Plastic contamination of the environment is a global problem whose magnitude justifies the consideration of plastics as emergent geomaterials with chemistries not previously seen in Earth’s history. At the elemental level, plastics are predominantly carbon. The comparison of plastic stocks and fluxes to those of carbon reveals that the quantities of plastics present in some ecosystems rival the quantity of natural organic carbon and suggests that geochemists should now consider plastics in their analyses. Acknowledging plastics as geomaterials and adopting geochemical insights and methods can expedite our understanding of plastics in the Earth system. Plastics also can be used as global-scale tracers to advance Earth system science.

环境的塑料污染是一个全球性问题，其严重程度证明将塑料视为具有地球历史上前所未有的化学性质的新兴地质材料是合理的。在元素水平上，塑料主要是碳。塑料存量和通量与碳的比较表明，一些生态系统中存在的塑料数量与天然有机碳的数量相当，这表明地球化学家现在应该在他们的分析中考虑塑料。承认塑料是地球材料并采用地球化学见解和方法可以加速我们对地球系统中塑料的理解。塑料还可以用作全球范围的示踪剂，以推进地球系统科学。