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  • SPOTLIGHT

‘A double-whammy problem’: how plastic dust is altering natural processes

Carbon emissions from plastics production are no surprise. But when plastic turns to dust, it also affects how the planet absorbs carbon from the air, on land and in the oceans.
By
  1. Saima Sidik

Researcher Karin Kvale first became interested in plastic pollution when she was living in Kiel, Germany, where her young children spent part of their school days on Falckenstein beach. “Every day they would come back with their pockets full of plastic fragments,” she says.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-02438-5

This article is part of Nature Spotlight: Climate change, an editorially independent supplement. Advertisers have no influence over the content.

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