Plastic pollutants

The recent commitment by 175 UN nations to end plastic pollution waste is being hailed as an historic moment and a huge global step in the right direction.

glitter (by definition a primary microplastic) that had been sprinkled into the centre of a lily by a florist to presumably make it prettier

A selection of nurdles (preproduction plastic pellets) and fragments gathered from a small area of a Waikato beach.

stickers on fruit

These are just fruit/food scraps in a bin destined for someone's compost. The labels should have be taken off before putting the skins in

Large amounts of plastics in the domestic green-waste compost that has been applied to flowerbeds in public areas.

A piece of plastic (size would mean it falls into the 'mesoplastic' range) in a newly opened bag of garden compost.

A face mask Olga found while doing surveys for beach microplastics on a Waikato beach in November 2020

The images in this gallery are used with permission and are subject to copyright conditions.

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