Environmental security

Plastic should be considered toxic once it gets into the environment, MPs told

Plastic should be considered “toxic” if it gets into the natural environment because of its ability to attract poisonous chemicals “like a magnet”, according to an international campaign group.

In a submission to a parliamentary inquiry into the environmental impact of microplastics, the Plastic Oceans Foundation warned that tiny pieces of plastic laden with chemicals were finding their way through the gut into the flesh of seafood and, from there, into the human food chain.

Microplastic comes from a range of sources, such as microbeads deliberately added to soap as an exfoliant and the 1,900 tiny fibres that can be produced each time a single piece of synthetic clothing is washed. Larger pieces of plastic also break down over time into microscopic pieces.