US EditionOcean Plastic Could Linger a Century Even if Pollution Stops
New study reveals 10% of buoyant ocean plastics remain after 100 years due to slow fragmentation and sinking processes, highlighting long-term pollution challenges.
- On October 20, 2025, Stanford researcher Dr. Matt Savoca and his team are collecting seawater and using delicate mesh filters to separate microplastics by hand, tracing pollution from source to sea.
- In 2025, scientists from the Department of Geography and Environmental Science at Queen Mary University of London published a model showing buoyant plastic could persist over 100 years due to slow fragmentation and marine snow attachment.
- Nan Wu's model shows microplastics less than 100 µm reach the ocean bottom through multiple aggregation and settling cycles of over 400,000,000 meters, with only particles under 100 µm able to settle fully.
- The study helps explain the 'missing plastic' problem by showing slow fragmentation sinks buoyant plastic, and it warns rising microplastics could overwhelm the biological pump and disrupt ocean biogeochemical cycles.
- Roughly 170 trillion plastic particles weighing 2.3 million metric tons circulate the ocean surface, and researchers warn people who consume seafood may ingest elevated microplastic levels.
14 Articles
14 Articles
Plastic pollution could linger at ocean surfaces for over a century, new research finds
Scientists from the Department of Geography and Environmental Science at Queen Mary University of London have developed a simple model to show how buoyant plastic can settle through the water column and they predict it could take over 100 years to remove plastic waste from the ocean's surface.
Stanford teams tracking the path of microplastics from source to sea
The team uses seawater and delicate mesh filters to painstakingly separate the buoyant plastic by hand. The goal is to understand where the samples are originating, and how they're being carried from their source to the sea.
Environmental News Network - Plastic Pollution Could Linger at Ocean Surfaces for Over a Century, New Research Finds
Published today in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, the study is the third and final paper in a trilogy that explores the long-term fate of microplastic in the ocean.
Plastic Pollution Could Linger at Ocean Surfaces for Over a Century, New Research Finds
Published today in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, the study is the third and final paper in a trilogy that explores the long-term fate of microplastic in the ocean.
Some 170 trillion pieces of plastic are now floating in the world's oceans, says Independent. A new study by Queen Mary's University of London shows that even if all plastic pollution is stopped immediately, its residues will not disappear during the next century. Scientists have found that most large pieces of plastic do not drown at once, but slowly decompose on the surface of the water, fragmenting into micro and nanoparticles for decades. Th…
Plastic waste may persist on ocean surfaces for generations model shows
London, UK (SPX) Oct 24, 2025 A new study from Queen Mary University of London reveals buoyant plastic debris could remain at ocean surfaces for more than a century. Researchers constructed a model to track how these plastics move from the surface through ocean layers finding that even in a scenario where plastic inputs cease surface fragments continue to degrade and pollute for generations. Published in Philosophical
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