plastic weathering

Geologists tend to think differently about pollution than scientists in other fields. To an oceanographer, plastic pollution in the oceans is a huge issue because such plastic may take as long as 400 years to degrade. Four hundreds years is, of course, below the resolution of many geologic dating techniques, so in the geologists' mind 400 years seems like the +/- slop that is part of every calculation. This doesn't mean the immediate, current plastic problem is not deadly to marine life now; but in the long run, if we were to stop plastic pollution, in a time period measured by geologic thinking, things would be back to normal fairly quickly.

Now, as this article in New Scientist points out,

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20627651.900-drastic-measures-save-plastic-treasures.html

20th century plastics are degrading faster than anyone thought. This includes works of art sculpted in plastics that are now disintegrating.