The miracle material turned micro menace

It’s been several months since the highly anticipated Our Planet docu-series was released on Netflix. Narrated by the beloved Sir David Attenborough, Our Planet has received fantastic praise for showcasing the beauty and fragility of nature in all its cinematographic glory. The awe-inspiring docuseries has also further demonstrated the complicated relationship we have with the natural world, sounding the alarm on a wide range of man-made issues. These include climate change, overfishing, deforestation, and – more specifically – the detrimental impact of plastic pollution on the environment.

Hot topic

We are all waking up to the reality of plastic pollution. The crisis remains a hot topic among governments, scientists, businesses, environmental groups, and the general public worldwide. Most people are aware that there are great ‘islands’ of plastic waste choking our rivers, lakes and oceans, but many fail to realise that so-called microplastics could be an even more harmful problem. Much of the estimated 8 million tonnes of plastic entering the seas every year eventually disintegrates into smaller fragments known as microplastics – no bigger than five5 millimetres in size. Approximately 51 trillion pieces of these plastic particles already litter the seas, equating to 500 times the number of stars in our galaxy.