Impact of Plastic
Pollution

Plastic pollution affects many aspects of human lives and the environment. The research on the impacts of plastic pollution is still relatively new, as well as the long-term effects, but the evidence of their hazardous effects is still impactful and important.

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Wildlife is mainly impacted by plastics by three different pathways. One way is by entanglement. Entanglement is when species are strangled, entrapped, or constricted by plastic waste. The result of this entanglement is abrasive harm to the species, and most commonly death. Similarly, another way wildlife is affected is by interactions. This would be injuries like collisions, scruffs, or obstructions. An example of this would be fishing gear causing abrasion and damage to coral reefs by collision (Ritchie et. al, 2018). The third pathway plastics have on wildlife is from ingestion. Ingestion is when organisms consume surrounding plastic debris. This pathway has been greatly studied in the past few years, which helps us better understand the many impacts it has on organisms’ health. Large amounts of macro-plastics and mesoplastics can significantly reduce stomach capacity. This leads to a decrease in feeding signals, which can reduce dietary intake. This then leads to “energy depletion, inhibited growth, and fertility impacts” (Ritchie et. al, 2018). Other impacts include “[obstructing] or [perforating] the gut, [causing] ulcerative lesions, or gastric rupture. This can ultimately lead to death” (Ritchie et. al, 2018). Many other organisms rely on zooplankton for their diet. Microplastics are easily confused with zooplankton, due to their similar size, and are consumed by sea life (Bauman et. al, 2018). The impacts of ingested microplastics due to particle and chemical-related toxicity include “ physical injury, changes in physiology, and impaired feeding, growth, reproduction, and oxygen consumption rates'' (MacLeod et. al, 2021).

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One way that humans are impacted by plastic pollution is by eating marine animals with microplastics within them. Plastic fibers have been found in other foods that humans eat like honey, beer, and table salt (Ritchie et. al, 2018). When plastics enter a human's diet, it causes “hazardous long-term carcinogenic [effects]… due to the release of diethylhexyl phthalate, lead, mercury, and cadmium” (Aganguly, 2018). Humans also consume plastic in many other ways, like inhaling plastic particles in the air and orally through the water. There have also been other theories that intracellular plastics can affect “early human development and origin of diseases” (Stojkovic et. al, 2021). Another environmental aspect that is affected is the geophysical environment. Plastics affect the carbon cycle “through effects on the homeostasis of the marine carbon pump” (MacLeod et. al, 2021). Since plastic particles usually float before they sing to the seafloor, they cluster up together and affect the clarity of the water in the habitats of cyanobacteria and phytoplankton communities. The disturbance of these communities results in a decrease in populations. These populations are important in capturing and storing the carbon in the atmosphere, so when their population decreases, so does the quantity of carbon they would have taken away. This effect helps with the contribution of climate change.

Soil is also impacted by the contamination of plastics. Plastics can lead to long-term changes in soil properties like “water-holding capacity, microbial activity and diversity, nutrient availability, and soil structure” (MacLeod et. al, 2021). The enrichment of soil can also decrease due to the impact on soil organisms. The incorporated plastics have ”sub-lethal effects on [their] growth, biomass, reproduction, and immune system response” (Chae et. al, 2018). Plants are also affected by the plastic-containing soil by a negative change in their “plant performance and plant diversity as well as potentially irreversible soil degradation” (MacLeod et. al, 2021). To preserve the ecosystems and wildlife that are most affected, there needs to be a push toward more sustainable practices and a reduction in the use of plastics.