Audience: Middle and High School Students
Microplastics and plastic pellets mixed with sand in the ocean. Photo by Sören Funk from Unsplash.
It’s easy to forget the existence of ocean pollution when you’re diving through the seemingly clear sea, swept up in the salt and seafoam. In your mind, nothing else exists here, only sifting sand and stray algae, loosely tangling your ankles. Within the confines of the sea troubles evade the body, offering a false sense of serenity, far from any worldly issues. Hands rake through the shoreline, shaping sand castles without noticing the tiny plastic pieces mimicking seashell fragments on sand-coated fingertips. You don’t catch the delicate fish carcass washed ashore in a twist of fishing line and seaweed, one of thousands of victims poisoned by plastic particles. You don’t realize that these plastic pieces are a main contributor to the ocean’s plastic pollution, declared a danger to our Earth. How would you know? As human beings we often cling to the inclination that observable truths are the only truths. What we don’t see we don’t believe, brushing off too-real issues due to the shortsightedness of our own vision. On the occasion that we do acknowledge a hidden problem’s existence, we hardly work towards fixing the invisible. It is only when the infection rises to the surface, in all its grotesque glory, that we are sent into a panic, wishing we had acted sooner.
First off, what exactly are microplastics? A microplastic is any plastic particle under five millimeters. To put this into perspective, a microplastic would be roughly the same size as a sesame seed. Since plastic is not biodegradable, it simply breaks up into smaller and smaller parts, shedding microplastics the entirety of plastic’s lifespan. Other microplastics are not produced from the deterioration of larger plastics, but manufactured. The beauty industry is a leading contributor in manufactured microplastics, specifically the skincare sector. Facial washes containing mini plastic beads meant to exfoliate skin travel down sink drains, evade filtration systems and settle in the ocean. Due to the popularization of microbead-infused skincare, more than 8 trillion microbeads enter US waters daily. Moreover, glitter, a seemingly bright and harmless craft accompaniment, is another example of a microplastic. Most glitter is not biodegradable, and people do not fully understand the extent of glitter’s damage to the environment. While you might observe a microplastic’s tiny size and render it harmless, microplastics build up, slipping through all different filtration systems due to their miniature measurements.
Oceans are one of the most severely impacted by microplastics, with microplastics estimated to make up a shocking 92% of plastic pollution on the ocean’s surface. This is 5.25 trillion plastic particles with a weight of 269,000 tons, the equivalent of 2,150 blue whales (Ocean Care). Microplastics are detrimental to marine life, contributing to the deaths of about 100,000 marine animals annually. Microplastics can reduce marine animal life spans, due to the sheer amount of plastic these creatures are unknowingly consuming. They have been found to stunt fish growth and alter their behavior, often killing small fish before they reach adulthood. Due to the overabundance of microplastics in the ocean, we often ingest microplastics through the plastic-infested bodies of sea creatures we eat. Furthermore, we are unknowingly swallowing microplastics in numerous ways, not limited to our seafood consumption.
Every year, about a credit card worth of plastic is ingested by the average human. Not only does our food carry microplastics, but microplastics permeate our beverages and the air we breathe. Too often these plastics are airborne, traveling down lungs and reaching, on occasion, our bloodstreams. These plastics have even been proven to act as a catalyst for a number of reproductive, respiratory, and digestive conditions, damaging human cells and leaching chemicals into tissues in the human body.
To prevent microplastic pollution, the general reduction of plastic consumption in daily life is ideal. Bring reusable bags when grocery shopping, buy products that are made of non-plastic materials or recycled plastics, choose stainless steel water containers over disposable plastic water bottles. This will help ease the breakdown of larger pieces of plastics into microplastics, a preemptive measure to a central contributor of the creation of microplastics. To target microplastics in particular, make the conscious effort to stay away from skincare products that contain microbeads, instead switching to silica scrubs as an environmentally friendly solution. Similarly, use biodegradable glitter during project-making, which is the safer option for our planet and for ourselves. Caring for your own health is essential, and to avoid microplastic related health complications limit using single-use plastic to store food, including plastic takeout containers, drink filtered water, and be careful of eating mussels and clams, which are filter-feed animals that have been found to carry high amounts of microplastics.
Microplastics adversely impact our oceans, environment, and our bodies. The numbers of microplastics are overwhelmingly massive, increasing each day, and we must remember that this problem will only continue to spiral until we lose what little grasp we have on this issue. The inevitability of the collapse of so many oceanic ecosystems is contingent on the choices we, as a society, make today, with our plastic usage a central problem. A microplastic may be only five millimeters in length, but the destruction it’s causing to our planet is immeasurable.
Bibliography:
Armstrong, Martin, and Felix Richter. “Infographic: How We Eat, Drink and Breathe Microplastics.” Statista Daily Data, 1 Dec. 2022, www.statista.com/chart/18299/how-we-eat-drink-and-breathe-microplastics/#:~:text=The%20average%20person%20eats%2C%20drinks,that%20is%20considered%20an%20underestimate.
National Geographic Society. “Microplastics.” Education, education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/microplastics/. Accessed 28 Sept. 2023.
Parker, Laura. “Microplastics Are in Our Bodies. How Much Do They Harm Us?” Environment, National Geographic, 8 May 2023, www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/microplastics-are-in-our-bodies-how-much-do-they-harm-us.
US Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “What Are Microplastics?” NOAA’s National Ocean Service, 13 Apr. 2016, oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/microplastics.html#:~:text=Plastic%20debris%20can%20come%20in,microplastics%20and%20their%20impacts%20yet.
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