Why Microplastics: about plastics, our journey, and the science

About Microplastics

Plastic is literally everywhere. It is nearly impossible to get through a single day without touching something made from plastic. Plastic, in a lot of ways, has made our modern lives more convenient, cleaner, and safer. Plastic is durable and cheap. But for all these same reasons plastic plagues the environment. When plastic is thrown out, it may be out of mind, its never gone. It's does't disappear, it just breaks down to smaller, and smaller, and smaller pieces. These small pieces are called microplastics.

There are many different types of plastics and many different ways to manufacture plastics. All of which use different combinations of chemicals. These microplastics can be found everywhere in the environment. They have even been found in human blood and, yes, poop.

There is still a lot to learn about what this means for the environment and our health, but one thing is certain-- plastics are not suppose to be in our trees, seas, and poop.

On the boat

During the sail with eXXpedition, I and the other amazing women (can't wait to meet them) of the guest crew will be contributing to global research study about microplastics in the ocean. This is the first of it's kind journey to map plastic pollution from sea to source. The science is lead by Circularity Informatics Lab at the University of Georgia.

Collecting microplastics from the ocean

The ocean is big and microplastics are small. So how do we collect microplastics from the ocean?

We will be using a device known as a "manta trawl." It is a special net with a wide mouth and tappered mesh funnel. The manta takes in sea water and filters out the microplastics with are collected in the end of the trawl. We will be conducting at least three 30-minute trawls along Greenland's arctic coast every day of the mission -- that's 24 trawls or 720 minutes of trawling.

Manta trail from a previous eXXpedition. Photo credit: Elenor Church Lark Rise

Then what?

Once we have our sample of plastics from the manta, we will filter them with a sieve. Then, we look at the microplastics, count and separate them by type -- foam, film, fragment, monofilament line, fiber/string, and pellets. This will be done using a microscope. Next we will run them through a FTIR, (an analytical technique used to identify, verify, and quantify materials) which will provide a read out for the polymer type.

On the land

Plastic doesn't come from the sea-- it ends up there from the land. So we will also be walking the arctic shores and documenting the litter we see. We will do this by walking standardized transects along the beaches. Walking specific transects helps up quantify what we find and make comparisons across different locations.

The Science

This year (2026) eXXpedition and the University of Georgia's Circularity Informatics Lab embarked on a novel and ambitious journey to map plastic pollution from land to sea throughout the world. This project will fill critical data gaps in our collective understanding of plastics from locally-specific sources on a global scale. The purpose is to understand the flow of plastics into, through, and out of communities to help create impactful solutions.

The guiding principles of the science are: knowledge transfer, open data, holistic methods, and mapping. All the data gathered from land and sea will be available to help researchers and communities everywhere work towards cleanup, preventions, and policy interventions.

The three guiding research questions are:

1. What is the characterization of microplastics in surface water in key ocean basins?

2. What is the characterization of litter found along coasts on land in expedition locations?

3. What materials, brands, and formats are sold? What innovations are found in alternative

   materials and reuse? What does solid waste management look like?

Reflection

When I first entered gradaute school in 2017, most people had never heard the term microplastics. I remember seeing a National Geographic cover about platic pollution, and that was the first time many people were first learning that plastics are a form of pollution.

It's amazing how public awareness of this issue has increased. Regardless of indivuals' political leanings or abilitites and motivations to reduce their own personal plastic use-- people generally agree that plastic pollution is a very real problem and no one wants to see this litter plauging our environment.

So now, it is time to discover solutions.