Change Your World Week Fall 2021 (Archived)

What are microplastics? It is important to first understand what plastic is and how it is made. The science History Institute says that the word plastic originally means “pliable and easily shaped” and is made from what is called polymers, its name means “of many parts and polymer is essentially a long chain of molecules. The Science History institute also states that it is synthetic polymer contained by fossil fuels and ironically at first this was a revolutionary discovery and was thought to be good for the environment due to people not using up natural resources such as wood and metal that would disturb wildlife. According to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) we know that plastics are the most extensive debris that plaques our oceans and Great Lakes. Even though these plastics break down over time they do not entirely go away, they become what is called microplastics. To classify what this means again NOAA explains that these are very small plastic pieces of debris that come in many varieties of forms and sizes that can be 5 millimeters or smaller. There are also small plastics in products we use every day called microbeads. These microbeads can be found in beauty products and toothpaste which also find their way through our water systems.

Being so small it makes it easy for them to enter the water and into marine life, traveling up the food web to humans. Many researchers have had some ideas of how these microplastics can cause harm to humans; one is that because the microplastics are so small that they could enter our cells and tissue and cause irritations just due to being there, another way is entering the lungs and causing inflammation and even a possibility of causing cancer. By 2025 there will be 1 tonnes of plastic to every three tonnes of fish, that is the equivalent of 600 plastic bags to every ten kilograms of fish. It has also been found that more than 72% of marine species have had at least one synthetic piece of material in their digestive systems. Plastics have been associated to endocrine-disrupting chemicals which are connected to cancer, obesity, diabetes, endocrine system disorders, thyroid dysfunction, and reproductive impairment. Researchers have been able to observe zooplankton and found that they reproduce less, grow slower with smaller eggs and eggs that are not as likely to hatch in an environment that has microplastics present.

Why haven’t we stopped using plastics all together? There is a convenience to having plastic and one is that they help preserve food by lengthening the shelf life along with keeping bacteria off the products, an alternate solution would be to reduce the food supply chain by limiting travel from farm to place of purchase which would shift people to eat certain food seasonally. Even by using certain items that would be considered renewable such as a cloth bag, you would have to use it 3,000 times to make up for its carbon emissions for one plastic bag. This would be bad for the air quality in the world make more smog. There is also business that just see plastic as fast and easy, now not much research has been done on this. Business do look at where profits is and if profit is coming from plastics, they will keep making products that contain plastics and microbeads for the beauty industry.

There are Solutions to this problem of microplastics and microbeads in the oceans. There are scientist that are working on a solution for our oceans. They are working on bacteria and other microorganisms that will degrade or use the plastics as food. The only known bacteria that scientists have found that will eat plastics is Ideonella sakaiensis 201-F6. There are other scientists working on creating a new microorganisms that can help with these microplastics in the oceans. 

The way you can help is to reduce, reuse, and recycle. As an individual to reduce plastic use can start with reusable products such as , metal reusable water bottle or even using dryer balls instead of using dryer sheets. Another method is recycling, and making sure that you recycle plastics helps. Making sure you recycle the correct materials in the right way, you can also go to your local recycling center where they can help you organize your materials in the right spot. Also volunteering at ocean or lake cleanups or your local recycle center.  Midland recycle center could use your help and every little bit helps. 

If you need help find out what is recyclable this link can help.

https://www.howlifeunfolds.com/resource-stewardship/pulp-truth-can-i-recycle

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