Plastics play a fundamental role in modern living, and it is hard to imagine our lives without this highly useful material. At the same time, the amount of plastic waste in the environment has become a significant challenge. When reduced into minuscule pieces, plastics can enter the human organism. Microplastics, smaller than five millimetres in size, and nanoplastics, 500 times smaller than a human hair, form as larger pieces of plastics degrade or are manufactured intentionally to be added to commercial products.

In recent years scientists have detected micro and nanoplastics (MNPs) all around the world, in urban atmospheres, as well as in remote and pristine environments. It has become clear that micro- and nanoplastics pollution is a global problem. People inhale MNPs through the air and ingest them through food and water, yet at this stage, it is unknown how many of them are out in the environment as there are no tools to measure and characterize them with precision, nor is it known what effects they have on human health.

For example, Ghent University researchers have been investigating microplastics (MP) and their interactions with microbial communities in different marine environments. Plastics colonising organisms, including bacteria and fungi, have found in plastic surfaces a new home, literally creating a new ecosystem where they interact with the environment and other organisms. Plastisphere is the term used to describe this complex situation.