What are microplastics?
Transcript
What are microplastics?
Microplastics are tiny bits of plastic material, less than 5mm in size.
Where do they come from and how do they get in our aquatic environment?
They come from many sources but some of the bigger contributors are tire dust, plastic litter, and, the most commonly found microplastics, synthetic fibres from the clothes we wear.
Scientists are researching microplastics and how they behave in marine and freshwater environments.
They’re also trying to understand what the presence and accumulation of microplastics could mean for aquatic ecosystems at all levels of the food chain.
As scientists in Canada and around the world continue their research we all need to think about the products we buy and how we use them to stem the flow of plastics into our marine and freshwater environments.
For more information on microplastics research, please visit: DFO-MPO.gc.ca
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