GC: n
S: ECHA – https://echa.europa.eu/hot-topics/microplastics (last access: 6 December 2024); NOAA – https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/microplastics.html (last access: 6 December 2024).
N: 1. The first known use of microplastic was in 1990.
2. A very small piece of plastic especially when occurring as an environmental pollutant . —usually used in plural (microplastics).
Specifically: a piece of plastic that is five millimeters or smaller in size.
Material consisting of microplastics.
3. microplastics, also known as microplastic.
- microplastics, small pieces of plastic, less than 5 mm (0.2 inch) in length, that occur in the environment as a consequence of plastic pollution. Microplastics are present in a variety of products, from cosmetics to synthetic clothing to plastic bags and bottles. Many of these products readily enter the environment in wastes.
- Microplastics consist of carbon and hydrogen atoms bound together in polymer chains. Other chemicals, such as phthalates, polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), and tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA), are typically also present in microplastics, and many of these chemical additives leach out of the plastics after entering the environment.
- Microplastics are divided into two types: primary and secondary. Examples of primary microplastics include microbeads found in personal care products, plastic pellets (or nurdles) used in industrial manufacturing, and plastic fibres used in synthetic textiles (e.g., nylon). Primary microplastics enter the environment directly through any of various channels—for example, product use (e.g., personal care products being washed into wastewater systems from households), unintentional loss from spills during manufacturing or transport, or abrasion during washing (e.g., laundering of clothing made with synthetic textiles). Secondary microplastics form from the breakdown of larger plastics; this typically happens when larger plastics undergo weathering, through exposure to, for example, wave action, wind abrasion, and ultraviolet radiation from sunlight.
4. Plastic Materials; Waste Management: microplastic.
- [A] small plastic piece less than five millimeters long.
- [It] can be harmful to our ocean and aquatic life … Microplastics come from a variety of sources, including from larger plastic debris that degrades into smaller and smaller pieces.
S: 1 & 2. MW – https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/microplastic (last access: 6 December 2024). 3. (last access: 6 December 2024). 4. TERMIUM PLUS – https://www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca/tpv2alpha/alpha-eng.html?lang=eng&i=1&srchtxt=MICROPLASTIC&index=alt&codom2nd_wet=1#resultrecs (last access: 6 December 2024).
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CR: plastic
