Tennessee-led study finds buoyant microplastics can sink through soil, boosted by UV and humic acid

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journal Engineering Environment, indicates that rainfall or irrigation can carry these plastic particles downward, a result that could complicate efforts to protect groundwater in many communities. What happened? According to Newswise, researchers from the University of Memphis, the University of Manchester, the University of Missouri, and Brown and Caldwell created a farm-focused test to see whether buoyant microplastics could move from the soil surface to deeper layers. To mimic rainfall or irrigation, they spread low-density polyethylene microplastics across the soil surface and then let water infiltrate from above instead of mixing the particles into flowing water. In some trials, up to 1.4% of the particles placed on the surface passed through the soil columns, suggesting these plastics may be able to reach deeper underground layers more readily than previous studies assumed....