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Honestly, what struck me most is how passive this whole process is. I always pictured microplastics coming from wear-and-tear or active grinding, but the idea that plastic can just sit there and quietly shed nano-shrapnel over time is pretty unsettling.

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If you look at some plastic that has been outside in the sun for a while (a year or five) such as a toy or a plastic bag, it gets very fragile. If it's thin like a plastic bag, just the wind can break it apart. For thicker plastic parts, probably rain is enough to flush off the outer layer or powdered plastic every now and then.

Now that you say it, I'm picturing all those old sun-bleached plastic chairs or toys that basically crumble if you touch them

Yeah and all the store of plastics in all the landfills and waters everywhere is shedding as we speak. I mean, its bad, but what can you do.

> what can you do.

We could stop the manufacturers from producing more and more of the stuff every year. That would be a pretty important step.

Burn the plastic instead of dumping it

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