Let’s Talk Trash! JAN-FEB 2022 ©2021-2022 The Keenan Group, Inc Did You Know? You could be eating up to five grams of microplastics — the approximate equivalent of a credit card — every single week. Microplastics are small pieces of plastic less than 5mm in size, and can be anything from microscopic to the length of a grain of rice. Because plastic can take hundreds of years to biodegrade, each piece of microplastic simply gets smaller and smaller, circulating indefinitely. These tiny plastics are already widespread in the natural environment and can be found in oceans, rivers, rain, ice cores, plants, wild animals, and even the air we breathe. A recent study, published by the peer- reviewed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reported that “plastics now spiral around the globe” in the atmosphere like gas and other particulates — blown by the wind and falling to earth with rain. What are microplastics and where do they come from? Plastic was invented in the late 19th century, but production didn’t begin in earnest until the 1960s. Combined with the birth of throw-away-culture the decade before, it only took until the 1970s for landfills to start overflowing. As the new report says, “plastic is used as a disposable material, to such an extent that over 75 percent of all plastic ever produced is waste.”
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Project Manager AARON WOLFE
aaron@usstn.com c: (615) 982-2998 Microplastics: part 1 w: (615) 227-2275 f: (615) 746-5211
“Researchers estimate that more than 8.3 billion tons of plastic has been produced since the early 1950s,” confirms the UN Environment Program (UNEP). “About 60% of that plastic has
Larger pieces of debris sometimes degrade and break down before being dispersed as microplastics, too. The largest ocean-
based source of plastic pollution is seafood production, and the fishing industry alone is thought to be responsible for more than 640,000 tons of nets, traps, lines, and other toxic pollutants that end up in the oceans every year.
ended up in either a landfill or the natural environment.” Microplastics are not a recent problem, either, and they first appeared in personal care products approximately 50 years ago. The tiny pieces of polythene were and are used as exfoliants in many health and beauty items such as cleansers, soaps, and toothpaste. Because of their size, they easily bypass traditional water
Microplastics part 2: Microplastics in the environment, food, & the plastics of the future coming in
the March-April issue of Let’s Talk Trash! news.
filtration systems and then enter the global supply. Microplastics can also enter the water system via wastewater overflows and in run- off from industrial, agricultural, and domestic sources. Because of this, laundry is another key contributor to microplastic distribution, and many of the plastic fibres contained in clothing — particularly fast fashion, sports, and athleisure items — enter the water system this way.
Microplastics are everywhere, but there’s several ways to minimize your exposure — and contribution — to the ongoing plastic pollution problem In the interest of space, some information was omitted. Go to the website and read the entire article written by Liam Pritchett / source: https://www.livekindly.co/what-are-microplastics/
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