WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL WITH MICROPLASTICS?
By Aneesa Delpachitra, Marine Biology MSc Candidate, University of Otago, New Zealand
What should you know about microplastics and how to tackle this issue? Here’s your trusty field guide, from a marine science student.
In 2015, microbeads, or little plastic beads used in face scrubs and cleaning products, were banned in the US, followed by many other countries. Why did this ban happen? And has it solved the problem?
Plastics have been produced in exponentially increasing amounts since the end of WWII, due to their extreme durability and versatility. Nowadays, we see them in packaging, fabric and textiles, hard parts and rubbers for transportation, and many more. Take a look around you, how much plastic are you surrounded by?
About 10% of all produced plastics end up in the ocean, where they are battered by the elements and fragment into small plastic bits. “Microplastics” are plastics between 0.001 – 5mm in size, with “nanoplastics” being even smaller. Regardless of size, the compounds in plastics persist for a long time without breaking down into non-plastic forms.
So what’s the problem? Let’s break it down (see what I did there?). Microplastics are mistaken for food such as plankton and eaten by marine life. As you can probably guess, microplastics aren’t good for them! Among many other harms, microplastics can be taken up into tissues and leach harmful plastic toxins. These toxins can disrupt the fitness, behaviours, reproductive capability and survival of many species.
Now let’s think about food webs. Smaller species such as plankton or small fish eat and hold onto microplastics in their stomachs or tissues. That means that predators that need to eat lots of small species end up eating massive quantities of plastics! Microplastics therefore impact and harm organisms all throughout the marine ecosystem.
Humans aren’t separate from this either. We eat plenty of seafood containing microplastics, as well as consuming plastics from water bottles or packaging. For this reason, scientists have recently found microplastics in human blood, and even breast milk!
Okay. Time to take a breath. This stuff can be heavy, so what are we supposed to do about it? As with most environmental crises, we can think about this in two ways: changes to our systems, as well as changes in our personal lives.
As previously mentioned, microbeads were banned in the US in 2015. This meant that the microplastics being used as face or cleaning scrubs, washed down our drains, were not allowed to be put in products. However, this was far from the only source of microplastics into the environment.
I’m from New Zealand, where we followed the stride made by the US by banning microbeads in 2018. However, we then banned single use plastic shopping bags in 2019. This year, many types of single use plastic items and plastic takeaway containers have been banned, with plans to ban plastic plates, cutlery, produce packaging and straws (except for disabled people) by 2025.
While some bans are apparent in various US states (such as shopping bags), there is little nationwide regulation on plastic items. Unnecessary items can be removed from society, by adopting the old, environmentally sustainable practices we used before we were so reliant on plastics.
Systematic change in the production and sale of plastics can make massive differences. Keeping an ear out for when these bans are being proposed and helping lobby for change can be one way to promote big, beneficial solutions!
Along with this, there are many changes we can make in our personal lives to reduce plastic go through. Putting thought into the plastic items we purchase can really help.
As a marine science student, I’ve met many people that have opted to live as plastic free as possible. I’ve seen people buying bamboo toothbrushes, paper-packaged beauty products and reusable metal razors. They’ve purchased food from markets, produced their own milk to cut down on bottles and found brands that reuse their plastic packaging upon return, or even refill their products. Living plastic free is not accessible for everyone, though small lifestyle changes done over a lifetime can still be beneficial!
Plastic litter can be found in most places, and generally has a relatively easy solution: picking it up. Getting involved in plastic clean-ups, or even organising your own can cut down environmental plastic and prevent this pollution from reaching the ocean.
Globally, developing countries with poorer waste management and higher plastic pollution see the most microplastics formed from fragments of large plastic items reaching the ocean (think toothbrushes). In contrast, more industrialised countries such as the US tend to see the greatest type of microplastics being fibres, released from washing plastic-containing fabrics (think polyester).
Among the many ways to reduce microplastics, one is considering the clothes we buy and wash! While natural fabrics such as cotton and silk can have its pros and cons, they definitely prevent microplastics from being washed off them. Leaning away from fast-fashion ideals by buying fewer clothes (especially fewer clothes first hand) is also a good way to minimise plastic production!
When buying plastic fabrics, such as acrylic and polyester fabrics, you can consider the way you wash them. Some, such as synthetic wools, can often last longer and pollute less with spot cleaning! Others may do well being put in a microfibre-filtering laundry bag.
Though microplastics are present all over the world’s oceans, they are still a relatively recently discovered environmental issue. Models have estimated the amount of microplastics in the world’s oceans under various scenarios of how much we proceed to pollute from now onwards. If no changes are made and the world’s population keeps increasing, microplastics will exponentially increase. Taking action to reduce plastic use and pollution can change the estimated intensity of microplastics in the environment, keeping levels not far from where they currently are. TL;DR: we can make a difference if we act now.
Regardless of lifestyle, most people have ways that they can change their plastic use. By thinking twice about the plastics we use, or research more into ways to cut down the amount of plastics we buy and demand production for, we can each do our part in solving the not-so-small microplastic problem.