In the early 1990s a British PhD student became curious about the presence of unidentified marine litter in his coastal experiments.
This researcher, Professor Richard Thompson OBE FRS, who now serves as director of the Marine Institute at the University of Plymouth, talks Ecotextile News through the journey from identifying unknown beach fragments appearing on beach cleans to the point, three decades on, where the term microplastics has become globally ubiquitous.
The award-winning scientist also explains how microfibres shed from textiles differ from the plastic particulates synonymous with marine plastic pollution.
