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Researchers counted particles in seaballs that washed up on beaches in SpainUnderwater seagrass in coastal areas appear to trap plastic pollution in natural bundles of fibre known as “Neptune balls”, researchers have found.With no help from humans, the swaying plants – anchored to shallow seabeds – may collect nearly 900m plastic items in the Mediterranean alone every year, a study reported in the journal...

Post-Brexit regulation doesn’t match new EU rules to tackle ocean pollution, despite UK being Europe’s largest plastic waste producerThe UK has been accused of failing to honour its promise to curb shipments of plastic waste to developing countries, after it emerged Britain’s new post-Brexit regulations are less stringent than those imposed by the EU.From 1 January, shipments of unsorted plastic waste from the EU...

Thirty times more plastic on ocean floor than surface, analysis suggests, but more trapped on land than seaAt least 14m tonnes of plastic pieces less than 5mm wide are likely sitting at the bottom of the world’s oceans, according to an estimate based on new research.Analysis of ocean sediments from as deep as 3km suggests there could be more than 30 times as much...

Report calls for urgent action to tackle developing countries’ reliance on bottled waterFocusing on improving the water supply in developing nations could be a powerful way to fight the scourge of plastic waste in the oceans, experts have said, highlighting that the issue has received little attention.People in developing countries, and many middle-income countries, often rely on plastic bottles of water as their piped...

Particles may outnumber zooplankton, which underpin marine life and regulate climateThe abundance of microplastic pollution in the oceans is likely to have been vastly underestimated, according to research that suggests there are at least double the number of particles as previously thought.Scientists trawled waters off the coasts of the UK and US and found many more particles using nets with a fine mesh size...

Currents act as conveyor belts that concentrate microplastics in hotspots, study suggestsScientists have discovered microplastics in greater quantities than ever before on the seabed, and gathered clues as to how ocean currents and deep-sea circulation have carried them there.Microplastics – tiny pieces of plastic less than 5mm in size – are likely to accumulate most densely on the ocean floor in areas that are...

Floating boom finally retains debris from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, creator saysA huge floating device designed by Dutch scientists to clean up an island of rubbish in the Pacific Ocean that is three times the size of France has successfully picked up plastic from the high seas for the first time.Boyan Slat, the creator of the Ocean Cleanup project, tweeted that the 600...

Plastic pollution has entered the fossil record, research showsPlastic pollution is being deposited into the fossil record, research has found, with contamination increasing exponentially since 1945.Scientists suggest the plastic layers could be used to mark the start of the Anthropocene, the proposed geological epoch in which human activities have come to dominate the planet. They say after the bronze and iron ages, the current...