Water is essential for life. About 71 percent of the earth’s surface is covered with water. About 60 percent of the human body is water. We are encouraged to drink 8 glasses of water every day to stay hydrated. I love to exercise in the water! But Planet Earth’s water is not as clean as it should be. There are microplastics floating in water everywhere.
Microplastics are small plastic pieces less than 5 millimeters long which can be harmful to oceans and aquatic life. Microplastics have been detected in marine organisms from plankton to whales, in commercial seafood, and even in drinking water. Microplastics are found everywhere on the planet, including the soil, the air, and even in the Arctic. It has been estimated that the average American eats, drinks, and breathes in more than 70,000 microplastic particles every year, or a credit card’s worth of plastic every week. Those numbers have been disputed by the American Chemistry Council, nevertheless, microplastics have been found in our lungs and bloodstreams. How much damage they cause is unclear.
Where do microplastics come from? Plastics were developed during World War II and have become immensely popular since then. They are used for everything from computers to medical equipment to single-use containers. Microbeads, tiny particles designed for commercial use, are found in cosmetics, cleansers, and toothpaste. Microplastics are also in microfibers shed from synthetic clothing and other textiles. More than one-third of all plastic goes into packaging, which by nature is single-use. Plastics are man-made and there is nothing in our natural environment that breaks it down. When plastic water bottles and drinking straws and other plastics are discarded, they degrade into tiny pieces by exposure to sun and ocean waves. Some of the microplastics in the ocean come from littering on the beach but most of it ends up there as a result of storms, water runoff, and wind.
Single-use plastic is hugely popular. Only about 9% of plastic gets recycled. The rest is discarded. There are some efforts around the world to limit single-use plastics. The UK has banned plastic cutlery, straws, drink stirrers, plates, and Styrofoam containers, as well as beauty products containing microbeads. In 2015 President Obama signed the Microbead-Free Waters Act banning microbeads in cosmetics and personal care products. Nearly 100 countries have banned plastic grocery bags. Kevin Schug, a professor of analytical chemistry at the University of Texas Arlington is working on a process to melt plastics into an oil that can be used to create new plastic, thus diverting plastic waste from the environment. (See “Plastics research may help” in the Dallas Morning News, July 30, 2024).
There are some things that we can do now to limit our consumption of microplastics. Use glass dishes in the microwave. The heat from the microwave oven breaks down the plastic in microwaveable plastic dishes and it ends up in your food. Don’t put plastic containers in the dishwasher, as the heated water degrades the plastic and flushes it into the water system. Teflon cookware leaches microplastics into your food. Stainless steel or the new green cookware is a safer choice. Drink filtered tap water. A carbon block filter or a distillation filter both filter out 100% of known microplastics. Use a stainless steel or glass water bottle. Buy reusable metal drinking straws. Take a reusable cup to your favorite coffee shop instead of getting your coffee in a takeaway cup. Recycle your single-use plastics. Plastics 1, 2, and 5 are recyclable, although if your city uses mechanical recycling, only 1 and 2 (basically soda bottles, water bottles, and milk jugs) can be separated out by the sorting machines. Plastics 3, 6, and 7 are especially harmful, so try to avoid buying those plastics. Buy clothing made of natural fibers when possible. You can reduce the amount of microfibers that break off your synthetic fabrics in the washing machine by using a laundry ball, such as a Cora ball, or by washing your synthetic fabrics in a Guppyfriend bag which traps the microplastics to keep them from washing away with the wastewater. Check the ingredients in your facial wash products and toothpaste to make sure they do not contain acrylate copolymer, which means microbeads. Limit your seafood consumption because of the high volume of microplastics found in fish. Tea bags contain plastics that leach into your tea, so brew looseleaf tea with a tea ball. And finally, since microplastics even get in the air, dust and vacuum regularly. Use a vacuum with a HEPA filter.
Together we can make a difference in the proliferation of microplastics. See you in the pool!
