Microplastics Love You

Learn all about your body's new lover, and why you should dump them

What you Need to Know:

Small. Very Small. Microplastics are plastics no bigger than 5 millimeters - therefore no bigger than the eraser on your pencil. They most often go unseen, which in turn makes them harder to find without magnification.

They're everywhere When I say everywhere, I mean everywhere. They can be found no matter where you look, whether that be underneath the earth or on its surface. Scientists have found microplastics everywhere they've looked: in the deep ocean, artic and antarctic ice, in animals, table salt, drinking water, beer, in the air, falling in the rain.

Human Health Yes, microplastics are even in your body. They enter our bodies through eating and breathing where they are then taken to various organs. Based on recent studies, microplastics are known to affect our health by damaging cells.

It Can Take Up to 1000 Years for Plastic to Break Down.

According to Thought.co, "Plastic products are very common in our modern life. According to an estimate, every year we use approximately 1.6 million barrels of oil just for producing plastic bottled water. Plastic waste is one of many types of wastes that take too long to decompose."

Plastic items usually take up to 1000 years to decompose in landfills. But plastic bags we use in our everyday life, like the one pictured on left, take 10-20 years to decompose, while plastic bottles take 450 years.

Size Breakdown

From microplastics to megaplastics, here's a guide to help you learn how to identify them.

Microplastics are less than 5 millimeters in length (around the size of a sesame seed. Anything smaller is a nanoplastic, while anything bigger is classified between mega and mesoplastics.

Resources

Are Microplastics in Our Water Becoming a Macroproblem? | National Geographic You might not be able to see them, but they're in the water. Although trash heaps are easier to spot in waterways, microplastics—pieces of plastic smaller than five millimeters—have started to stir more concern. Acting as sponges, the pieces soak up the chemicals around them and often make their way through the food chain, ending up on dinner plates. Most microplastics are created over time from larger pieces or directly from microbeads in products like face washes or toothpaste. The pieces are so small they pass through waste treatment plants and into waterways. Read more

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How to Recyle Different Types of Plastic
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Yale Experts Explain Microplastics Read more

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The World's Plastic Pollution Crisis Explained Read more

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Microplastics Found in Human Breast Milk for the First Time Read more

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