Toulouse. Snow, oceans, fish, human blood: “Now we find microplastics everywhere”
Through Simon Vermot Desroches
Published on
“Today, we find microplastics everywhere: in the snow, the oceans, the rivers, the air at the Pic du Midi. From the Himalayan Mountains to the Mariana Trench. But also in stomachs, blood, human and animal placentas…”. An omnipresence that raises many questions to which Jeroen SonkeResearch Director CNRS in the laboratory Environmental geosciences Toulouse (GET), has been trying to answer for many years. What happens to the plastic we make? Where will he go? Where will he end his life?
Plastic on the surface of the oceans, “the tip of the iceberg”
“It is often accepted that plastics end up in oceans, on their surface. We also try to clean them. But do not think that this represents the bulk of the work! Because without bad puns, this is only the tip of the iceberg,” explains the researcher.
A study published in January 2023 to model the life of plastic
And he wants proof of this in the study he published at the beginning of 2023 in collaboration with Gael Le RouxCNRS research director at Functional ecology and environment laboratory and Jennie ThomasCNRS researcher atInstitute of Environmental Geosciences : the first comprehensive model of the life cycle of plastics and microplastics.
More than 5 billion tons of plastic waste on the planet…
Today, approximately 400 million tons of plastic are produced every year in the world. 400 million tonnes which are added to the 2.6 billion tons of plastic in use, and to more than 5 billion tons already stranded as waste.
… and only 3% in the oceans
“In fact, the pollution of the oceans represents only 3% total pollution”, explains the Toulouse researcher.
“It is the waste on the continents that we must tackle! We must insist on their treatment today in industry, urban and agricultural environments before these plastics are quickly sent to our rivers, and our oceans. She is the priority there. »
A vicious circle present for millennia to come
Because then it’s the beginning of a ” vicious circle “, as explained by the director of the GET. Microplastics in the ocean evaporate into the atmosphere and then fall back to earth during rains. And then they start their race again towards the oceans. “And this vicious circle, our models predict that it will be present for millennials ! »
In 20,000 years, a sedimentary layer at the bottom of the oceans
A vicious circle which, from here 20,000 yearswill end with the sedimentation of these microplastics, at the bottom of the ocean, as well as a layer of plastic material.
A layer that stays as one vestige from a period beginning in the 1950s, years since demanded plastic is king.
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