Coloured microplastics could be making global warming worse

Recent research has highlighted a new issue regarding microplastics, revealing that tiny plastic particles in the atmosphere may contribute significantly to global warming. A paper in the journal Nature Climate Change states that airborne microplastics trap about 20% of the heat that black carbon, or soot, does. 

Microplastics and nanoplastics come from the breakdown of larger plastic items and synthetic fibers, varying from billionths of a meter to a few millimeters in size. They are found everywhere, including in drinking water, marine life, and even Antarctic snow. Previous studies underestimated the climate impact of atmospheric microplastics by not considering how particle color affects heat absorption. 

Researchers from China and the U. S. studied the optical properties of different colored plastics to see how much sunlight different colors absorb or reflect. They also used digital maps of weather patterns to estimate how many microplastic particles are in the air and where they are concentrated. Using this data, they calculated the extra heat trapped in the atmosphere due to these particles. 

The findings show that colored microplastics absorb significantly more sunlight than previously thought, with darker particles absorbing up to 74.8 times more. The average warming effect from these particles is 0.039 watts per square meter, with colored microplastics intensifying this effect 15.3 times compared to uncolored ones, making them a dual threat to the climate.


Reference
by Sadie Harley 
Colored microplastics could be making global warming worse
Available at https://phys.org/news/2026-05-microplastics-global-worse.html
(Assessed: 12th May 2026)