Toxic Microplastic pollution comes from everyday plastics.
Why are plastics – especially single-use / disposable trash so commonly used if they are causing so much harm? Read below to see just how profitable plastic pollution is for big oil companies and why they are incentivized to discredit and cover up the extreme danger to human health. Microplastics
Before diving into the overall plastic problem, I would like to add context on how this affects you.
How Microplastics are Formed
Several forces can break down plastic from larger pieces into Micro and even smaller Nanoplastics. You may have heard that plastic takes hundreds of years to decompose. Yet that does not prevent them from breaking up and fragmenting into smaller and smaller pieces.
Friction from a washing machine (microplastic fibers from clothes)
The heat from a dryer or hot food/liquids
UV radiation from the sun breaks down plastic into smaller and smaller pieces – ‘Photodegrading” – This is any water bottles, plastic bags, wrappers, food packaging, covid face mask, tea bags, car tires, and (a big contributor) ocean fishing nets.
“primary” microplastics from certain cosmetics and ‘microbeads’ from exfoliants
These breakdowns of plastic have resulted in 4% of all dust in the remote areas of many national parks being plastic. Urban areas are much higher. Even worse, indoor dust is often 40% toxic microplastics.
Ocean Life
I remember seeing the famous plastic straw in the sea turtle’s nose, whales and birds washing up with their stomachs filled with plastic?
These are, of course, huge problems on their own. Yet it is the invisible killer, microplastics, coming from all this pollution. Not only are larger animals dying on larger pieces, but all ocean life, large and small, inadvertently are consuming these toxic particles that break down from the larger ones.
Recycling
In response to growing concerns about overall pollution, governments worldwide worked with companies to begin recycling programs to address this problem.
Unfortunately, recycling is mostly a big scam.
Out of all the plastic created, What does end up in recycling facilities, most of it ends up in the landfill. Current technology can easily recycle only some types of plastics, and the rest is thrown away.
Only 10% of plastics produced have ever been recycled
Even if the plastic has a ‘recyclable’ logo, that does not mean that it is easy or cheap to recycle. Even if you put them in the recycling bin, they end up in landfills.
As long as people feel like they are making a difference, the goal of the recycling programs is accomplished.
So if most plastic can’t be recycled, why do most people think it can be? It is because the companies that set up recycling programs In the first place are the very same that are creating the problem in the first place. They create the problem and then sell a “solution” to go on destroying the world with plastics.
Remember – plastics that are tossed into the landfill sites or in the oceans break down in the sun, and these tiny particles are carried as dust in the wind around the world. Even if recycling worked, the problem of Microplastics would only be solved if every country worked together. If covid taught us anything, it is that governments will seldom cooperate.
China alone contributes 55% of ocean plastic pollution and shows no signs of stopping. TO be fair – it’s not all *from* China. A common practice is to ship plastics to Asia for “recycling” –Some of it does get recycled; yet again, much ends up in the ocean.
Recycling is not working because plastic pollution is continuing to increase. Recycling makes the problem worse because people THINK it is working. So they aren’t as worried about using plastic in everyday life. In other words, recycling has increased plastic pollution.
And the scam has been successful. Public perception of plastics increased from 35% to 65%.
Don’t get me wrong, plastic is a great technology with many uses. Yet the dangers of poor-quality, unrecyclable, single-use plastics are unknown to most people, and demand for single-use plastics is increasing.
The ONLY concern of big oil and petrochemical companies is selling more plastic and making more money.
They do not care about you, they do not care about your health, and they do not care about your family. They do not care that now 50% of people will get dementia in old age or that microplastics are crossing the blood-brain barrier.
Sources
Plastic Wars (full film) | FRONTLINE, PBS, – Youtube