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Decomposed plastic wastediscarded around the world decades ago are piling up and grows exponentially on a floating garbage island which grows in North Pacific.

Research published in the journal Letters on Environmental Research shows that Centimeter fragments of plastic grow much faster thanlarger floating plastics in such concentrations of ocean waste that threatens the local ecosystem and possibly the global carbon cycle.

Research based on systematic study NPGP (North Pacific Garbage Patch) carried out between 2015 and 2022 by a non-profit organization Ocean cleanupfound unexpected increase in the mass concentration of plastic fragments which are likely new to the region and not the result of degradation of existing sites.

Researchers suggest that these fragments of decomposition of decades-old plastic that are being released around the world are now accumulating and increasing exponentially in this remote region of the Pacific Ocean.

The study examines 917 trawl samples ramp devices, 162 trawl samples with megatrawl devices, 74 aerial photographs and 40 purification system recoveries from 50 separate expeditions between 2015 and 2022.

Key findings include:

– The number of plastic fragments increased from 2.9 kg per km² to 14.2 kg per km² in 7 years.
– Between 74% and 96% of this increase may come from foreign sources.
– The concentration of small waste hot spots has increased from 1 million per km2 in 2015 to more than 10 million per km2 in 2022.
– Per km², the average amount of each size class of floating plastic increased significantly: microplastics (0.5 mm-5 mm) increased from 960,000 to 1,500,000 pieces; mesoplasties (5 mm-50 mm) increased from 34,000 to 235,000 elements; macroplastics (50-500 mm) increased from 800 to 1800 elements per km2.

Volume There is more plastic waste in the region than living organismswhich threatens the ecosystem not only from ingestion or entanglement of plastic by marine life, but can also affect global carbon cycle due to zooplankton grazing, which is affected by the presence of floating microplastics.

Due to the increasing amount of floating plastic, endemic marine animals now at direct competition with new species which colonized plastic waste and migrated to this remote part of the ocean.

Laurent Lebreton, The lead author of the paper states: “The exponential increase in plastic fragments observed in our field studies is a direct consequence of decades of inadequate plastic waste management, which leads to the continued accumulation of plastic in the marine environment.

This pollution is harming marine life, the effects of which we are only beginning to fully understand. Our findings should serve as an urgent call to action for policymakers negotiating a global treaty to stop plastic pollution. Now more than ever, decisive and united global intervention is needed.

The researchers emphasize that although Countries prioritize preventing plastic pollution upstream, Intercepting and removing plastic already present in the global marine environment is essential. to urgently reduce the formation of increasingly smaller plastic fragments in the ocean over the coming decades.

(Europe Press)