VARIOUS types of plastic can degrade into microplastics. Richard Thompson, a marine ecologist from the University of Plymouth, England, coined the term “microplastics” in 2004 to describe polymer particles that were 5 millimeters in length, which his team found on a beach. Since then, scientists have found microplastics everywhere: in the deep sea, in snow in the North Pole as well as ice in Antarctica, in shellfish, table salt, drink