Everything You Need to Know About Microplastics
You may have seen the headlines: We’re Eating Microplastics. This Face Scrub is Killing the Planet with Microbeads. Microfibers Found in Deep sea. But what exactly are microplastics?
Microplastics are pieces of plastic less than 5 millimeters long, too small to easily remove from the environment.
Microplastics in the water column, under fluorescent light. Photo by PolyGone.
What kinds of microplastics are there?
There are two types based on where they come from: primary (plastics designed to be small for commercial use), and secondary (plastics made small through breakdown of larger plastics).
Primary microplastics include: Microbeads, microfibers, and nurdles. Used in cosmetics, clothing, and industrial abrasives.
For secondary microplastics, picture this: A water bottle is floating in a river. Sunlight is weakening the plastic. Whitewater, and time, batter the bottle into thousands of tiny pieces. These pieces travel down the river and empty into the ocean.
Why do microplastics matter?
They can harm humans. They’ve been linked to human reproductive damage, neurotoxicity, hormone disruption, inflammation, and cell dysfunction. Microplastics were only discovered in the 1970’s, so we aren’t even sure what the worst effects are. More recently, microplastics have been found in human lungs, blood, placentas, and… baby poop.
And wildlife. Wildlife ingest microplastics either unintentionally through normal interaction with the water column, or intentionally by mistaking them for food. Ingestion can cause digestive issues and a false sense of fullness without real nutritional value. Studies have observed neurotoxic effects and reproductive harm in marine and terrestrial organisms.
And the environment. Microplastics are made with toxic additives which can alter the chemical makeup of aquatic and soil habitats, from Mount Everest to the deep sea. They’ve been shown to adsorb and react with environmental contaminants including pesticides and heavy metals, and are potential vectors of disease.
What’s the problem with microplastics?
The microplastic problem stems from the plastic problem. Plastic production ramped up in the 1970’s and has been persistent - environmentally and culturally - ever since. There’s a plastic problem because:
It’s used in EVERYTHING. Cheap, durable, and convenient, plastic seems hard to beat (for manufacturers, at least). The major culprits of plastic pollution today are the retail and food packaging industries: takeout containers, bottles, straws, and food wrappers. Plastics are used in almost every sector including construction, electronics, furniture, healthcare, and the military. Single-use plastics have become so commonplace that consumers and retailers are resistant to changing their behaviors.
It doesn’t fully decompose. They just degrade into smaller and smaller pieces — tada, microplastics. All plastic ever produced still exists on earth. We aren’t actually certain how long some plastics take to degrade. Modern plastic production only began 50 years ago, and the degradation estimate for most plastics is longer than this. That means we haven’t observed plastic degradation in the real world and its unpredicted variables. The time is takes for plastics to degrade into microplastics depends on:
The environment. Exposure to wave action, sunlight, and organisms speeds up the breakdown of plastics. Landfills, however, are stagnant with low oxygen which means plastics can sit for millennia.
The type of plastic. PET used in utensils, for example, degrades the quickest. Polystyrene used in styrofoam takes much longer.
Chemical additives. Additives known as promoters can make plastic more sensitive to sunlight.
There’s no good place to put it. Few types of plastics are able to be effectively recycled, landfills are the third-largest source of methane emissions in the U.S., and whatever escapes the waste management system eventually washes into the ocean.
Now, there’s a microplastic problem because:
They’re too small. This makes microplastics difficult to study, clean up, and address. It is cognitively difficult for us to recognize urgency in issues we can’t physically see.
There’s too much. Microplastics are hard to get rid of because they’re dispersed in large quantities everywhere, sometimes in hard-to-reach environments, as opposed to consolidated in a landfill.
The former makes it a challenge to form specific microplastic cleanup policies, and the latter means that it’s hard to invent ways to capture microplastics.
Is there federal legislation that addresses microplastics?
There’s exactly one. The Microbead-Free Waters Act of 2015.
What it does: It bans the manufacturing, distribution, and introduction of rinse-off cosmetics that contain microbeads.
However, it’s not enough: microbeads account for less than 10% of total microplastic pollution. Instead, most of the microplastic problem comes from synthetic textiles and road tire erosion.
Is there state-level legislation that addresses microplastics?
California is the only state to adopt a statewide plan on microplastic reduction.
The plan outlines a two-track approach to the microplastic problem:
Solutions (prevent plastic pollution at the source, intervene in transportation pathways that puts microplastic in the ocean, educate industries and the public)
Science (monitor the current state of microplastic pollution, study risks and impacts, identify how microplastic enters the ocean, develop and evaluate future solutions)
Specific actions include the statewide purchase of reusable food packaging, banning single-use tobacco products, retrofitting stormwater infrastructure, and funding microplastic-specific research projects.
Plastic trash on the New Jersey shore. Clip by PolyGone.
What legislation has been proposed?
Proposed legislation centers on improving recycling efforts and reducing single-use plastic products from U.S. production and waste streams.
Examples: The Plastic Waste Reduction and Recycling Research Act and the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act of 2021.
What they would do: boost the competitiveness of the American recycling industry and establish mandates on/incentivize the reduction of single-use plastic product production.
It’s complicated: Firstly, single-use plastics are difficult to recycle. The U.S. was able to ship their plastic to China for recycling (where they have more robust recycling infrastructure) until China banned foreign waste imports in 2018. And, the oil companies who supply the raw materials for plastic production have the wealth and political power to resist reductions in plastic.
The bright side: 40% all plastic produced annually serves as single-use, so these proposals are a good start.
Other proposal legislation focuses on improving the science.
Examples: MICRO Plastics Act of 2020 and the Save Our Seas 2.0: Improving Domestic Infrastructure to Prevent Marine Debris Act.
What they do: instruct the EPA to pilot a program testing the cost effectiveness of microplastic removal and prevention technologies. They also propose the EPA fund local governments to work on plastic waste removal, and conduct a national study on the impacts of microplastics in food and drinking water.
What is the future of microplastic?
Plastic trash flowing into the seas will nearly triple by 2040 without drastic action. Even if we stopped making plastic today, all existing plastic will continue to break down into microplastics for decades.
The fossil fuel industry plans to increase plastic production by 40 percent over the next decade.
However, the amount of research dedicated to microplastics has increased significantly since 2011. Google searches for “microplastic” have steadily been on the rise in the last seven years. Individual and institutional demand for research on the impacts of, and solutions to, microplastic pollution will continue growing.
What can we do?
Annual flow rates of plastic pollution can be reduced by nearly 80% in the next 20 years with immediate action.
Scaling waste collection to all households at a global level: This would require more than 1 million new households to be connected to collection services every week between 2020 and 2040.
Overcoming mismanaged plastic waste: This category includes dumpsites, openly burned waste, and plastic released directly into aquatic or terrestrial environments. The export of waste from high-income to low- and middle-income countries also poses a comparatively small but growing problem to address.
Filling data gaps: To fully and accurately understand the effectiveness of consumer, corporate, and policy actions, the researchers said they would need more empirical data, especially on waste management in middle- and low-income countries.
As an individual, you can: educate yourself on the problem, be mindful of your plastic consumption, support solution efforts, and spread the word.
Check out what the team at PolyGone is doing in the fight against microplastics.
Call email, or send a letter to your elected officials to support local and state initiatives on microplastic and plastic pollution.
This template by the North Los Angeles County Regional Center gives tips for addressing your elected officials.
Find out who your Members of Congress are for your state:
Search for current microplastic legislation proposals:
