83% of World's Tap Water Contains Plastic Fibers: Study

According to an Orb study, 83 percent of tap water samples collected from around the world contains microplastic.

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The study, which involved over a dozen countries on five continents, revealed that fragments enter the water system in a variety of forms – including synthetic fiber clothing, tire dust, microbeads and non-biodegradable larger pieces of plastic.

In Europe, Jakarta and Beirut more than 70 percent of the tested samples returned positive results for microplastics in tap water.

While, researchers found that in the United States an astounding 94 percent of all water samples — including tap water from places like Trump Tower and the Environmental Protection Agency's headquarters — were contaminated by plastic.

The findings explain that contamination of waterways has increased considerably, with approximately 300 million tons of plastic being produced annually.

In addition to the tap water being tainted, plastic pollution poses a negative effect on marine life and seabirds, and ultimately the human food chain. 

"There are certain commons that connect us all to each other, air, water, soil, and what we have universally found time and time again is if you contaminate any of those commons, it gets in everything," Sherri Mason, an expert on plastic pollution at the State University of New York in Freedonia, told Orb.