Almost invisible and yet inescapable. From the air we breathe to the food we eat, microplastics have permeated every corner of our planet. These tiny particles drift across the seas, carried by ocean flows from bustling coastlines to the most remote corners of the world.
An estimated 170 trillion microplastic particles now float unseen through our oceans. But their reach goes far beyond water - they travel through the air, settle in soil, and infiltrate our food and water, transforming what once seemed the ocean’s problem into a crisis that touches every aspect of life.
The consequences are staggering. Marine species ingest microplastics, accumulating toxic chemicals that harm their health and reproduction. As plastics degrade, they release even more harmful substances, polluting habitats and threatening biodiversity. These effects ripple through the food chain, potentially compromising human health through contaminated seafood and water supplies.
Meanwhile, microplastics in the air, originating from tyre dust, synthetic fibre and other sources, bypass the oceans entirely, permeating cities and remote regions alike through an invisible global cycle.
This crisis takes centre stage at the upcoming INC-5 UN plastics treaty talks in Busan, scheduled for Nov 25 to Dec 2, where nations have a rare chance to set ambitious global limits on plastics production and phase out toxic chemicals. As the world races to address this growing problem, the stakes could not be higher — for our oceans, our ecosystems, and ourselves.
Everyone is playing a role in the global plastics crisis. It starts with the products we buy and even the clothes that we wash. For instance, many fast-fashion items are made from synthetic materials derived from fossil fuels - underscoring how 98 per cent of all plastics originate from chemicals sourced from coal, oil, and gas.
Each washing cycle can release up to 700,000 synthetic fibres from common fabrics like polyester and acrylic.
These textile microfibres released into the environment bypass treatment plants and end up in rivers and oceans, contributing to 35 per cent of marine microplastics.
A single textile fibre released near Singapore can linger in the sea for decades, taking between 20 and 200 years to decompose, depending on the conditions and fibre type.
Before it decomposes, this fibre will drift across oceans, carried by currents through the Bay of Bengal to the Indian Garbage Patch.
A Garbage Patch is a vast, swirling zone where currents trap floating plastic, creating debris fields spanning hundreds to thousands of kilometres.
Although high plastic concentration points are scattered across the ocean, currents gather them into larger zones known as Ocean Garbage Patches.
The oceans hold five garbage patches. The largest, the Pacific Garbage Patch, spans 1.6 million sq km—twice the size of Borneo. The others are found in the North Atlantic, South Atlantic, Indian Ocean and South Pacific.
The Indian Garbage Patch, while less studied than the Pacific Garbage Patch, is also a significant accumulation of plastic waste.
In their densest areas, microplastic concentrations can reach over one million particles per sq km.
The waste is transported by ocean currents from densely populated regions in South Asia and East Africa.
The Indian Ocean Garbage Patch, the third-largest after the Pacific and South Pacific, is a shifting mass of plastic debris driven by monsoon currents and seasonal winds.
Microplastics make up 94.4 per cent of the total debris in the patch, although they account for only 8.1 per cent of its total mass.
Examples of microplastics include beads from cosmetics, synthetic fibres shed from clothing, and fragments of larger plastic items that have broken down over time.
Deeper into the patch, the concentration of larger plastics increases. Macroplastics, which range from 5 to 50cm in size and include fishing nets, ropes and plastic sheets, make up 25.3 per cent of the mass in the patch.
Megaplastics over 50cm in size are more common near the patch's centre. They make up more than 50 per cent of its mass, although they account for just 0.0002 per cent of the debris. Examples of megaplastics include fishing buoys, crates and large items like helmets.
The environmental consequences of this floating plastic soup are far-reaching. Marine species ingest microplastics, leading to the absorption of toxic chemicals that affect their health and reproduction.
The ingestion of microplastics by marine life allows toxic chemicals to enter the food chain, eventually reaching humans through seafood consumption. While some studies have linked this to conditions such as hormonal disruptions and cancer, there is currently limited evidence to suggest microplastics are causing significant health issues.
Larger plastics, like discarded fishing nets and ropes, entangle marine animals and restrict their movements, often leading to injury or drowning.
Entanglement can also cause lasting wounds, making animals more vulnerable to infection and predators, further threatening their survival.
As plastics break down, they release toxins into the water, polluting habitats and threatening biodiversity.
Over time, vast amounts of microplastics settle into the seabed. While their full impact on marine life remains unclear, studies suggest that these particles may disrupt deep-sea ecosystems by altering nutrient cycles and harming microbial communities that sustain life on the ocean floor. Alarmingly, scientists recently found a plastic bag nearly 11,000m down in the Mariana Trench, the world’s deepest ocean point - a striking sign of how pervasive plastic pollution has become.
Research also shows that microplastics continue to break down into nanoplastics capable of penetrating the tissues of marine organisms, causing cellular damage. “Until we target production we’re never really going to change the amount that’s in the sea,” warns Lauren Biermann, a marine remote sensing scientist at Plymouth University, in an interview with The Straits Times.
This accumulation of plastics in the ocean’s depths could reshape the dynamics of marine life for centuries, although the long-term effects remain unknown.
A once-discarded plastic bottle now lies at the bottom of the ocean, a relic of human waste in one of Earth’s most remote places.
This bottle, like countless other plastic items, will remain here for centuries, resistant to the natural decay of the deep ocean.
Once buried and deprived of oxygen, its decomposition takes a much longer time, Imogen Napper, a marine scientist and National Geographic Explorer, tells ST.
Plastics are slowly embedding into the ocean floor, forming a new geological layer in Earth’s seabed sediments.
Future scientists may find these plastic particles in sediment cores, a lasting mark of human impact on the planet’s history.