Plastic microbeads can include both perfectly spherical and rough-edged pellets. These samples, shown on a background scale of 1cm, with millimeter gradations, were extracted from a personal care product in 2013. Sherri Mason’s work subsequently led to legislation prohibiting the use of plastic microbeads in cosmetics and personal-care products.
Distribution of plastic particles by count for 21 samples collected in lakes Superior, Huron and Erie during an expedition aboard the U.S. Brig Niagara in July 2012.
Sherri Mason, right, shows plastic particles that were collected in a manta trawl to a film crew from Al Jazeera America during an excursion in the outer harbor of Buffalo, New York.
Sherri Mason’s 2012 study was the first survey for plastic pollution within the open waters of the Great Lakes. Here, shown on a penny for scale, are samples of the plastic microbeads she found in the water.
