Plastic pollution is a global problem, contaminating terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems. Microplastics — plastic particles smaller than five millimetres in size — infiltrate and circulate in the global planetary dust cycle, water cycle and carbon cycle.
Microplastics have infiltrated the food and water we consume and the air we breathe. These tiny plastic particles can harm wildlife populations and communities, threatening the ecological balance. A new paper suggests plastics are a planetary boundary threat and that we are outside the safe operating space.
