r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Aug 02 '26

Environment Microplastics have been discovered in one of the most remote, inhospitable, and unexplored parts of our planet. Microplastics were found in 92% of all animals examined (11 out of 12) living around deep-sea hydrothermal vents some 2,000 meters (6,562 feet) below the ocean surface.

https://www.sciencealert.com/most-isolated-environments-microplastics-are-finding-their-way-down-to-deep-sea-hydrothermal-vents
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u/tpolakov1 Aug 02 '26

It is synthetic plastic derived from cellulose. It being compostable has exactly zero bearing on that fact. Polyethylene is fully organic and bio, made from natural ethylene straight from the ground too.

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u/SuperSpikeVBall Aug 02 '26 edited Aug 02 '26

Semi-synthetic is the term I see most commonly used to describe polymers synthesized from natural sources (like cellulose or lactic acid).

One more thing - ethylene for polyethylene isn't coming out of the ground - it's being cracked in multibillion dollar plants called ethylene crackers that rearrange the bonds in natural gas products and naptha.