Microplastics, i.e. plastic particles smaller than five millimetres in size, are a pervasive pollutant, widely dispersed in the marine environment and can be found in the water column, on beaches and on the seabed. Recently, microplastic presence was reported in ice cores from remote areas of the Arctic Ocean. This is particularly worrying as polar waters, and the Arctic region in particular, support an important and diverse marine food web and ecosystem, from planktonic communities to marine mammals, which is very vulnerable to marine pollution. In spite of the potential threat of this emerging pollutant, there are few regulations in terms of production, use or emissions of microplastics, very few ways of monitoring it, and, last but not least, there is a lack of awareness among people worldwide of the gravity of this threat. There is therefore an urgent need to assess the levels of microplastic pollution in the Arctic, to allow for future microplastic monitoring and to assess the risk of the potential impacts of decreasing sea ice, increasing shipping and commercial activity in the area.