The Shocking Hazards of Plastic Pollution

Our country is a leading producer of plastics and a major generator of plastic waste.  We use more plastic per capita than any other country in the world. 

Plastics are everywhere.  They are in our clothes, electronics, tires, packaging, water bottles, fertilizers, and flame retardants.  Microplastics are added to cosmetics, face scrubs, toothpastes and shower gels.  Plastics end up in our food and water, in the air we breathe, in our bodies, in the ocean, on beaches, and in farm animals and fish.

Plastics are not biodegradable.  They break down into smaller pieces called microplastics and nanoplastics.  Microplastics are 5 millimeters in length and are visible, but nanoplastics are less than 1 micrometer in length, and can only be seen with a Scanning Electron Microscope. 

Plastics are harmful to our health.  Microplastics have been found in our lungs, in maternal and fetal placental tissues, in breast milk and in our blood.  Babies are now being born with microplastics in their bodies. Most plastics contain toxic chemicals–some are carcenogenic, some are endocrine disruptors. The most toxic are 1, 3, 6, and 7. (PET, PVC, & styrofoam)

Plastics are major contributors to climate crisis, because they emit greenhouse gases and are made from fossil fuels.  Plastics contribute to air, land and water pollution when they are burned in the Covanta incinerator.

Ways to reduce exposure

• Ventilate– open your windows (on a day when we don’t have an air quality alert)
• Regular vacuum cleaning and an IQ Air purifier will remove dust, which often contains microplastics from surfaces and the air.  
• Avoid cosmetics and personal care products containing microbeads.
• Buy clothes made from natural fabrics like cotton, linen and hemp, instead of from acrylic and polyester, which shed microplastics during wear and during the washing process. 
• Use devices that remove microplastics.  Laundry balls, laundry bags, and filters that attach to washing machines will reduce the number of microfibers entering waterways.
• Do not use plastic containers or plastic water bottles.
• Purchase a Berkey water filter, which removes microplastics. 
• Rely on plastics less. Before you buy something, stop and think–you really need it? Does it need to be plastic?
• Find plastic alternatives.
• Use a cloth shopping bag.  A shocking 90% of plastic bags end up in landfills or incinerators instead of being recycled.
• Reduce, reuse, refuse, repurpose, rethink
• Help with Delco’s Zero Waste project.

Let’s work together to protect our health and the health of our planet by ending plastic pollution.