How a warming climate supercharges plastic pollution

Plastic does not just sit where we leave it. Instead, it breaks down, disperses, and embeds.

The rate and extent at which this happens is partly determined by environmental conditions that are influenced by climate change. More heat, UV radiation, humidity, storms, winds, and floods speed up the breakdown, dispersal, and accumulation of plastics in soil, water, and air.

In their Frontiers in Science article, Kelly et al. review growing evidence that climate change increases the abundance, distribution, exposure, and impacts of plastic pollution across ecosystems. They also outline solutions that could cut pollution at the source and align action on plastic and climate.

This explainer summarizes the article’s main points.

What is the link between plastic pollution and climate change?

Plastic pollution and climate change are deeply interconnected with respect to their root cause (the overconsumption of finite resources) and increasing threat level.

In addition, their effects on each other are bidirectional. Plastics are made mostly from oil and gas, and greenhouse gases are released at every stage of their life cycle—from extraction and manufacturing to waste management.

At the same time, climate change makes plastic pollution harder or impossible to undo—turning it from something we could once clean up into a lasting and more hazardous contaminant.

How does a warmer, stormier climate affect plastic in the environment?

Conditions associated with climate change help move plastics faster and farther through the environment. They drive:

• faster plastic breakdown into micro- and nanoplastics as temperature, sunlight, and humidity rise

• greater leaching of chemical additives into the environment with increasing temperatures

• enhanced sorption and potential mobilization of contaminants into plastics under the influence of warming

• sudden surges of plastic into the environment after wildfires, heavy rain, floods, typhoons, and storm surges

• remobilization of older plastics from landfills, riverbeds, and coastal sediments during flooding and erosion

• stronger winds, waves, and shifting currents that mix, transport, and redistribute particles through surface waters

• melting sea ice that releases historical microplastic “sinks” back into the ocean.

The impacts of these processes span from individual organisms to whole ecosystems—and can reinforce one another over time. They also connect land, water, air, and ice, so plastic follows pathways much like other global Earth system cycles.

Where do the effects show up?

Effects can be seen across habitats, and in patterns across food webs:

• on farmland, heat waves and elevated carbon dioxide combined with microplastics may reduce rice yields and disrupt how soil bacteria recycle nutrients. Farm sources include mulch film used to cover soil, and farm vehicles.

• in lakes and rivers, water fleas could die sooner or reproduce less when exposed to both microplastics and warmer water. Elevated temperatures can increase how much plastic fish swallow as well as how toxic it becomes

• in oceans, responses vary by species and habitat. Corals react differently depending on the species and type of climatic stress. Shellfish such as mussels—which filter large volumes of water and in doing so, are very effective in concentrating particles from the water column—can suffer digestive and immune problems when exposed to microplastics alongside low oxygen or acidic seawater. Even slight warming can increase ingestion rates and also make plastics more harmful to fishes

• larger, longer-lived animals towards the top of the food chain—including marine mammals—appear especially at risk from the combined pressures of plastic and climate. The authors suggest these species could serve as indicators of joint stress from both. Microbes and algae at the base of food webs may be less sensitive or even benefit slightly—for instance, bacteria that grow faster on plastic surfaces.

What can we do now?

The authors call for cutting plastic pollution at its source—by sharply reducing how much enters the environment. Their priorities are:

• reduce, redesign, reuse, recycle: cut unnecessary single-use plastics; make products and packaging safer, reusable, and easier to recycle; and set global limits on new (virgin) plastic production

• build a circular economy: move from “take–make–waste” to “eliminate, innovate, circulate”; combine prevention with cleanup of existing pollution hotspots

• set shared standards: agree on global rules for common plastics, additives, recycling, and waste systems, and fill data gaps with consistent methods

• avoid trade-offs: steer clear of fixes that cause new problems—for example, burning plastic for energy increases emissions and harms health, and bioplastics and other substitutes need full safety and life-cycle checks

• develop better clean-up tools: test ways to use microbes, algae, and plants to break down or trap plastics, while recognizing current limits on safety, cost, and scale.

What is the bottom line?

Integrating the interactive hazards of plastic pollution and climate stressors should steer, coordinate and prioritize research and monitoring, along with policy and action.

The authors emphasize that better communication—through education, citizen science, and balanced messaging—can build understanding and support global policy negotiations such as the UN plastics treaty.

Cutting plastic pollution at the source, designing safer materials, and coordinating global policy are the fastest ways to limit the growing co-crises of plastic pollution and climate change.