Hundreds of millions of microplastic particles could be flowing into UK rivers, hidden in raw sewage

Abstract

Microplastics are everywhere. Snow close to the peak of Mount Everest was found to contain on average 30 microplastic particles per litre. And 11,000m below sea level, in the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Trench, an average of 2,200 microplastic particles per litre of sediment were found.

Microplastics are bits of plastic smaller than 5mm in diameter. They come from a range of sources including toiletries, cosmetics, fibres from washing our clothes, plus a range of other routes, such as road paints, tyre wear and fragments of litter. Scientific reports are showing astounding amounts of these plastics globally, including in remote areas, but those numbers have been significantly underestimated.

Recently, there was public anger over revelations that Thames Water, a UK utilities company, released 2 billion litres of raw sewage into the River Thames in just two days. This is on the back of Southern Water’s record £90 million fine for thousands of illegal raw sewage discharges over several years. However, these stories do not report on the amount of microplastics that would have also been released within these discharges as that data is not routinely collected.

Applying an example of the average numbers of microplastics found in a litre of effluent to the amount released in the Thames case could equate to about 500 million microplastic particles entering the River Thames. This is happening all over the UK, with raw sewage being deposited along many British coastlines and rivers.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Ian Williams: orcid.org/0000-0002-0121-1219

ORCID for Chloe Way: orcid.org/0000-0002-0940-3995

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