A team of marine biologists has found a piece of rock made from plastic from a beach on Aves island in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. This is the first such find from India. The findings have been published in Marine Plastic Pollution in March 2023.
- The rock is known as plastiglomerate. It is a rock composed of sand, rock fragments, shells and other materials held together by plastic.
- It is a new form of plastic pollution, which scientists described in 2014. This is the first find from India of plastiglomerate.
- It has two very commonly used plastic polymers – polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride – which was holding the smaller rock and sand particles to form a rock, approximately the size of ones which are found along railway tracks.
- According to the 2011 Census, there are just two people on Aves Island. Both are male.
- Plastic accumulation in oceans and on beaches has turned into a global crisis.
(Source: HT)
