‘We can’t carry on’: the godfather of microplastics on how to stop them

As a UN summit in Nairobi debates a treaty on plastic pollution, Richard Thompson, the biologist who first identified microplastics 30 years ago, explains why ocean cleanups and biodegradables will not solve a global crisis

In September 1993, during a beach clean on the Isle of Man, Richard Thompson noticed thousands of multicoloured fragments at his feet, looking like sand. While his colleagues filled sacks with crisp packets, fishing rope, plastic bags and bottles, Thompson became transfixed by the particles.

They were so tiny that they did not fit any category in the spreadsheet where volunteers recorded their findings. Yet it was pretty clear to me that the most abundant item on the beach was the smallest stuff," Thompson says.