The scale and danger of pollution of the planet is to urgently reconsider with plastic garbage, because now it is able to disguise themselves as other objects and therefore remain inconspicuous. We are talking about the material of “pyroplasty”, which is indirectly created by nature itself, although it is alien to it. Scientists have no concepts, how much it has already accumulated in the world, but the samples have been found on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean in vast territories.
Ecologist Andrew Turner of Plimut University and his colleagues conducted a study by 165 pieces of plastic with the beaches of the Whitsand Gulf in Cornwall (Britain). And then compared them with samples from Spain, Ireland and from the Orkney Islands. They found that pyrooplasty mainly consist of polyethylene, with interspersed polypropylene. These are standard materials for packaging, they have become raw materials, from which nature creates pyroplastics.
Having studied the samples, scientists came to the conclusion that the initial polymers first melted or softened strongly, and then underwent erosion in waves and wind. Because of this, they became very similar to ordinary pebbles, pebbles on the beaches, but only in shape and appearance. Inside, these are the same plastic, and it contains sufficiently harmful impurities, such as a lead chromate, which was previously used to stain colorless polymers. This confirms the theory of the age of pyroplastics, because such additives have been banned for many years, and the process of erosion is also not fast. So, newly open pollutants have been formed for a long time – for decades, at least.
At the moment, scientists cannot offer an effective method of detecting pyroplastics. After all, sifting millions of tons of sand and pebbles in search of “false” pebbles is absolutely impossible. Experts are inclined to the idea that it will have to be highlighted in a separate type of pollution, the impact of which on nature has yet to be studied.
Source — Science of the Total Environment