PennEnvironment study finds Delaware River permeated by microplastics
Reprinted from PennEnvironment
Plastic pollution is all around us. It only takes a quick drive along the highway or a walk to the park to see litter on the side of the road, a plastic bag caught in a tree, or plastic bottles floating in a nearby stream. We see images all the time online or in the news of whales washing ashore with plastic in their stomachs or of birds tangled in litter. And that’s just the plastic pollution that we can see.
The latest report by the PennEnvironment Research & Policy Center, Microplastics in the Delaware River Watershed, reveals widespread plastic pollution in one of the most beloved rivers in Pennsylvania.
Through this study, our staff and concerned citizens took water samples from 22 sites on the Delaware River and tributaries across New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware and tested them for microplastic contamination. What we found was alarming: microplastic pollution everywhere we tested.
These results should set off alarms for anyone who loves and wants to protect the Delaware River and the waterways that feed it.
We undertook this project to help shed light on the growing plastic and microplastic problem facing our natural environment and our planet. Plastic pollution is a significant environmental concern because plastic doesn’t biodegrade: while an apple core or a piece of paper will break down into organic components over time, plastic does not. Instead, plastic just breaks into smaller and smaller pieces of plastic. Pieces less than 5mm, or about the size of a sesame seed or smaller, are called “microplastics”.
This work builds on research that we and our partners across the country have previously done. To date, PennEnvironment and our sister groups have found microplastics not just in the four states through which the Delaware River flows, but also in the Great Lakes, in Texas, Colorado, Montana, Oregon, Illinois, and Alaska. It’s growing increasingly hard to ignore the fact that our waterways are not free from the threat of plastic pollution.
hese new results are especially troubling because the Delaware River is a vital resource for millions of people. It’s the largest free-flowing river east of the Mississippi, and is home to over a hundred species of plants and animals. It provides drinking water to 14 million people, including residents of some of the country’s biggest cities like New York City and Philadelphia. And our report today found widespread microplastic pollution throughout the watershed, from the headwaters of the Delaware River in New York State all the way down to where it meets the Atlantic Ocean in Delaware.
While a full breakdown of results and our recommendations for tackling this problem can be found in the report itself, the message is clear: there is no silver bullet solution for fully addressing microplastic pollution. Fundamentally we need to cut plastic pollution off at the source and change the way society deals with our waste, if we want to protect our environment and our health from this unseen threat.
