Assuming that up to 2% of the global plastic produced from 1950 to 2013 enters and accumulates in the ocean, it is thought that there are 86 million tons of plastic marine litter stocks in the world’s oceans as of the end of 2013, and some of them cling to the rocks and begin to take a permanent place in the ocean.
A plastiglomerate is a rock made up of a mixture of sedimentary particles held together by plastic and other natural residues (e.g. shells, wood). This concept, which emerged in line with the damage that humanity has done to the world since its existence, was first discovered in 2006 with a rock found in Hawaii.
This situation, which is the result of the fact that plastics are thrown into the sea, ocean and natural environments and almost 90% of them are not recycled, although it makes us smile as an indicator of nature’s acceptance of everything, it carries a great danger for the future of the world.
Plastiglomerates, which are thought to survive as future fossils by scientists; What danger does it pose to the ecosystem?
It can directly affect living things through both direct consumption (drinking water), indirect consumption (eating of exposed organisms) and disruption of various hormonal mechanisms.
Plastiglomerates, which were also found on the Brazilian island of Trindade in March 2023, pose a great danger to this special area where sea turtles lay their eggs. *
Some geophysicists and geologists think that if the right burial conditions are met, plastiglomerates can return to the oil sources they came from.
Because these rocks are denser than particles made up only of plastic, they are more likely to be buried and preserved in rock form.
