Small plastics collected by a Dutch researcher, Gijsbert Tweehuijsen, while researching plastics in runoff waterways which would inevitable end up in the sea (2013).
Freshwater habitats like lakes and rivers are affected by plastic pollution too, but the research surrounding these critically important habitats is lacking (Wagner et al 2014). When our freshwater systems are effected by plastics, they have an impact on both terrestrial and marine system. Hazardous chemicals present in plastics can leach from waste disposal sites into ground and surface water (Teuten et al 2009) reaching municipal waters and eventually the ocean.