What are microplastics?

Plastic can be found anywhere and everywhere — even in the most remote and inaccessible places, from the Arctic to the Mariana Trench (the world’s deepest oceanic trench). The mass production of plastics spiked in the 1950s and has been on the rise since. Today, there’s over 150 million tons of plastic floating in our oceans along with an additional 8 million tons that enter our waterways each year. Plastic pollution is most often tied to images of the consequences of convenient, single-use plastics like straws or ocean wildlife encircled by six-pack plastic rings. But what about the invisible polluters,...