Study Shows Typhoons Move Microplastics from Oceans to Coastal Areas

Do typhoons carry plastic? A new study confirms storms transport ocean microplastics to land, creating a dangerous feedback loop with climate change. Find out more.

Typhoons, hurricanes, and cyclones are among the most powerful weather events on Earth. These storms originate over warm ocean waters and can travel thousands of kilometres. However, today's oceans are filled with plastic waste, ranging from small particles to large debris. These extreme weather events do more than move water and wind, they may also carry plastic from the sea to land.

Dr Taiseer Hussain Nafea, a researcher from the University of Nottingham, wanted to find if these powerful storms could transport plastic from the ocean to land. His team set out to explore this question. The findings, published in Environmental Science & Technology, confirm that typhoons function like massive natural vacuum cleaners, sucking up microplastics from the sea and dropping them on land. This discovery connects two major environmental issues, plastic pollution and climate change, and suggests they might be fuelling each other.

Chasing the Storm

To understand how this process works, the team needed detailed information about the air during storms. In Ningbo, China, they collected air samples every 12 hours during the passage of Typhoons Doksuri, Gaemi, and Bebinca. This helped to monitor changes in real time rather than relying on general averages.

The results were clear. Before the typhoons struck, microplastic levels in the air were low. As the storms arrived, microplastic concentrations soared, sometimes more than ten times higher than usual. During Typhoon Gaemi, they recorded a peak of 12,722 particles per square metre per day. Once the storm passed, levels quickly returned to normal. The storms caused a brief but intense spike in pollution.

Where Was the Plastic Coming From?

Before the storms, the plastic found was mostly typical of urban areas, types like PET and nylon. But during the typhoons, many new types emerged, including PVC, acrylic, and PTFE, which are common in the ocean but rare in city dust. Once the storm ended, these marine plastics vanished.

Size also offered a clue. Over 60% of the particles were smaller than 280 micrometres, which matches the size of plastics that can be lifted into the air by sea-spray bubbles, a process significantly amplified by typhoon winds. Airflow modelling confirmed this: the wind responsible for carrying the plastics inland came directly from the storm-affected ocean, not from land-based sources. Across all three typhoons, the evidence was consistent: these storms were moving microplastics from the ocean to land.

The researchers described how this happens. First, the storm churns the upper ocean, bringing microplastics to the surface. Strong winds and breaking waves create sea spray, which lifts tiny plastics into the air. The typhoon’s winds then carry this plastic inland, and heavy rain washes it down from the sky onto the land. In this way, a single typhoon can transport large amounts of microplastic over a wide area.

The link to climate change is also clear. Warmer oceans lead to stronger typhoons. The data shows that the strongest typhoons carried the most plastic. This suggests a concerning cycle:

1. Climate change makes typhoons stronger.

2. Stronger typhoons lift more microplastics from the ocean.

3. More plastics in the ocean can disrupt natural processes, reducing the ocean’s ability to absorb carbon and worsening climate change.

4. Warmer water also breaks down plastic faster into microplastics.

Plastic Pollution

The result: more intense storms spreading more plastic, faster and farther, a feedback loop linking climate change and plastic pollution.

For coastal cities, typhoons are no longer just a threat from wind and water. They also bring invisible clouds of inhalable plastic, potentially affecting billions of people.

Tackling plastic pollution is not only about protecting the environment, it's also part of climate adaptation and public health. Cleaning up rivers and coasts helps reduce the plastics that storms can pick up, lessening their impact. Scientists say that this is a global issue. Typhoons carry plastic across borders, gathering it from international waters. Addressing this problem requires international cooperation, just as we need for climate action.