Introduction: Plastic pollution in the global ocean

Plastic pollution is a growing environmental problem that is attracting increasing interest across society, from academics to the general public. A significant factor in the wide public interest in plastics is its visibility: present throughout urban and rural environments, washing up on beaches and even visible from space (Biermann et al., 2020; Topouzelis et al., 2019). With growing plastic production and usage, plastic waste within the environment will continue to increase. This increased input, along with its persistence, leads to accumulation and increasing ecosystem exposure, with as-yet-unknown consequences…