Microplastics. What are microplastics? How are they an issue? Why should we even care about them? These are some of the questions I am going to be answering via my blog.
Plastics. According to Harris (2020), “ Synthetic material made up of polymers that can be molded into shapes that are used for everyday activities”. There are numerous types of plastics that I will talk about in this blog, but my main focus today will be on microplastics. Microplastics are extremely dangerous to the ocean, and to us as humans due to their small size and their ability to dissolve. These microplastics are extremely small and usually come out as beads. Microplastics usually come from city dust, engineered pellets, and personal care products. So next time you use any of these daily cosmetics, just know that eventually those tiny beads, called microbeads can ultimately get washed away into our oceans and our garbage patches.
Figure 1: This figure clearly shows the microbeads found in our every day routine. Every time that you brush your teeth, you are consuming microplastics. This is the same with face wash, nail varnish and others.
What are plastics
These plastics are everywhere. One of the specific facts that I found in my research is that 92 percent of the total plastic accumulation in the ocean is derived from microplastics. Which is crazy to believe because when you see pictures of plastic in the ocean, most of the time it’s bigger plastic you see coming off the beach. What does that statistics even mean? More succinctly, there are about 14 million tons of plastic accumulated in the ocean now, between microplastics and other forms of plastic. In about 1 use, currently 94,500 microbeads come out of one cosmetic use. Think of how many people use these cosmetics on a daily basis, and how many microbeads get released. According to Lyson(2017), “ microbeads are a category of a microplastic, that is typically very small, less than 5 mm, and very hard to see.” These microbeads need to be reduced because of the harmful consequences it has on not only us, but also animals in our ecosystem and beyond.
Microplastics are small but deadly. They are less than 5 mm in size, which is the perfect size to be ingested by us as humans and animals, due to their similar size to food. For now, I am going to focus on how these are ingested by the animals. When these small plastics are floating around in the ocean, they are the perfect size for prey. Scientist say that these plastic look just like phytoplankton which is just what most marine species eat on a daily basis. When a marine species ingests a plastic, not much happens. Like actually nothing. Since it cannot be digested, it just stays in the gut and rots there forever. When pieces of plastics sit there and rot, it attracts microorganisms, such as pathogens, which then leads to inflammatory diseases. That’s not even the worst part. Once an animal dies, the plastic is then freed from the decaying organism back into the sea, possibly to get ingested by another animal. So it is a never ending cycle, and we can never escape this problem.
One of the biggest issues with these microplastics is the fact that they take a very long time to decompose. If only they could decompose after a certain time. The worst of the plastics are plastic bags. According to Herrington (2018),” a whopping 500 billion bags are used a day in the United States.” That is absolutely incredible to think about A plastic bag you get from the grocery store takes over a decade to decompose, which is so long. Scientist say that plastic bags are a main culprit because it looks just like a jellyfish, a main prey for some species like sea turtles and other bigger marine animals. There are toxins in these microplastics that have deadly effects as well.
When an organism ingest a microplastic, it blocks the gastrointestinal effects which block the nerve that makes them want to eat. Which eventually leads to starvation. Before microplastics are ingested, toxic chemicals can attach to the top of them, so when it is finally ingested, it can have more deadly toxins. The more and more plastic that keeps getting pushed into our oceans, the more it’s ingested by marine organisms, the more it messes up the life cycle of organisms and the food chain. One scary fact I saw was the fact that they see these microplastics everywhere, I mean everywhere. Another scary part of this study is that there are trillions of plastics floating in the ocean right now, but by the time we get to all of them, they will be nano plastics, which are invisible.
Figure 2: This diagram shows the negative impacts that microplastics have on marine organisms. It alters gene expression, cell signaling and metabolism. It alters growth and reproduction. In terms of different body systems, it alters the digestive system, and the immune system.
Not just in the oceans, many scientists see these microplastics on mountains, oceans, glaciers in the Arctic Sea, drinking water and our bodies unfortunately. Along with marine organisms, we are also affected by these microplastics being ingested by these animals because part of our food supply comes from the ocean. If these organisms keep ingesting these plastics, it will make their meat way less nutritious and healthy. Plastics make food less nutritious in many different occasions. Microwaving your food in plastic can lead to plastic creeping in. Once these plastics are heated, they eventually break down into smaller, more dangerous fragments. This is extremely alarming because we consume a large amount of seafood, and it they keep ingesting these plastics, we could see a rapid decrease in overall health. According to Johnson(2014), “ US per capita seafood consumption hit 19.2 pounds per person”. That is a large number per person eating seafood in their daily lives, not knowing if there is plastics in the meat.
Figure 3: This infographic shows the different ways that plastic eventually gets into our system. From then it describes the potential health problems that come with it. Some of these health risks that come along are changing metabolism, Immune Disruption, Neurotoxicity, and reproductive toxicity.
Microplastics pose a HUGE threat to our overall health. Scientists have studied that microplastics pose a huge threat to our cell’s well-being. They have been known to cause the cell to completely die, or cause major damage. Along with this, these microplastics can cause DNA damage, cellular damage and inflammation of organs. DNA damage is very severe, as it can cause normal cell function reduction, and impact rates of apoptosis. Apoptosis rate is simply defined as the de Most notably, DNA damage causes an increased likelihood of cancer, aging and cell death. When you think of why these microplastics are harmful to the human body, you may be surprised by the answer. It’s not usually the plastic material that’s bad, it’s actually the top or surface of the microplastic that’s the worst, as it usually has human pathogens attached to it. Even though there hasn’t been a study on it, scientists believe that these microplastics often act as endocrine disruptors. Meaning they disrupt hormone function. A certain microplastic, I will explain all types later, “Flame Retardants’ ‘, are also known to interfere with fetal development, which messes up the development of babies. Scientists believe that the particles are consumed or breathed by females before and during pregnancy. Some of the effects that plastics have on a fetus’ is still unknown, but what is known is that it can cause immune system damage to newborns, which will cause long-term effects that babies will have to live with their whole life.
Types of Microplastics
Now, with all this information I have given you on plastics, and the potential harms to us as humans and the environment you are probably wondering, “ what even are plastics, how many types of plastics there are. As I state above, plastics are synthetic pieces of material that are made of polymers that mold into shapes for everyday activites. Plastics are made from different raw materials like plants, and oil, which are then converted to ethane and propane. From this state, they are cracked, which ultimately turns into ethylene and propylene. These are the materials that are combined to create the polymers that we do not want. There are 5 types of microplastics that I am going to be talking about. These 5 types include Fibres, Microbeads, Fragments, Nurdeles and Foam.
Microplastic: Fiber
Fibers. According to, Johnson (2013), “71 percent of the total microplastic is fibers, which is almost ¾ of all microplastics.” Fibers are more commonly found in the Great Lakes, then in the oceans. Most of these microplastics are found in diapers, fleece clothing and cigarette butts. So you can only imagine how many fibers get released on a daily basis. One astonishing fact I came across was,” With one wash of a fleece jacket, 2000 microfibers get released. And that is only from one fleece jacket. Think of how many fibers get ejected into the environment every day. So, the main way that fibers get into our environment is via washing machines. You may be wondering if all these fibers get into our oceans? The answer is no, only about 40 percent of all of these fibers ultimately get into our waterways, which is still significantly too high. These, of course, are not biodegradable, which makes our situation worse, as they cannot dissolve at a fast rate.
Figure 4: This picture showing a prime example of what these fibers look like. When these fibers accumulate in the ocean, they come together to form a ball like shape, which is a perfect example for how sea turtles and creatures get caught in this.
Microplastic: Microbeads
Microbeads is the next microplastic I am going to talk about. Unfortunately, these too are nonbiodegradable. These are the microplastics that you see in your face cosmetics, toothpaste and shampoo products. Microbeads are less than 1 mm in size. You may be thinking, what’s the issue? They are so small. But that is exactly the issue, since they are so small, they can pass through treatment plants without filtered out. According to Johnson(2013), “ to give you a sense of scale, one roll of toothpaste can contain up to 300,000 microbeads.” That fact gave me a really good idea of how many microbeads get released every year, a very high number. Microbeads are a perfect shape to be mistaken for food. Because it looks just like a little pellet. According to Lewis(2019), “ Some organisms that are risk of these plastics are groupers, Oscars, large cichlids, and many other small species.” Because plastic is not digestible, small species of fish consume the plastic and it just sits in their organs, which will lead to starvation and death.
Figure 5: This picture shows all the cosmetic products that include these microbeads. The most common example is the toothpaste. Most of these microbeads will not be caught by water treatment plans, and these microbeads will make it out to the enviroment.
Microplastic: Fragments
The third type of microplastic I am going to talk about is fragments. Fragments are as much of an issue as Fibers and microbeads. Fragments are defined as smaller pieces of plastic that break off from bigger objects. Some of the most common examples of fragments include lids, single use products, and cups. When these objects are sitting in the sun, the UV radiation breaks the plastic into smaller objects. According to Adams, Wright (2021),” of all 150 pieces that we found 129 were fragments.” These fragments were found in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the largest accumulation of plastic in the world. It is located between California and Hawaii. According to oceancleanup.com, “It is estimated that between 80,000 tons of plastic consume the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.” One of the most common ways, scientist can track the amount of plastic in the ocean, is with technology called FTIR. FTIR is Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy. This satellite detection is capable in the ocean as satellite data, and drone technology. This process detects specific compounds and size which will lead to the resolution of what the plastic is. Fragmentation in the ocean is usually caused by UV radiation, photodegradation and other processes at sea which causes them to break into smaller pieces.
Figure 6: This picture further explains the size of fragments. As, you can see from the graph, the size of fragments is substantially bigger than the other types of fragments. The bigger the plastic is, the more it is likely to be a fragment, as shown in this graph
Microplastic: Nurdles
A lot of people mistake these for microbeads due to their similar size. Nurdles However these are completely different due to their function. Unlike microbeads, nurdles are small pellets used to make goods. Nurdles are used to make are food wrapper and, most notably, disposable plastic bottles. According to Leftwich(2009), “ It takes roughly 600 nurdles to make one water bottle.” Some manufacturing companies use these nurdles, heat them, and then mold them to make several different goods like cups and lids. Something that I found very interesting is that due to their size, nurdles fall out of trucks during transportation, especially in bigger trucks and bumpy roads. Even though these microplastics start out as microplastics, they will eventually weather, and then break into smaller pieces. From the road, storms and wastewater can carry these nurdles to drains, which then flowed out to sea. Like most types of microplastics, many species of fish mistake these nurdles for food, which damages the food chain and the environment. Some of these species of fish that mistake nurdles for food are anchovies, and other smaller species. In terms of bigger species, whales, porpoises and dolphins also consume these nurdles
.
Figure 7: This picture shows the different ways that nurdles are made. As you can see from this picture, these nurdles come from everywhere. They are made in factories, shipped around the world, spilling in transit due to their small size, and eventually get lost at sea.
Microplastic: Foam
Foam is considered to be a microplastic in its puffy form. Some items that foam are created from plastic are typically food containers, cups, plates and other eating utensils. This type of microplastic is the least polluting of the 5, as these plastics are only found in 2 rivers throughout the world. These two rivers are the Mississippi river and the Hudson River. Out of the 5 types of microplastics we have, foam has the least negative impact on the Environment. Most of the previous microplastics described hurt marine organisms because they mistake them for food. However, foam takes and then release chemicals in the water when they eventually degrade. This causes water levels to fluctuate and damages ecosystems within the area. According to Amberg(2020), “ Exposure to sunlight results to an increased release of chemical compounds into the water, resulting in a lower pH.
Figure 8: This figure shows the great accumulation of foam pollution on top of the water. This picture was taken off the coast of California. This infographic states that by 2050, the population of plastic pollution will overtake fish pollution
How do single-use plastics stack up with “bottle to bottle”?
There are two forms of plastic recycling that are currently in use today, and we need to try to get everyone to use one of these methods. Single use plastics is defined as a plastic product used only using once, before it is thrown away. These single use plastics are much more likely to end up in our oceans than those that are. In contrast, “bottle to bottle”, is defined as 100% plastic created in a closed loop. This form of recycling is the complete opposite of “single use plastic”, and we need to try to implement more. The more we under-take “bottle to bottle” recycling, the less plastic will end up in our oceans. This is true because the less we are throwing away, the less will it could just floating around in our cities and beaches. Let’s control what we can control.
Figure 9: This infographic perfectly depicts one of the negative issue of microplastics. The is the problem of being non-biodegradable. The fact that the shortest time for something to dissolve in 50 years is absolutely unacceptable. This graphic should give people insight on how long exactly it takes for plastic to dissolve.
How can we all make an effort to fix this.
With all of this information that I have shared with you, you probably know what side I am on. We must get rid of microplastics altogether through public pressure. Personally, along with the help of my family and friends, I am going to start a youth led organization focused on all facets of plastic. Ranging from stopping big plastic from reaching our oceans, all the way to limiting the use of products that release microplastics into the environment. I will be using my blog to share what big steps we can take to limit our plastic use. Also, I encourage lobbying with local and state governments to hopefully push them to make decisions about plastic reduction in our ecosystem.
When I first thought of this idea, I immediately thought to myself, wow this is going to get a lot of support and attention solely based on my location in Sarasota, Florida, On the west coast of the state, right above Miami. We are fortunate to have Siesta Key Beach, which is arguably one of prettiest beach in the world. So everyone around me wants to make a change and a difference in preserving our beautiful ecosystem. Every person walking up and down the beach needs knows when they see plastic, and they need to take action because of the potential effects of it. Some respond and some don’t. But when people are walking down the beach and see dead fish or birds, then they do react. They need to know that there is a good chance that it was caused
by plastic. But, by then it’s too late.
Figure 10: This picture above shows the pounds of trash found on Siesta Key Beach. 300 pounds of trash was left after Memorial Day Weekend. Trash ranged from pool noodles, wrappers, bags, and bottles. All in one day.
Some of the different ways I am going to try to get my message across is through various events. Some of the events I am going to do are organize beach cleanups, go to schools to educate the youth, promote products that are plastic free and organize workshops to educate anyone who wants to make a difference. I want to go to elementary schools to educate the young kids because they are the next generation, and they need to start young and start good habits now. Beach cleanups are very beneficial because of the short term effects of plastic on the beach. Sea Turtles, seagulls and other birds feast on the beach, and the less and less plastic on the beach, the less plastic they will consume. This is especially important to me because I live on the beach and see this problem every day. Not only is it good short term, it’s also good long term for the environment. The more and more people organize beach cleanups, the more likely you are to pick up trash when you see any time of the day. According to Herutha, Hernandez(2016), “ In 2020, researchers removed 5.2 million pounds of plastic from the ocean.” Lobbying the gov , both at the local and state level is going to be vital for the awareness of plastic pollution. The way I am going to do this is I’m going to write a script, explain who I am, why I am calling, and what the government should do to fix this problem. Also, explain why the problem affects everyone, not just me. Along with a phone call, I will also, if allowed, to set up a face to face meeting with a politician to discuss my issues. A face to face meeting with a politician will express my emotions more.
One of the parts I am most excited about is promoting the products that are plastic free. I am most excited and anxious about this part because this is the main problem here. If we can limit the number of microplastics into our oceans, that will make a world of a solution and make the whole thing easier, but it starts today, with us. I will make a website, and promote different shampoo, face soaps and toothpaste that have no microbeads inside them. It may be a little but more expensive. Over the past couple years, we have taken small steps. Some steps we have taken are converting from plastic to paper straws, using paper bags and reusing them everytime we shop. And in my household, whenever we buy plastic bottles, we never throw them away, we always reuse them as many times as we can in order to maintain our recycle shifts.
Counterclaim
I know that, not everyone will agree with me. There are some people who just believe that microplastics do something good in this world. Their first claim is the fact that plastic is the cheapest packaging material there is. Why would we switch up our processes, if its the cheapest option and its working so far. If we were to convert to paper packaging, it would cause labor to increase, as well as packaging price would sky-rocket. Plastic is just the best option because it is so easy. We use the plastic, throw it away and just keep getting more plastic after every day. Which is much easier than just recycling plastic. According to Lim(2021), “ microplastics are more likely to have a negative effect through chemical toxicity. Manufacturers add compounds such as stabilizers and pigments to plastic, which makes it much more harmful, and will mess with your endocrine system. “ These compounds are used to manufacture these plastics faster.
Conclusion/summary
Plastics, (microplastics to be specific) are creating many problems in our ecosystem right now and need to be banned as soon as possible. These plastics are less than 5 mm in size, and you wouldn’t even know it, but you come in contact with them everyday of your life. There are 5 different types of microplastics. fibers, nurdles, foam, microbeads, and fragments. You may not know, but these plastics cause significant damage to fish, birds, and other organisms in the ocean because they mistake these pellets like shaped plastics for food. They plastics may even cause damage to our own bodies creating damage and inflammation of our organs, though evidence of this is still being developed.
Bibliography
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