Also, t he authors of the study, researchers from Duke University (United States), found out that corals prefer to ingest those fragments of plastic that are not covered by a bacterial biofil. Therefore Austin S. Allen, main author, suggests that “the plastic itself contains something that makes it tasty.”

For the development of the study, the authors collected corals from the waters that bathe the coast of North Carolina (United States). They offered them at the same time tiny fragments of plastic and grains of sand. Most organisms ingested plastics comfortably and decidedly, while ignoring the sand.

After analyzing the results, the authors now propose that if humanity is able to manufacture plastics that appeal to corals, it should also be able to manufacture plastics that have an intentionally bad taste, in order to reduce the negative consequences that the ingestion of plastic may entail.