http://oceana.org/en/blog/2014/05/arctic-ice-melt-could-unlock-trillions-of-frozen-microplastics

Arctic Ice Melt Could Unlock Trillions of Frozen Microplastics

Posted Fri, May 30, 2014 by Brianna Elliott

Out of the nearly 300 million tons of plastic created in 2012, nearly 10
percent of it ended up in oceans, according to Phys.org. That trash has
to go somewhere ? washing onto coastlines and estuaries, or floating in
the vast ocean. You may have heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch,
an area within the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre where an enormous
amount of trash circulates. Now, however, it looks like the Great
Pacific Garbage Patch has an unassuming competitor in trapping marine
debris: the Arctic.

A recently published study in Earth?s Future found that a significant
amount of microplastics, sub-millimeter broken down pieces of plastic,
sit frozen in Arctic sea ice ? enough to designate the Arctic as a major
global sink for these tiny plastic particles. If melting trends continue
at their current rate, explain the authors, the sea ice could unlock
over one trillion pieces of microplastics over the next decade alone.