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gsupanther t1_j69oae5 wrote

Reply to comment by giuliomagnifico in UV light from the sun slowly breaks down plastics on the ocean’s surfaces: researchers calculate that about two percent of visibly floating plastic may disappear from the ocean surface in this way each year by giuliomagnifico

The problem is that it’s anaerobic bacteria that need to breakdown subsurface plastic. While there are bacteria capable of doing this (did my PhD on this subject), the process takes a significant amount more time when there’s no oxygen to oxidise the stable pi bonds found in polycyclic aromatics that make up a lot of the plastic.

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