Researchers from the University of Sussex, the Mammal Society and the University of Exeter said in a study published in Science of the Total Environment that the feces of more than half of the species were analyzed for traces of plastic, according to researchers who investigated how much plastic small mammals in England and Wales were exposed to. The concentration of plastic in the excrement of small mammals native to the UK is comparable to the concentration of plastic found in human studies.
The researchers found that plastic ingestion occurred in different locations and with different diets, from herbivores to insectivores to omnivores, contrary to their expectations - that is, samples from urban areas would have higher plastic concentrations and samples from herbivorous species would have lower plastic concentrations.
Emily Thrift, a graduate of the University of Sussex, notes, "It is very worrying that traces of plastic are so widely distributed across species in different locations and with different diets. This suggests that plastic may be infiltrating various areas of our environment in different ways. We are also concerned that both species, European hedgehogs and voles, are in decline in the UK."
Using equipment from the Greenpeace laboratory at the University of Exeter, the team analyzed 261 stool samples, 16.5% of which contained plastic. The most common types were polyester, polyethylene (widely used in disposable packaging) and polybutylene (mainly used in the rubber industry). Of these, polyester accounted for 27% of the total debris identified, and it was found in all plastic "positive" species - except for the woodrat. The paper notes that microfibers, which are widely used in the textile and fashion industries, can enter the wastewater system through household laundering and later end up on the land through the use of sewage sludge as fertilizer.
More than 1/4 of the plastics found in the study were #biodegradable# or bioplastics. The authors warn that while these types of plastics may degrade more quickly than polymers, they can still be ingested by small mammals, so further studies are needed to investigate their true biological impact.
