Scientists Tested 20-Year-Old Plastic From The Ocean Depths — and Made a Disturbing Discovery

Plastic can be argued as the signature material that humans of this era chose to leave behind. If you closely observe a construction site, you will stunned to spot the array of colorful plastic trash being recovered from the soil. The vast seas and oceans are no different. Most researchers and divers have come across deep-dwelling plastic garbage on the seafloors and ocean beds. Similarly, new research has attempted to explain the poor disintegration and breakdown of everyday plastics dating back to 20 years in deep-sea submersion, per a study published in Nature. 

A team of scientists on a mission to investigate manganese mining and its impacts on the ocean environment were effectively diverted when they stumbled on plastic trash discarded 13,615 feet deep in the eastern Pacific Ocean. They were taken aback by its intact shape presuming it would be several years old. According to the study, the researchers recovered a food container and a Coca-Cola can wrapped in a plastic bag among a pool of other trash on the sea floor. Now, onto the real challenge, they looked for ways to trace the date of manufacture for both and found a code and a brand name on the items. They found that the plastic wastes were from a time between 1988 and 1996. 

Biogeochemist Stefan Krause from the GEOMAR research institute in Germany, said, "It turned out that neither the bag nor the curd box showed signs of fragmentation or even degradation.” It was deduced that the plastic wrap on the otherwise aluminum Coca-Cola can have kept it from disintegrating deep in the ocean, preserving it for decades after. Whereas, the plastic food container was made of a more sturdy material that leaves no question about its fragmentation.

The study clarified that while the oceans are now abundant with plastic garbage, the individual items can often be hard to date. Hence, there remains ambiguity on the nature of plastic and its degradation. Moreover, scientists fear that the problematic polymer can sustain great depths and harsh conditions to maintain its shape and form for several years, decades even. "The present study results represent, to our knowledge, the first data set reliably integrating the fate and ecological function of plastic over a time interval of more than two decades under natural marine deep-sea environmental conditions,” the research paper stated.

Besides their fragmentation, the experts also looked at the microbial growth on the surface. They found that both the discarded materials featured some amount of microbial communities but their diversity was low in comparison to the surrounding seafloor sediments. The harmful chemicals leaching out of the plastic waste allowed only a few microorganisms to thrive. A 2015 study published in the journal Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts revealed that 60% of floating debris in the ocean is likely plastic. Now, scientists are tracing where all of the plastic trash dumped into the ocean really ends up. 

A report by Ocean Cleanup provides a little insight into the final destination of the plastic garbage in oceans. More than half of the plastic is said to directly sink into the ocean due to the low buoyancy of the material, the rest simply float. However, 80% of floating debris returns back to the shores and on beaches, causing land pollution as well.