Study Examines Insects’ Role in Plastic Pollution

Study Examines Insects’ Role in Plastic Pollution

March 11, 2022

Microplastics permeate the world. They can float through the air and have been found in Antarctic ice, the deep ocean, drinking water, and inside an array of animals. Microplastic pollution, mostly in the oceans, has been getting a lot of attention in the last few years but microplastics’ ubiquity means that scientists researching them have to find ways to limit contamination—and assess its extent when it inevitably happens. Max Helmberger, a Ph.D. student in entomology at Michigan State University, has researched several soil-dwelling organisms’ ability to create microplastics from larger plastic debris. He says labs have had to come up with “all sorts of creative solutions” to the contamination problem, with at least one dying all their lab coats bright pink so it would be obvious when bits invade a sample. Helmberger says, “

https://entomologytoday.org/2022/03/...tic-pollution/

Local trading and production = no shipping = no plastic used. That's the real solution. Not some bugman scientist with their pet bug eating up the plastic.