Despite the apparent benefits of treated sewage sludge as a fertilizer, it poses significant environmental risks due to the presence of 'forever chemicals', microplastics, and toxic waste, which current regulations fail to adequately address.
Mia and her peers were matched with Ryan Thoni, an ichthyologist and curatorial associate in the museum's division of vertebrate zoology. Thoni's project to gather information on when and how microplastics began to enter the environment relied on the museum's vast collection of fish specimens dating from more than a century ago - some 3.2 million in total.
New findings suggest microplastics significantly impact crops and marine algae, potentially reducing food supply by 12%, necessitating urgent action against plastic pollution.