Although we now live in the Anthropocene epoch where humans dominate the Earth's surface geology, a new study conducted by researchers at the University of Leicester points to the coming of a new age, the "Age of Plastic," due to the alteration of the surface of the planet by long-lasting, man-made materials such as plastic.
"Plastics were more or less unknown to our grandparents, when they were children. But now, they are indispensible to our lives," Jan Zalasiewicz, who participated in the research, said in a press release. "They're everywhere - wrapping our food, being containers for our water and milk, providing cartons for eggs and yogurt and chocolate, keeping our medicines sterile. They now make up most of the clothes that we wear, too."
"Plastics are also pretty well everywhere on Earth, from mountain tops to the deep ocean floor - and can be fossilized into the far future," he continued. "We now make almost a billion tons of the stuff every three years. If all the plastic made in the last few decades was clingfilm, there would be enough to put a layer around the whole Earth. With current trends of production, there will be the equivalent of several more such layers by mid-century."
The study claims that plastics have such as long-lasting impact on the geology of Earth due to their inert nature and resistance to degradation. In turn, plastics that are now littered over our planet become a part of the soil and typically end up in the sea where they are consumed by marine life, ultimately killing them.
Plastics have the ability to travel thousands of miles and eventually make their way to sea floors, burying their way into the strata of future generations. They are considered to be a key geological characteristic of the Anthropocene epoch due to this ability to combine with the Earth's strata and become a key component of the planet's geology.
"Plastics will continue to be input into the sedimentary cycle over coming millennia as temporary stores - landfill sites - are eroded. Plastics already enable fine time resolution within Anthropocene deposits via the development of their different types and via the artifacts, known as 'technofossils,' they are moulded into, and many of these may have long-term preservation potential when buried in strata," said Zalasiewicz.
"Once buried, being so hard-wearing, plastics have a good chance to be fossilized - and leave a signal of the ultimate convenience material for many million years into the future. The age of plastic may really last for ages," he concluded.
The findings were published in the Jan. 18 issue of Anthropocene.
