India, June 23 -- Plant accumulation of nanoplastics can have direct ecological effects and implications for agricultural sustainability and food safety, say researchers

It's been long that plastic took over the world - making way into our oceans, national parks and inside marine and land animals.

Scientists have now come a step closer to discovering that the polymeric pollutant may not even spare plants: Nanoplastics particles, as small as a protein or a virus, can accumulate in plants and have adverse ecological effects, according to a study published in Nature Nanotechnology.

A group of researchers exposed Arabidopsis thaliana - a type of weed - to plastics smaller than 100 nanometres. The team then studied how far the plastic trave...