Pictured above is a collage of my own personal plastic usage in a day.
Disclaimer, this collage would be way bigger depending on the day. Today I spent my day at home just watching tv and doing all of my class work. Nonetheless, let me explain what some of these products are.
For starters, I drank about three bottles of water today, which of course, comes in plastic. I noticed that the container that these rice crispy treats came in are also plastic, (as I went to eat the last one). Then I drank some coke that also came in a plastic bottle. I didn't really have a whole meal, but I did snack on chips, which come in a plastic, or to be more specific, polypropylene material. I also noticed that my glasses I constantly have to wear to see the tv clearly, are also made of plastic. The frame is made from a material called zyl, a nylon-based, hypoallergenic plastic. After working on my painting for class, I noticed that there was a plastic packaging film, and the bottles are plastic as well. I came home this morning from spending the night at a friends' apartment, and the overnight bag I chose to use this time was actually a transparent, thick plastic bag. The clothes in my bag could also even contain microplastics within their fibers. The next two photos are of some standard plastic bags that I happened to find just lying around my house. We reuse them a lot for trash and the ones in my room were from a recent shopping trip, and the other I used for catching pencil shavings. The white one is a plastic bag that I received my amazon item in.
As previously mentioned, this list could expand with the more things that I do throughout the day. I probably even missed a bunch of items because of how unaware I am of all the plastic I might touch just in one day. A lot of these pictures were basic knowledge to me, while others I had to stand back and question what material they were out of, resulting in the discover of multiple different plastics that can exist.
Microplastics
As defined within our text, "microplastics, which are plastic particles or fibers smaller than 5 millimeters (mm) in size, are one of the many environmentally-detrimental outcomes of modern society‘s widespread use of plastics. Derived from petroleum, microplastics are common additives to personal care and cosmetic products (PCCPs) and are also produced from the use of synthetic fibers in textiles. Microplastics can also be produced from degradation and breakdown of macroplastic debris, which commonly accumulates in aquatic environments due to improper waste disposal. (Haab, S., & Haab, K. pg.9) " Which, in simpler terms, are broken down plastics that are so fine that they can make their way into a lot of our everyday use products. Microplastics can include polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), nylon (PA), polyurethane, and acrylates copolymer.
With that being said, the two most common types of plastic found in scientific studies are polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is used to make plastic water bottles and clothing fibers, and polystyrene, which is found in food packaging, disposable utensils, and straws (SELF 2022).
Microplastics can actually be found inside of our bodies. But how? How could we possibly consume and/or inhale microplastics without even being aware of it? According to USA Today, we usually "eat or breathe in about 2,000 tiny plastic particles each week, the World Wildlife Federation found in a 2019 study. Most are ingested from bottled water and tap water." Therefore, after consuming food or water that contain these microplastics, researchers suspect those tiny particles make their way to the gut, through the intestinal membrane, and into the bloodstream, (Andrea De Vizcaya-Ruiz, PhD, an associate professor in the department of environmental and occupational health at the University of California, via SELF 2022).
With microplastics being found in our water, air, food, and soil, they become so unavoidable. And unfortunately, on top of that, they can be really harmful to us and our bodies. Researchers are still speculating whether microplastics, or even smaller particles like nanoplastics, could possibly affect specific parts of the body such as the brain, digestive system, and/or other parts as well. Some of these skeptically toxic microplastics might include polyquaterniums, polysorbates, PEGs PPGs (Plastic Soup Foundation 2019). But it seems that scientists haven't quite pinpointed what the issue is, or why they can be so harmful to us. They only know that we consume them after finding them in our saliva, blood, lung tissue, colon, placenta, stool, breast milk, etc.
In addition, microplastics can absorb heavy metals and pesticides found in our environment. According to National Geographic, "the problem with microplastics is that—like plastic items of any size—they do not readily break down into harmless molecules. Plastics can take hundreds or thousands of years to decompose—and in the meantime, wreak havoc on the environment. On beaches, microplastics are visible as tiny multicolored plastic bits in sand. In the oceans, microplastic pollution is often consumed by marine animals." Some of this pollution is because of us, but some is also due to the earth's natural environmental processes.
After all of this research, it seems clear that we could never get rid of microplastics, they are simply everywhere. We frequently consume it, and although we don't know its exact causes, we know that it does more harm than good to our bodies. And in the environment, it can create a harmful source of pollution that adds on to what we already have to deal with. Issues aside, we can definitely work to reduce the amount microplastics by limiting our plastic usage, but the truth of the matter is, we won't be able to eliminate it completely.
Sources:
Haab, S., & Haab, K. (n.d.). The environmental impacts of microplastics: An investigation of microplastic pollution in North Country waterbodies.
Krietsch, Beth. “Microplastics Found in Humans: What Does It Mean for Our Health?” SELF, 19 May 2022, www.self.com/story/microplastics-in-humans-health.
Microplastics | National Geographic Society. education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/microplastics.
“Microplastics and Health Risks: What Do We Really Know?” WebMD, 28 Oct. 2022, www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/news/20221028/microplastics-health-risks-what-do-we-really-know.
Snider, Mike Usa Today. “Microplastics Have Been Found in Air, Water, Food and Now ... Human Blood.” USA TODAY, 27 Mar. 2022, eu.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2022/03/25/plastics-found-inside-human-blood/7153385001.
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