Microplastics are, as the name states, small bits of plastic. They are less than 5 mm in size which makes them incredibly difficult to remove from our environment. There are plenty of scary news articles out there saying microplastics are everywhere, in the air, in the environment, and in our food and water, and all of this is true. As humans we consume about 5 grams of microplastics a week just by eating, drinking and breathing. But it is generally accepted that microplastics are not harmful or will have minimal effects on human health, from the existing research.
There has, however, been a significant effect seen on marine life. Certain species are more sensitive to the ingestion of microplastics than others. Effects seen in fish include intestinal blockage, change in metabolism and physical damage from abrasion or from the toxicity of the chemicals in microplastics. At the tissue and cellular level of microorganisms, microplastics interfere with a species reproductive success. Without going too in depth on the science, microplastics damage certain organisms which decreases biodiversity and throws the whole ecosystem out of balance which can begin to remove food and water sources. Overall, more research needs to be done on this topic to provide an extensive answer on the effects microplastics have on us and our environment, but from this initial research we know they do not benefit us or the environment.
In the infographic below are some statistics to show the sheer quantity of how much microplastic the average person consumes. It's estimated that we eat 250 grams of microplastic in a year, that's the weight of eating two sticks of butter!
In the next post we will talk about how microplastics are formed and how recycling and implementing sustainable practices can play a part in reducing them!
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-Maddie
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