According to (Kumar et al., 2021b),  plastics in the environment will affect both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.

For the impacts of plastics on terrestrial ecosystems, it includes

  • Reducing the ability to sequester carbon
  • Influencing nutrient cycles of nitrogen and phosphorus in soil ecosystems, affecting soil productivity & growth of food crops
  • Causes a dynamic shift in soil temperature, affecting soil decomposition rate and soil ecosystem services

For the impacts of plastics on aquatic ecosystems, it includes

  • Promoting mineralization, nitrification and identification, resulting in the release of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide
  • Influencing phytoplankton’s photosynthesis and proliferation, zooplankton’s growth and overall development, marine carbon pump and the ocean carbon pool

Apart from impacting the physical environment, plastic pollution bears an economic cost as well. For instance, the loss of ecosystem services as a result of plastic pollution amounts to about US$2.5 trillion (Beaumont et al., 2019). Additionally, plastic waste has the ability to act as a vector for toxic chemicals and microbes, breach through any ecosystem via trophic transfer. These traits would then allow plastics to have the potential to spread infectious disease, leading to an epidemic or pandemic of an unknown scale (Kumar et al., 2021a).

Seeing all these negative consequences, I implore YOU, my fellow readers to be more conscious about plastic in your daily lives. Avoid plastic wherever possible and if plastic usage is absolutely necessary, reuse or recycle it to ensure that it does not bring devastating impact to the environment.

References

Beaumont, N. J., Aanesen, M., Austen, M. C., Börger, T., Clark, J. R., Cole, M., Hooper, T., Lindeque, P. K., Pascoe, C., & Wyles, K. J. (2019). Global ecological, social and economic impacts of marine plastic. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 142, 189–195. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2019.03.022

Kumar, R., Sharma, P., Manna, C., & Jain, M. (2021a). Abundance, interaction, ingestion, ecological concerns, and mitigation policies of microplastic pollution in riverine ecosystem: A review. Science of The Total Environment, 782, 146695. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.146695

Kumar, R., Verma, A., Shome, A., Sinha, R., Sinha, S., Jha, P. K., Kumar, R., Kumar, P., Shubham, Das, S., Sharma, P., & Vara Prasad, P. V. (2021b). Impacts of plastic pollution on ecosystem services, sustainable development goals, and need to focus on circular economy and policy interventions. Sustainability, 13(17), 9963. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13179963