eriksen's work on discovering plastic microbeads in the great lakes led to the federal microbead-freeers act of 2015. well, marcus eriksen joins us now from los angeles. welcome to democracy now! as we lead into earth day, first explain what microplastics are. lay out the challenge to the world. >> microplastics are small broken down fragments from larger items. those are your secondary microplastics, formed by things falling apart. for example in the oceans, we often find bottles -- you can see the edges is all bitten off. animals are during larger plastics and the smaller bits. waves crush it. we're finding a lot of trash dishleaves their land leaves our land are forming bigger items in the smaller items that microplastics forms nearshore. by the time it gets to the middle of the ocean, i'm hardly finding any big items. but a smog a small particles are everywhere. amy: explain these microplastics beads everywhere. -- they wereeads designed to be small. those are the ones we saw in our facial scrubs and to face that obama signed the microbead-free waters act in 2015. microbeads, we b

microbeads, we been able to do away with becauau of great campaigning.the micicroplastics are eveverything thahat breaks dowoo smalall particles.s. weweave found them in the middle t the oces- antarcca, th arctic am a ozenen in n 's. and the d dp seafloor sedimimen. distributiti has gone e global f the small bits. as big of a grain of rice or smaller. they're everywhere. amy: what is the impact of plastic song human beings? >> on us, you can say it is twofold. the issue of plastics as waste that contaminates other living things, including sash the world dependsn, think 16 ofofhe planet if the protein n from fh. we a a seeing this explosion, these clclouds come the e smog f foodroplastics s impacting the chaiains. and the toxins thahat stick to plastics a are also polluting orgaganisms inhahat foodhainin. p pre-consumer product, which you mighght grabff t the shelf, we're still finding some synthetic chemistry in those that you don't want in your body or the bodieies of your chilild. disruptors,crine carcrcinogenic. there's a pre-coconsumer and the post c

new zealand has announced a ban on microbeads that will come into effect injune.o ban plastic bags this year and the uk has pledged to ban plastic straws, steer and plastic stand cotton buds. it is only the beginning of what would be our agenda for our time in office. a more sustainable future also means stepping up the fight for better global health. with over 90% of commonwealth citizens living in malaria affected countries, the, well has a particular duty to lead international efforts to tackle this deadly disease. so, earlierthis week i called on commonwealth leaders to pledged to half malaria across the commonwealth by 2023. i am pleased this has been agreed today. in building a more prosperous future, it is the mob booed first, wealth summit to make a unanimous statement on the need to fight protectionism. i declaration on the connectivity agenda on trade and investment will help expand investment will help expand investment and boost commonwealth trade to a value of $2 trillion by 2030. we will play a leading role in shaping the future of global trade polic

tiny plastic microbeads used in everything from cleansers to toothpaste are ingested by fish and wildlife. some bottled waters have been found to contain microplastics. >> it's lowering our life span, causing obesity, causing asthma. this is not the american dream. wake up, folks. plastic is pollution. >> reporter: 70% of the earth is covered in water. >> we all came from water, right? >> reporter: now littered with plastics that don't decompose, it isn't as disposable as you might think. kevin tibbles, nbc news. >>> more to come tonight. high times celebrations across the country in honor of 4/20, the unofficial marijuana holiday, at a time when more states than ever have legalized recreational pot. >>> also, the school bus driver inspiring america by going the extra mile for one of her young students. >>> we're back now with a growing business of weed on this 4/20. with more states now okaying recreational marijuana, enthusiasts are lighting up, and more companies are rushing in to cash n including here in california. we get details from nbc's joe fryer. >> reporter: for the first time

very much like food that animals in the ecosystem eat and even some of the smaller items like the microbeads can be scoourmd by smaller animals in our area like zoe plankton. >> sreenivasan: what is the impact that you and i can he or any human can have that reduces that? >> reusable water bottle, reu act coffee mug, don't use a straw, a resable bag, i know we've heard that before but research shows, collectively over that period of time tho choices really have annal impact. >> sreenivasan: is the agreement around the planet? you see loalize communities deciding to ban plastic shopping bags or charge for them. has the world l accepted that espeally in developing countries? >> these solutions are locally base but at the same time yes, we can all around the world than we don't plastic in our environment, in our ocean. the u.n. has a campaign and folk around the world can sort of elate their commitments that they're having p with this ysue. and so tmight be differently, but everyone can commit to doing something. >> sreenivasan: are there any technologies ton rors that might be goostudents for

we've already taken some action and plastic bags, and microbeads, the tiny bits of plastic you findingastic straws. the queen will formally open the commonwealth heads of government meeting this morning. at a ceremony in buckingham palace, the prime minister theresa may will praise the queen's "service, dedication and constancy" and say she's been the commonwealth's most steadfast champion. the queen, accompanied by the prince of wales, will then host the heads of government for a traditional lunch. a former head of the civil service, lord kersla ke, has called for an investigation into the destruction of thousands of documents, which could have helped commonwealth citizens prove their right to remain in the uk. it's thought dozens of people from the caribbean who've lived here for decades, known as the windrush generation, were threatened with deportation. colleagues and friends have been remembering the television and radio presenter, dale winton, who's died at the age of 62. he rose to fame as host of the game show supermarket sweep and went on to host other hit shows including the