Sunlight transforms plastic into tens of thousands of new compounds

Sunlight can chemically breakdown plastics into tens of thousands of new compounds that dissolve in water in just weeks, a study led by researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has found.¹ The discovery dispels the prevalent theory that sunlight exposure simply physically fragments macroplastics into microplastics in the marine environment, turning them into smaller particles that are chemically similar to the original material and persist forever.