Microplastics, the Unseen Pollution

Pictured above: A photo I took of a grain of sand with a blue microplastic next to it

 under a high power microscope.

What are Microplastics?

Micro-plastics are technically defined as pieces of plastic under 5mm in size. They are bits of plastic which can be small enough to be carried through the air and in some cases they can be so small they lodge within bodily tissue if ingested. 

Microplastics are often from larger pieces of plastic which have broken down into tiny pieces meaning it only takes a small single piece of plastic pollution to make millions of microplastic pieces. Common sources of microplastics include synthetic clothing fibers, tires, and cosmetics.

Where are Microplastics Found?

Everywhere. They are most common in the ocean just because that's often where they form but once they get small enough they can enter the air and be carried by winds anywhere. They are also very scarily common in the marine food chain, which we eat from. Creatures we eat like oysters, clams, and mussels are all filter feeders which evolved to pull tiny particles from the water for food. With microplastic concentrations varying in the water column there can be many plastics in a cubic meter and these filter feeders can pull a lot of water through themselves in their life, building up plastic. Clams can filter about 1/5 of a cubic meter of water in a day, and clams take 2-3 years to grow to market size. Assuming there's one piece of plastic per cubic meter, a conservative estimate, then 2 year old adult clams can hold up to 146 pieces of plastic, each. And you almost never have just one clam. A 3 year old clam in a dirtier habitat could have hundreds of plastics in its tissues, and hardly anybody eats just one clam in a meal.

Whats's The Issue With Microplastics?

Plastics are usually very stable and un-reactive, and besides, nearly everything we wear, sit on, touch, eat from, drink from, and do anything with, contains some plastic. So what's the issue with the little bits of the stuff? Well these plastics can lodge within our own tissues, like they do within a clam's tissue, and cause respiratory or bowel irritation, allergic responses, cancer, and more.  Keep in mind, little research has been done on the effect of these plastics, and the bit that has been done has shown nothing good. Nothing good for us, animals, plants, or the ecosystems we reside in as a whole.