Spider webs record severity of microplastic pollution in cities

Spider webs are good barometers of the amount of microplastics in city air, according to a new study out of the University of Oldenburg in Germany. Although previous research has shown that pollutants like heavy metals and magnetic particles can become trapped in spider webs, nobody has examined these natural structures for microplastics until now, explained geochemist Barbara Scholz-Böttcher, who headed the study.