Activity 3.3.3 - My Plastic Use

My Plastic Use

Microplastics are plastics that have been broken down from plastic materials, and have become so small that it’s in almost everything. Microplastic was formed by humans’ constant use of plastic, and their pollution involved with it. When the sun hits plastics, they break down and form small, microscopic pieces that the naked eye can’t see. These tiny pieces of plastic are in our water that we drink, our clothes that we wear on a day to day basis, and even in our food that we eat. The amount of microplastics in the world and the environment is constantly increasing, yet humans aren’t speaking enough about it.

Plastic is a very convenient and easy thing to use for producers and consumers alike, it has lots of uses for products, and it’s easy to store things or throw away for consumers. The normalization of plastic across the globe has increased steadily over hundreds of years, and it was “used as far back as 1600 B.C.” when it was first recorded (Haab, S., & Haab, K. (n.d.). The environmental impacts of microplastics: An investigation of microplastic pollution in North Country water bodies.). This ever-growing industry of plastic making has caused a big problem not only in pollution of regular plastic, but microplastics as well. Regular plastic is not biodegradable, which means it breaks down over time getting smaller and smaller, eventually sinking its way into ecosystems.

Microplastics are the most dense in oceans, which is affecting the ecosystems around the plastic that is being introduced. These plastics threaten species survival in the ocean, their community structure and food chain, as well as their overall ecosystem function. These organisms can get a false sense of fullness/satiation, which can lead to reduced energy for these organisms and their feeding efforts are decreased. This issue is not only inside ocean life, but human life as well. These plastics are in our drinking water, our foods, our clothes, and even the air that we breathe in. A lot of the plastics are fibers, which spawns from synthetic clothes that are constantly being made in the clothing industry. These clothes, when washed, can produce anywhere from 100,000 to 700,000 fibers off of one load of laundry. The fibers that are being made from human creation go into our waterways like sewage, and our oceans, affecting the life inside it. 

We have seen plastic production skyrocket since it was first consumed, and it’s currently all over the world. The creation of solid waste in 2015 was 262 million tons, while in 1990 it was 208 millions tons. This increase in plastic is leading to the spawn of more microplastics, that will eventually harm sea life even more, and even worse, harm humans. Microplastics, when ingested, can have access to all organs when small enough, which can cause things like increased risk of cancer, and also neurotoxicity. If we don’t try to rethink our world and replace plastic with a safer, more viable substitution, then these plastics will eventually modify our bodies and our wildlife on a more broader scale. 

My collage is about the everyday plastics that I use and that are in my life. These different plastics can include things like my clothes, which release microfibers and plastics every wash, my remote, which will eventually go to waste, my POP! Figures that I have, which I continue to buy and store, and a plastic bag that I will throw away by tomorrow. These plastics are in my everyday life, which is something that the majority of people in the world share. If all of these plastics are in one person’s life, then there’s bound to be endless plastic all over the globe.

Sources Cited: 

Dudas, S. (2018). Microplastics are everywhere [Video]. TEDx Binghampton University.

Simons Foundation Science Sandbox (Producer). (2019). World class explorers help scientists collect elusive data [Video].

Haab, S., & Haab, K. (n.d.). The environmental impacts of microplastics: An investigation of microplastic pollution in North Country water bodies.

Van Sebille, E. (2013). Charting the garbage patches of the seas[video]. University of New South Wales.

Rahman, A., Sarkar, A., Yadav, O. P., Achari, G., & Slobodnik, J. (2020, December 3). Potential human health risks due to environmental exposure to nano- and microplastics and knowledge gaps: A scoping review. Science of The Total Environment.