Scientists find highest ever level of microplastics in Scotland’s waters

Scientists have found the highest ever level of microplastics in Scottish waters, The Ferret can reveal.

Microplastics are tiny plastic litter measuring less than five millimetres. They come from larger pieces of plastic which have broken down over time, or from pellets used in industry and tiny pieces of manufactured polyethylene plastic that are added as exfoliants to health and beauty products, such as some cleansers and toothpastes.

Microplastics have been found in the world’s oceans, lakes, waterways, soil, air, food, and even the human bloodstream. Globally, there is growing concern as they contaminate the food chain, with potentially serious consequences for wildlife and human health. 

Data released to The Ferret under freedom of information law by Marine Scotland reveal that the highest concentration of microplastics found in Scotland was in a sample taken from the Solway Firth, where surface water was estimated to contain 210,891 microplastics per square kilometre. 

This was nearly two and a half times higher than the largest sample taken previously in 2016, also from the Solway Firth.

Large concentrations of microplastics in waters were found at a location off the south of Tiree, where 106,453 microplastics per square kilometre were found in January this year, and off the East Lothian coast near Dunbar, where a sample found 81,982. In Long Forties – an area home to many of the North Sea’s oil and gas fields – there were 36,304 microplastics in a sample.

The Ferret’s findings on microplastics pollution are part of a year-long investigation called Scotland’s Seas in Danger which has highlighted pressing issues impacting the marine environment.

Green campaigners described the findings as “alarming” and urged the Scottish Government to “enforce the single use plastics ban, improve recycling services, and make companies clean up the products they are making.” 

In response, the Scottish Government said it had banned a number of the “most problematic single-use plastic products, including plastic-stemmed cotton buds, microbeads in rinse-off personal care products, single-use plastic plates, cutlery and straws”. It added that “litter in our waters is a shared global challenge and it is clear that more needs to be done”.

There’s a plastic crisis going on and more must be done to protect people and the planet

Kim Pratt, Friends of the Earth Scotland

Marine Scotland’s data shows that of the 77 offshore sites tested since 2022, 64 contained microplastics. The figures also provide a breakdown of the types of microplastic litter which were found. 

These include polystyrene, fragments and fibres from larger waste which has degraded, nurdles – small pellets which are the building blocks of all plastic production – and paint flakes.

When microplastics are absorbed by animals through the food they eat, they can cause potentially fatal health problems. 

Other dangerous pollutants in water also gather on the surface of microplastics meaning that they can be passed up the food chain.

Since 1950, more than eight billion tonnes of plastic have been produced globally but less than 10 per cent has been recycled, estimates the United Nations.

Plastic is also produced from fossil fuels, so efforts to restrict it could help with efforts to tackle climate change.

Microplastics found in 80 per cent of Scottish coastal waters in last two years

The Ferret’s report follows the collapse of global talks in South Korea earlier this month when countries failed to reach a landmark agreement on tackling plastic pollution. 

The failure to secure an agreement prompted environmental charities and scientists to express dismay and raise concerns about the influence of oil states.

Kim Pratt, circular economy campaigner at Friends of the Earth Scotland, said that while microplastics might be difficult to see, that does not mean they are harmless. Because they are so small, they can “infiltrate environments easily”, and cause damage to ecosystems, wildlife and even human health, she stressed. 

“There’s a plastic crisis going on and more must be done to protect people and the planet,” Pratt continued. “Ending microplastic pollution requires a reduction in plastic production overall, which means moving away from throwaway products.”

Laura Burley, plastics campaign lead at Greenpeace UK, said that “discoveries like this really demonstrate just how “shockingly deep plastic pollution has infiltrated” the world around us. She said too much plastic is being produced and waste systems cannot cope so “vast amounts” end up polluting our environment. “It is everywhere and the harmful impacts this is having on our health and the health of our natural world are only becoming clearer,” she told The Ferret.

Mark Ruskell, the Scottish Greens’ spokesperson for the environment, said microplastics are “often downplayed online” by memes “jesting” about the harm they cause – even though they pose a “serious threat” to our environment, wildlife and our waters. “These are found in our water supplies; which we are using to wash our bodies with or ingesting,” he added. “We know that plastics and microfibres like this are wrecking our sea-life and shores. What sort of damage are they doing to our own bodies?”

Ruskell argued that we “urgently” need to reduce our relianceon products which create harmful plastic pollution to begin with, and “look towards more sustainable, durable and environmentally conscious options”.

Dr Julien Moreau, co-founder of Plastic@Bay which recycles plastic waste found on Scottish beaches, argued that people should stop calling ocean plastic “litter” as in his view this is a “global scale chemical pollution”. He added: “Plastic – and its additives – is not inert, it reacts with our organisms and transports extremely dangerous chemicals right inside our bodies –and the of all organisms. It is a pollution and a very dangerous one.”

Moreau pointed out that test results are “highly dependent on the weather/oceanic regime at the time of sampling” and argued that it is problematic to “compare occasional observations” between two years. “Our continuous monitoring of macroplastics (buoyant plastic materials greater than 0.5 centimetres in diameter) between 2017 and 2022 have shown a large variability in the plastic amounts from day to day,” he explained.

We know that plastics and microfibres like this are wrecking our sea-life and shores. What sort of damage are they doing to our own bodies?

Mark Ruskell, Scottish Greens

Gillian Martin MSP, the acting cabinet secretary for net zero and energy, claimed that the Scottish Government is delivering new policy and legislation to target the most problematic sources of litter. “This includes action to manage end-of-life fishing and aquaculture gear, and forthcoming legislation to ban the sale and supply of wet wipes containing plastic,” she added.

Martin also said that the Circular Economy (Scotland) Act 2024 “increases the powers available” to the government to take action on waste in Scotland. “We are also progressing with international efforts to address major pollution sources such as plastic pellets, and with our delivery partners to focus on litter pathways from source to sea, as well as supporting the removal of rubbish from our seas and beaches,” she told The Ferret.

The conference on plastic pollution in Busan, South Korea, earlier this month was meant to be a final round of negotiations for countries to resolve differences.

More than 100 countries supported a proposal that included legally binding global reductions in plastic production and phasing out certain chemicals and single-use plastic products.

In response to the failure of the talks, countries pushing for production cuts continued to call for legally binding reductions. Eighty-five countries and political blocs including the UK, the EU and Mexico signed a declaration committing to the treaty.

In 2022 The Ferret revealed that scientists had found microplastics on the surface of 80 per cent of the waters they tested off the Scottish coast in 2021 and 2022. 

The highest concentration at the sites tested then was off the north west coast of Skye, where surface water was estimated to contain 28,566 microplastics per square kilometre.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency declined to comment.

Main image: Angela Catlin