Microplastics and How they Threaten the Achievement of the Global Goals

Microplastics are threatening the achievement of the Global Goals, and we need to take urgent action to limit, if not eliminate, our consumption of microplastics. In this article, we answer your top questions about microplastics.

What are microplastics?

Microplastics are defined as pieces of plastic less than 5 millimetres in diameter. There are two types of microplastics. Primary microplastics are those found most commonly in some hygiene and beauty products such as toothpaste and face washes. Primary microplastics also include fibres which breakdown from man-made textiles such as polyester. Secondary microplastics are those which breakaway from larger plastics.

How prevalent are microplastics in our oceans?

Our oceans are filled with an estimated 150 million tonnes of plastic. Over 10% of this is made up of microplastics.

An estimated 11 million metric tonnes of plastic is dumped in the oceans each year with this amount set to increase three-fold over the next 20 years.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the largest of the many garbage patches in our oceans around the world. There is an estimated 7 billion tonnes of plastic in this one area of the North Pacific Ocean. A large portion of this is…