Although we know where the plastics came from, the origin of this particular tar was not clear. But, in general terms, whenever oil is spilled, it floats and partially evaporates, thickening over time into tar balls, which then reach the ground. It’s basically a super toxic Play-Doh. “Once it sticks to the rock, the wave carries microplastics or any kind of trash and pushes it into this Play-Doh,” says Hernandez-Borges. “Microplastics are coming in constantly, constantly, constantly. The microplastics that we are finding on the tar are the same ones that we are finding on the coast ”. These small pieces add to the nuisance of plasticite, because plastics are loaded with thousands of their own chemicals, many of which are known to be toxic to humans and other animals.
These researchers still cannot say what effect plasticite can have on organisms living on the beaches of the Canary Islands. But the problem could be twofold. “If there were algae or whatever, these rocks are completely covered by it, so they will die for sure,” says Hernandez-Borges. Second, plasticite is darker than rock, which means it absorbs more energy from the sun. “If you touch it, you’ll see that it’s also very, very, very hot,” he says. This could significantly increase ground-level temperatures, with implications unknown to the organisms that live there.
In a previous study on a remote Pacific island, a separate team of researchers found that plastic particles increased the temperature of beach sand. This could endanger sea turtles, whose sex is determined by the temperature of the sand where the eggs are laid; if it is too hot, they will all be females, which is not good for the sexual reproduction of a species.
The discovery of plasticite adds another layer of complexity to the problem of ocean plastic pollution. For a long time, environmentalists were primarily concerned with important things, such as bottles and floating bags. It was not until the early 2000s that scientists began to really investigate microplastics, and later discovered that almost all of the Earth was contaminated. The particles are blowing into the atmosphere and reaching the higher mountains. In the sky, they can have a climatic effect, although it is unclear whether they will eventually help warm or cool the planet. People eat and drink a lot of microplastics, and babies drink even more in their formula, but scientists are just beginning to investigate what this may mean for human health.
Even more recently, researchers have been discovering “new plastic formations”, of which plasticizing is only the latest. When plastic burns at beach bonfires, for example, it forms a knotty matrix of polymer mixed with sand and other debris. The “Plasticcrust” is formed in a similar way to plasticite, when the waves crush the plastic against the coastal rocks, only without the involvement of tar. (High outside temperatures heat up the rocks, which can help the synthetic material melt into them.) And scientists are beginning to investigate what they call anthropoquine, or new sedimentary rock made of plastic and other man-made materials. . “If someone finds one of these rocks thousands of years from now, they’ll probably find plastic and see how we lived,” says Hernandez-Borges. “That’s kind of a geological record.”
And — because someone he will think so, to be very clear, we should do it no get inspired by plasticite to get rid of the sea of microplastics. “I read this and went nooo“Some idiot out there will go,” says Allen. Just apply oil all over the surface and then clean it. But no.”
