Organic materials such as cotton, wood, food waste etc. are being decomposed by micro-organisms. But those tiny helpers can not digest plastic. The reason is, that plastic is biologically 'inert', meaning that it doesn't pass chemical processes as organic materials do. The result is, that plastic gets smaller and smaller but never vanishes completely.

When plastic ends up in the environment, it faces a lot of factors, which make it brittle over the time: 

🌸 UV Radiation

🌸 Heat

🌸 Cold

🌸 Wind 

🌸 Waves

🌸 Sea salt

The plastic starts to crack and crumbles into smaller pieces. Particles smaller than 5 millimeters are called 'microplsatic'. Particles smaller than 100 nanometers are called 'nanoplastic'.

Now let´s see, how long it takes until some of our convenient products have crumbled to dust: 

The exact decay period depends on the compounds used in the materials. Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

In other words, our grand-grand-grand-grand (and so on) children will still have to deal with the plastic waste released into the environment today. Now imagine, that plastic became popular in the 1950ies.

8,3 billion tons have been produced since then. 600 Milion tons of those have been recycled, 800 Million Tons have been burnt. And the rest of it? 

Source: https://www.careelite.de/plastik-muell-fakten/ (2016)

And the rest of it? As plastic is very light it moves easily with the wind, it travels on rivers and with the currents of the sea. Want to know more? Read our next article: 

Read our next article: 

Plastic spreads everywhere