Microplastics- What Are They and What Can I Do?
Microplastics are microscopic pieces of plastic, less than 5 mm in size, and are a serious environmental threat. They’re a part of plenty of stuff you use every day, like makeup, clothes, and disposable plastics like water bottles. Microplastics are extremely harmful to the planet’s biggest ecosystem, our oceans, and are notoriously difficult to clean up. The plastic industry worldwide creates over 400 million tons of plastic a year. While convenient, this overproduction of plastic needs to stop before the negative effects of plastics on our sea life and on our climate overtake the convince. Having an unlivable planet and dead fish lined up on your local beach is arguably more inconvenient than the convince of plastic products.
Harmful Effects
Microplastics can do damage in a variety of ways, some of these ways include hurting the actual fish through the digestive process the plastics take during consumption. When a fish eats microplastics, the plastic particles become clogged in the fish, creating a barrier that does not allow anything to enter, including foods and nutrients the fish need to live. Another way that plastic pollution can harm sea life and human life in the ocean is through the leaking of toxic chemicals. These chemicals can lead to pesticides, dyes, and even fire retardants leaking into the ocean. This understandably is not good for any thriving ecosystems, including human ones.
While it is incredibly selfish to only care about oneself, many people do. Some people simply do not care about the environment, or sea life until it directly affects them, either through their local coffee shop switching from plastic straws to paper ones or through the amount of plastic they are eating. Yes, eating, you read that right. According to the University of Newcastle, the average human is eating about 250 grams of plastic every year, which is equivalent to around 50 credit cards every year or about 1 every week. Now I don’t know about you, but I’m not a rich man by any stretch of the imagination, and 50 credit cards is a lot. While we aren’t completely sure what these microplastics do in our bodies, it’s safe to assume that they aren’t supposed to be there and they are likely harmful. Now is the part of the article where you are probably wondering how exactly we get rid of not only the plastic pollution in the oceans but also the plastic pollution in our bodies.
What You Can Do
One way you can limit your plastic footprint is the most obvious one, to limit the number of plastic products you use. Of course, this is the most simple in theory, but it’s not exactly the most simple in reality. There are so many products we use on a day to day that contain plastics or have plastic containers. The most effective way to lessen your plastic footprint is to do research and make swaps on the daily products you use. Check out the Sustainable Swaps category on our website to find actionable things you can do today to limit your plastic waste.
Overall, Plastics can be convenient and useful until they aren’t. It’s important to understand the impact that some things may have on the environment by doing research and making changes to your habits that will lead to a greener and more sustainable world.
Edited by Isa
