Marine Pollution: The Problematic of Microplastics

Abstract

Throughout the history of mankind and the conquest of the seas and oceans, these water masses were always seen as unlimited sinks of wastes since they were assumed as being able to disperse, dilute and redistribute natural and synthetic substances. However, in the last few decades, we have finally realized that this capacity is not unlimited [1,2]. According to the literature, each year about 6.4 million tons of litter are deposited in oceans and seas. Per year, there are about 8 million tons of daily sewage, together with 5 million tons of solid residues, thrown into the marine environment by boats. Moreover, it was estimated that more than 13,000 plastic pieces are floating per each square kilometer of ocean [3]. The marine litter is a great and crescent environmental threat since it can be found in all oceans and seas, even in remote places far away from obvious sources of pollution. Marine litter can migrate long distances through oceans currents and winds being observed in marine and coastal environments, from poles to equator, from continental littorals to small remote islands. Islands completely made of litter already exist and the slow degradation process of litter aggravates this problem [4].