May 23, 2014 — Nearly 300 million tons of plastic was produced in 2012. Large amounts of this ends up in the ocean, near coastlines or in swirling eddies such as the Great Pacific garbage patch. A new study has found plastic debris in a surprising location: trapped in Arctic sea ice. As the ice melts, it could release a flood of floating plastic onto the world.
In a study published recently in Earth’s Future, scientists argue that as Arctic ice freezes, it traps floating microplastics, resulting in abundances of hundreds of particles per cubic meter. That’s least two orders of magnitude greater than those that have been previously reported in highly contaminated surface waters, such as those of the Great Pacific garbage patch.
The authors estimate that, under current melting trends, more than 1 trillion pieces of plastic could be released in the next decade.
Read the full story at the Barents Observer