Plastic waste that ends up floating around in the world’s oceans is one of the largest pollution issues facing our planet. Now, researchers studying plastic trash in Lake Garda, Italy say that plastic pollution is a serious problem for freshwater life in lakes too.


Plastic waste that ends up floating around in the world’s oceans is one of the largest pollution issues facing our planet.

Now, researchers studying plastic trash in Lake Garda, Italy say that plastic pollution is a serious problem for freshwater life in lakes too.

Plastic takes a long time to degrade and when small pieces are eaten by wildlife like fish, they pass it up the food chain to their predators. Not only can the plastic itself pose a choking hazard it also contains potentially harmful chemicals.

According to Professor Christian Laforsch, the lead author of the study from the University of Bayreuth in Germany, “Filter feeders, sediment feeders and organisms that feed on the surface layer of the lake, all swallow these plastic particles mistaking them for food. There might be impacts when it affects the hormone system, they could become sterile.”

Most research into the devastating effects of plastic pollution has focused on ocean environments.

But freshwater lakes are often used to supply agricultural farms, and as a source of drinking water, so there could also be serious negative effects caused by plastic pollution in these bodies of water.