Why does so much trash wind up in our waterways? Without proper action much farther upstream than preventing the last stages of littering, changes can be challenging to make.

• How effective litter booms may be
• How trash buildups can impact the bacterial microbiome
• The levels of microplastics present in consumer products.

Sherri A. "Sam" Mason, Ph.D., the Director of Sustainability at Penn State Eerie Behrend, shares their work on sustainability and how trash makes its way into the water.

Litter has been a problem for much of our recent history, destroying ecosystems and causing irreparable damage in some cases. However, with the rise of plastics and other difficult-to-decompose materials, this issue is only exacerbated.

By looking in bodies of water for microplastics, the more significant issue, on the whole, is attempting to determine how these make their way from the store to the waterways. This is a problem for the consumer as well since microplastics that make their way back into us can be incredibly damaging.

Visit https://www.sherrimason.com to learn more.

Episode also available on Apple Podcast: http://apple.co/30PvU9C