Microplastics Are Now Literally Falling From The Sky

• Thomas Nelson
• August 15, 2019
• Nature, News
• 0 Comments

Researchers at the US Dept. of the Interior and US Geological Survey have discovered in a survey of rainfall in Colorado that microplastics are falling from the sky. Their survey tested rainfall samples in both Boulder and Denver, Coloradoo and is appropriately titled “It is raining plastic.”

Plastic was found in 90% of the rainfall samples taken. But if plastic is in 90% of raindrops, why isn’t the world coated with bits of plastic? According to the scientists involved with the survey, much of the plastic is so small that it can’t be seen by the naked eye. By using a binocular microscope fitted with a digital camera, they were able to document tiny fibers of plastic.

Microplastics are incredibly tiny pieces of plastic, 5 mm or smaller, that are often able to slip into waterways and pollute the environment. A common source of microplastics are plastic-based synthetic fibers like polyester. When we wash polyester garments, small fibers of the plastic-based material can be shed from the garment and drained into local waterways.

Related post: UK Based Market Co-Op To Ban All Non-Recyclable Plastics

Scientists aren’t sure what the source of the plastic is, but awareness of microfiber plastic pollution has been growing in recent years. Plastic has also been discovered in rainwater by scientists in France.

I think the most important result that we can share with the American public is that there’s more plastic out there than meets the eye,” sGregory Weatherbee, the lead author of the USGS study, told The Guardian. “It’s in the rain, it’s in the snow. It’s a part of our environment now.”

That last statement is particularly shocking. With microplastics now falling from the sky in the form of rain and snow, it really is a part of our environment. Fortunately, we don’t have to sit there and take it. If we started to reduce our plastic use now and begin cleaning up the plastic found in the natural environment, we can start to turn it around.