What are microplastics?

ESR scientist Dr Olga Pantos defines microplastics and explains what primary and secondary microplastics are.

Transcript

Dr Olga Pantos

The definition of a microplastic is a piece of plastic that’s less than 5 mm in size. So these are split into two types – primary and secondary microplastics. Your primary microplastics are those that are made to be that small, so things such as what they used to use in personal cleansers and things to exfoliate or the nurdles which are the preproduction pellets that are used to make bigger things, so they would be considered primary microplastics. Secondary microplastics are pieces of plastic smaller than 5 mm that have been formed by the breakdown of larger items, so this could be a drinks bottle that’s broken down in the environment or the fibres from your synthetic clothing.

So we’ve got some bits of plastic here that were collected from a beach in Wellington. These will keep on breaking down, and once they fall within that 5 mm size, they will continue to break down. 

Acknowledgements

Video excerpt from Science and the Plastics Problem, directed by Shirley Horrocks and produced by Point of View Productions.