Birch trees can be found in the temperate zones of the Northern Hemisphere (Credit: Percita at Flickr/ CC BY-SA 2.0/ Wikimedia Commons)

The proliferation of microplastics in our oceans has received worldwide attention. However, the abundance of the tiny plastic fragments in the soil has largely gone unnoticed. A 2018 study by German scientists found terrestrial microplastic pollution — caused by wastewater irrigation and sewage — far exceeds marine microplastic pollution.