to be released into the air and environment.

Individuals not only use plastics everyday through clothing but through their routinely

personal care as well. So, people overuse plastics everyday through clothing and care products,

which develop into microplastics. These care products include cosmetics, body scrubs, and the

packaging they are manufactured in (Boucher & Friot, 2017). Some personal care products such

as exfoliants harbor microbeads, which are another form of microplastic (Boucher & Friot,

2017). These hygienic care agents are typically used for bodily washing, so as a result they

infiltrate the wastewater systems through drainage (Boucher & Friot, 2017). Microplastics

contaminate the wastewater that is fed into marine ecosystems which can affect marine

ecosystems (Boucher & Friot, 2017).

The plastic personal care product packaging and other plastic materials are molded from

plastic pellets. Plastic pellets are small pieces of plastic that are a few millimeters in diameter

and are melted down to form plastic products (Boucher & Friot, 2017). Since plastic pellets are

so small, they can unknowingly be released into the environment through spillage in transport or

manufacturing (Boucher & Friot, 2017). They are easily discharged into the marine ecosystems

because of their size. With particles as small as plastic pellets, marine life can easily ingest them
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and cause themselves harm, which poses a threat to marine environments (Boucher & Friot,

2017).

Tires create friction with the road to move a vehicle. This friction between the tire and

the road cause it to wear off its rubber and plastic polymers onto the road (Boucher & Friot,

2017). With vehicles, there will always be rubber debris because of driving or transporting, so

microplastics are seemingly unavoidable. Additionally, friction between roads and tires cause

another development of microplastics. Small plastic particles enter the atmosphere by paint

chipping off road markings (Boucher & Friot, 2017). Road markings are created from paint,

thermoplastic, or epoxy (Boucher & Friot, 2017). Through weathering and wearing from

automobiles, the painted road markings cause debris (Boucher & Friot, 2017).

Marine coatings are another sort of microplastics generated from the abrasion of paints

and coatings (Boucher & Friot, 2017). Marine coatings are paints and coatings applied to the

exteriors of boats (Boucher & Friot, 2017). Unlike road markings, marine coatings are released

directly into aquatic environments rather than traveling from land to ocean. Over time, these

coatings chip and wear off, then release microplastic particles in the ocean (Boucher & Friot,

2017).

The living conditions of metropolitan areas harbor microplastics. Pollution from cities

creates what is known as city dust (Boucher & Friot, 2017). City dust is a dust created from

artificial materials that are worn off from human products, buildings, and even clothing in a

densely populated area (Boucher & Friot, 2017). This debris can include commodities as

unseeming as cooking utensils to the dust in our homes (Boucher & Friot, 2017). City dust

includes the massive accumulation of microplastics in a densely populated area that pollutes the

environment.
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Microplastics in Marine Environment and Distribution

Microplastics can enter the marine environment through indirect and direct travel to the

ocean (Cole et al., 2011). Because microplastics are lightweight, they can travel through the

environment smoothly. Microplastics in indirect travel typically originate from plastics that are

improperly disposed (Cole et al., 2011). Indirect travel refers to microplastics that are travel

through air, rivers, wastewater, drainage, and extreme weather to reach the ocean (Cole et al.,

2011). Extreme weather can intensify the speed of microplastic travel (Cole et al., 2011). When

weather increases volumes of water withing water channels, it was found that litter and

microplastics were unloaded farther into oceans than if there was no change in weather (Cole et

al., 2011). Despite precautions such as drainage filters and trashcans, microplastics can be picked

up through nature and travel into oceans through average weather patterns with wind from the

coastline, and not just through extreme weather (Cole et al., 2011).

Direct travel is when microplastics are littered into ocean at the beach or by boat (Cole et

al., 2011). Some sources of direct travel are through fishing, boats, and other productions within

the marine sector (Cole et al., 2011). Fishing industries generate sizeable amounts of direct litter

because fleets discard tens of thousands of tons of plastic packaging materials in the form of

micro and macro plastics into the water (Cole et al., 2011). Also, these boats are the source of

spillage with plastic pellets which are a common source of microplastics (Cole et al., 2011). Not

only are workers at sea contributors to direct travel of microplastics, but tourists are as well.

Tourism around coastlines attracts many plastics that develop into microplastics because people

will litter or forget belongings on beaches, which are swept up by currents (Cole et al., 2011).

The extent of travel of microplastics in the marine environment is extensive.

Microplastics are not just found on land and the sea surface. Microplastics can travel into
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untouched locations, the poles, and even ocean depths (Cole et al., 2011). There is evidence that

microplastics have reached the depths of the sea floors (Zhang, 2019). With recently developed

technologies in deep-sea diving, a team of scientists discovered microplastic particles in bodies

of marine life that were 36,000 feet below the ocean’s surface (Zhang, 2019). This study was

conducted of marine organisms found in the Mariana Trench, the deepest known point on Earth

(Zhang, 2019). Microplastics can reach the most uncharted territories on Earth showing that they

are affecting wildlife deep below the ocean’s surface (Zhang, 2019). Plastics and microplastics

do not simply keep to the surface but need somewhere to settle.

Microplastics’ Impact on Marine Organism Health

Human plastic consumption induces negative consequences to marine life ecosystems

(Kontrick, 2018). Microplastics can harm marine life by invading their bodies, creating a harmful

living environment which can decrease biodiversity.

Since microplastics eventually lead to the ocean, interaction between microplastics and

marine life is unpreventable. Some of these interactions involve microplastics permeating in

marine life’s physical organs (Kontrick, 2018). With consumption of microplastics and through

entering openings of the body, animals have increased risks in their health (Kontrick, 2018).

Marine life is injured by microplastics that enter their gills and intestines to amass, which over

time develops into a change in their feeding habits (Kontrick, 2018). Unnatural microplastics can

also impair their endocrine system to disturb their development and reproduction (Kontrick,

2018). Since microplastics are distributed across far distances, they can carry harmful chemicals

and bacteria with them. Since microplastics can travel from land to sea, marine life has increased

exposure to pesticides and chemical compounds that they have never encountered because they

are designed by humans for their benefit (Kontrick, 2018). Some other negative substances that
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travel with microplastics include the transfer of toxic metals to marine ecosystems (Kontrick,

2018). Some toxic metals like lead can induce intestinal irritations and metabolism malfunctions

(Kontrick, 2018). Microplastics that enter marine organisms generate bodily disruptions and

injury that occur unnaturally.

Not only do microplastics affect the bodies of marine life, but where they live as well.

Microplastics fashion a harmful living environment for marine organisms because they can

entangle them and harbor harmful organisms (Gall & Thompson, 2015). Marine life that deals

with entanglement is more likely to die of microplastics than of an organism that consumed

microplastic (Gall & Thompson, 2015). With entanglement, there is more direct harm to the

marine organism rather than a prolonged harm accompanying ingestion (Gall & Thompson,

2015). In the ocean’s surface, microplastic particles accumulate and form large concentrations of

plastic which build new habitats (De-la-Torre, 2019). These large plastic regions on the surface

create an environment for harmful marine microorganism pathogens to harbor and thrive (De-la-

Torre, 2019). This plastic debris could decrease biodiversity as well as introduce harmful or

invasive species (Gall & Thompson, 2015). The litter will create unnatural reefs to supply marine

life with new habitation as well as provide a raft to travel to areas where it is not native (Gall &

Thompson, 2015). Marine debris may be the root of the extinction of species and depletion of

biodiversity (Gall & Thompson, 2015).

Microplastics’ Impact on Human Health

The effects of microplastics on human health is not well researched. Studies on

microplastics in organisms are typically constrained to primary consumption by marine life

rather than secondary consumptions by humans (Kontrick, 2018). Humans are exposed to
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microplastic by digesting and inhaling, so human exposure should be examined at the same rate

as marine life or more (Kontrick, 2018).

Human bodily health is compromised by consumption of microplastics. Microplastics

travel from land to the ocean, where humans source many of their resources in food and water.

With sourcing from the polluted ocean, humans have increased their consumption of

microplastics through seafood and drinking water (De-la-Torre, 2019). Researchers that

discovered that off the coast of China there were microplastic particles in 84% of its oysters (De-

la-Torre, 2019). These results were not just in Chinese seafood, but seafoods found in many

locations around the world (De-la-Torre, 2019). Microplastics are found in seafood because

marine organisms cannot digest and dissolve microplastics, so they are often passed to its

consumer (De-la-Torre, 2019). Given the countless negative impacts to marine organisms’

physical health by microplastics, scientists discovered that some contaminants from

microplastics are biomagnified with each level of consumer (De-la-Torre, 2019). Since humans

are of a higher tropic level to seafood, they possibly pose the highest widespread health damage

from microplastics. In addition to seafood, the water sourced for drinking water can be

contaminated with microplastics as well (De-la-Torre, 2019). Given microplastics small size, it is

not difficult for them to penetrate through water filtration systems when they are widely present

in the water (De-la-Torre, 2019). With high concentrations of microplastics in seafood and

unfiltered microplastics in water, there could be a threat to food security (De-la-Torre, 2019). If

microplastics happen to render seafood and particular water sources unfit for consumption, there

is less availability for food and water to be sourced and options that are affordable (De-la-Torre,

2019).
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Human bodies are invaded by microplastics though inhalation (De-la-Torre, 2019). There

is increased risk of welcoming microplastics into human bodies through breathing dust and air in

homes (De-la-Torre, 2019). Inhalation of microplastics in the air is typically from city dust,

synthetic textiles, and tires found through everyday outdoor activity (De-la-Torre, 2019). In

addition to outside vulnerability, there is increased exposure to microplastics through inhalation

of dust particles in homes (De-la-Torre, 2019). Dust is mostly created from synthetic particles

and therefore poses another threat to inhalation and digestion of microplastics (De-la-Torre,

2019). These microplastics are commonly produced from bisphenol A which can damage the

endocrine system, destabilize hormone levels, or even cause cancer (De-la-Torre, 2019). So,

when humans consume or inhale microplastics, their health is jeopardized in the long-term.

Solutions to Effects of Microplastics

The health implications from microplastics on the environment and humans poses a

concern that needs to be addressed. Some possible solutions to eliminating the harmful effects of

microplastics is regulating the use of them, eliminating the existing debris with natural

organisms, and building water treatment plants to remove microplastics.

To moderate the use of microplastics, policymakers must target the businesses that are

using microplastics (Auta et al., 2017). Regulating and/or banning the use of microplastics

through laws could create a significant reduction in the debris invading oceans and causing harm

on marine organisms (Auta et al., 2017). Regulating microplastics could include forbidding

littering by law or adopting a policy to reuse all plastics (Auta et al., 2017). Although a difficult

undertaking, banning the use of microplastics could prevent any further damage to marine life of

the present and future, although it cannot revert the use of microplastic in the past. If

microplastics were banned, companies could substitute microplastics and single use plastics for
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an eco-friendly alternative, such as bioplastics (Wong et al., 2020). There are many natural

alternative materials to use for packaging in replacement of plastics, but there are also solutions

to break down microplastics.

Humans can utilize microbes and bacteria to decompose the microplastics (Auta et al.,

2017). Microbes break down the polymers that are found in plastics and use them for energy and

their functions (Auta et al., 2017). Marine life and humans do not have the ability to break down

plastic polymers as microbes do (Auta et al., 2017). When properly utilized and isolated, the

microbes could break down the microplastics in an environmentally friendly method without

introducing harmful substances into the ocean (Auta et al., 2017). Humans have the ability to

break down the microplastics as well as filter them from the water.

Humans could also build advanced water treatment plants to remove microplastics from

wastewater (Talvitie et al., 2017). This technology uses filters of different pore sizes to filter out

different magnitudes of microplastics with multiple phases of treatments (Talvitie et al., 2017).

When this application is used, the concentrations of microplastics in wastewater decrease

significantly, leaving few microparticles infiltrating through the water treatment plant (Talvitie et

al., 2017). Regulation, microbes, and water treatments are feasible solutions to undo the pollution

of microplastics to prevent further damage to marine environments and human health.

Conclusion

Microplastics are formed from the plastic products that humans use daily. Since

microplastics are discarded and only utilized for a single use by humans continuously, it creates

many small particles that are miniscule enough to travel by many means across far distances.

These microplastic particles travel farther than an average person might expect when discarding

them. Once microplastics reach the ocean, they can harm and kill marine life by penetrating
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marine organisms’ bodies, creating unsuitable living environments, and threating biodiversity

and balance within ecosystems. Microplastics negatively affect marine life and marine life passes

these impacts to humans. So, humans are impaired by microplastics as well through seafood,

water, and inhalation. Ways in which humans can prevent the aftermath of microplastics is to

reduce microplastics in the environment are through regulation, developing new technologies,

and utilizing natural organic processes. Microplastics are a major threat to marine ecosystems

and have altered them negatively, but they can regress to its original state with proper action.

However, will countries and organizations be able to take efficient precautions to prevent

irreversible damage to marine life with microplastics in the future? Are humans willing to pay

for the steps that are needed to remove microplastics to better their own health or marine life?

Regardless of whether the possible solutions are practiced, microplastics are impacting the

marine environment for the worse and are polluting the oceans.
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References

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