Activity 3.3.3 – My Plastic Use

These two photo collages are the amalgamation of all the plastic items I use in one day. At first I had a hard time finding photos as I was just overthinking but after watching Dudas Microplastics are everywhere ted talk and saw her example and what images she illustrated things made a lot more sense. WHat is suprising to me as well while I had over 30 plus images of plastic made utilities I used today. That number doesnt include items used at school. This photo collage is a tool for people to understand just the shere quantity of items we own or use that are made of plastic. Putting the number of items into perspective when thinking about how many people live in UNites States helps explain why there are tons of plastics thrown out each year.
Definition of Microplastics
Water is one of the most important resources to humans, all of life for that matter. With 75% of this Earth being covered in water one might think this resource would almost be infinite. However it is fresh drinking water safe for consumption that is so scarse. Our drinking waters scarcity is the reason is so important that we protect it. Sadly this vital resource is currently facing heavy contamination from a new pollutant known as microplastics. Being made of plastic, microplastics never completely break down typically the size of microplastics "plastic particles or fibers smaller than 5 millimeters" (Haab, 9). This becomes a problem because "microplastics are not able to be removed by wastewater treatment plants" (Haab, 9) meaning after water is treated at a plant and is technically "cleaned" companies repurpose the "cleaned" water back either to nature or cities.
Where Are They Found / How They Got Here
One microplastic many us may know are microbeads. Microbeads in recent years have gained popularity as a additive to soaps and scrubs in "one study finding approximately 360,000 plastic microbeads in a single bottle of Neutrogena Deep Clean Exfoliating Scrub" (Haab, 14). Neutrogena is a masssive company that most likely sells millions of that specfic exfoliating scrub that will all end up in back in our water somewhere in the world. Microbeads are only a small issue, when a plastic is improperly dispoved in the ocean the sun breaks down big chunks of plasic into microplastics. Van Sebille in "Charting the garbage patches of the seas" makes notes that there are six great garbage patches in each of the oceans. Garbage patches are terrible because a fish can mistakenly eat a small plastic or even breathe plastics in through its gills contaminating a food source for millions of humans world wide, this being only one specific way how microplastics enter our body through the food we eat. There are millions of tons plastic waste in the world either in landfills or the ocean, we use plastic objects everyday in our lives. However since plastic was invented this reliance of plastics has come to bite us. While microplastics may be a new issue a resent study showed "shards of microplastics in fatty deposits surgically removed from patients... to open up their clogged arteries" (Watson, 4), what is so scary about this information is the knowledge that plastics have only been around for 100 or so years and yet already have such prevalent issues. The issue with microplastics is so terrible "Humans inhale about 22,000,000 micro and nano plastics annually, and that's because they’re in our food, water, and air" (Zachos, 2). Written in the article "In Where are microplastics found in your home?" even the simple use of chopping food on a plastic cutting board "produces tens of millions of microparticles each year" (Zachos, 2) which are to be inhaled through to your lungs. Microplastics are currertly invading our lives without any of us knowing, they are being found in the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the water we drink. Microplastics are not only terrible for humans but for all living organisms on Earth, this is because as plastic is broken down it is harder to detect when it enters our bodies. Microplastics are small enough to enter our blood and cause arteries to fill and small enough to breathe to cause respiratory issues. This is the new epidmenic that is upon us and it is sop frightening because it is virtually undetectable while being found in everything we do.
Work Cited
Haab, S., & Haab, K. (n.d.). The environmental impacts of microplastics: An investigation of microplastic pollution in North Country waterbodies. Adventure Scientists. https://www.adventurescientists.org/uploads/7/3/9/8/7398741/haabhaab2016_environmental_impacts_of_microplastics.pdf
Van Sebille, E. (2013). Charting the garbage patches of the seas[video]. University of New South Wales.
Parker, L. (2018). Planet or plastic. National Geographic Magazine Online. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/06/plastic-planet-waste-pollution-trash-crisis/
Zachos, Elaina. “How to Avoid Microplastics Hidden in Your Home.” Environment, 8 Aug. 2024, www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/how-to-avoid-microplastic-health-home.
Watson, Clare. “Plastic Found inside More than 50% of Plaques from Clogged Arteries.” ScienceAlert, 7 Mar. 2024, www.sciencealert.com/plastic-found-inside-more-than-50-of-plaques-from-clogged-arteries.