PLYMOUTH – Researchers at the University of Plymouth, England, have looked into the hauling of rope on maritime vessels as a source of microfibre emissions, and found a correlation between the age of the material and the extent to which it sheds when used.
The university’s Marine Litter Research Unit says it tested the synthetic materials both in laboratory and field experiments to understand the reality of how many microplastic fibres shed into the world’s oceans.
They estimate that, using 10-year-old rope as long as 220 metres could lead up to 40,000 fragments being released into the environment.
