noun

extremely small pieces of plastic debris in the environment resulting from the disposal and breakdown of consumer products and industrial waste.

Microplastic Waste Contamination

The dangers of microplastics are still being understood. One thing we do know is that plastic residue is toxic to humans, plants and animals and that the human environment is littered with microplastics.

From dawn to midnight we are in contact with plastic. The sheets we sleep in, clothes we wear, fabrics we use in our furniture, the furniture itself, our carpeting and yes, even the food we eat and the plastic dishware we use, all contain tiny bits of plastics and plastic fibers.

Every liquid you ingest from a manufacturer was likely bottled through a facility that uses plastic tubing that leaches plastic residue into hot or acidic foods that pass through the tube. Things like sauces, juices, dairy products, pickled foods and much more.

On top of that, microplastic is ubiquitous in the environment because our clothing is made of plastic fibers. When we wash our clothing, a small amount of these fibers rinse down the drain and into the waterways, rivers, and oceans where they stick around for eons.

The dust in our house contains carpet fibers, bits of tire rubber that got tracked in and bits of rubber shoe soles which tracked in the tire rubber. There’s microfibers from clothing and furniture fabrics, and more. These fibers end up in our lungs and in our blood.

How much plastic do we consume?

Current evidence suggests that the average person ingests the same amount of plastic every week that you would find in a credit card. That works out to 5g of plastic. Most of this is believed to come from drinking water. Much of it probably passes right on through to the digestive system where it is eventually flushed down the drain. Some of it finds it’s way into our bloodstream and organs.

Over the course of a year we’re consuming on average about 250g of plastic. Over a lifetime, it works out to about 44lbs of the stuff.

Takeaways

It’s impossible to totally eliminate plastic from our environment. We can reduce it.

While exposure to chemicals in some plastics have been linked to cancer and other diseases, currently there is no consensus on what the dangers of microplastic contamination are. It’s understood that plastic has a negative effect on wildlife and estrogenic activity, causes cellular damage, etc. but how much does it take to cause problems is unknown. I don’t worry about it too much, but I also have taken steps to greatly reduce my exposure because I don’t want to put plastic into my body if I can help it.

Replace plastic

Get rid of plastic utensils and dishes and replace them with glass, ceramic, cast iron, stainless steel, and wood. These compounds last longer and are safer for the home and the world.

When replacing furniture and fixtures around your house, look for natural fibers like cotton, linen, silk, wool, alpaca, mohair, or leather. The same goes for clothing.

Microplastic contamination comes from lots of human activities like fishing, littering, etc, but one of the biggest is machine washing synthetic fibers like polyester and nylon. Try to avoid clothing made with these fibers but ultimately they are sold because they have desirable properties such as insulation, durability, water resistance, and affordability. Buy them when it makes sense for your application. For example, a rain jacket made of cotton is not going to be practical.

Remove plastic from air and water

Household dust contains soil, allergens, bacteria, plastics, and even radioactive isotopes. In low quantities there is virtually zero short term risk from dust exposure for people who do not have asthma. Over a lifetime? Hard to say.

I like my spaces to have as little dust as possible. To do that:

• Replace your HVAC filter monthly – don’t use the ones with higher merv ratings, these shorten the life of your unit. An HVAC unit filters a huge amount of air, use this to catch larger particulate matter by using a lower merv rating
• Use a vacuum with a HEPA filter or bag to collect dust from the ground and from furniture
• Use HEPA air filters around the house to collect dust particles from the air
• Wet mop hard surfaces weekly and vacuum often – 2-3 times per week.
• Use a barely damp cloth to wipe dust from furniture and surfaces. The swiffer system is made from polyester and contributes to plastic waste pollution

Water filtration

• Buy reverse osmosis filtered water from a reputable water store. Often you can find these in Spanish speaking neighborhoods.

I’ve noticed particles in my RO water when illuminated by a flashlight. I also have a friend that tested RO water for microplastic and still found plenty of plastic particles in the water. The contamination can be coming from:

• A leak in the water system that allows unfiltered water to bypass the filter
• Between the filter and the tap, the water is collecting particles
• The container the water is emptied into contains microplastic contamination
• As the container is emptied and air replaces it, particles infiltrate the bottle
• The bottle cap and dispenser are contaminating the bottle with plastic

What to do? I recently started drinking water out of a bottle with a two stage filter. Stage 1 is a hollow membrane filter which removes 100% of the microplastic contamination, bacteria, and parasites. Stage 2 is a charcoal filter that reduces chemical residue like chlorine etc.

The hollow membrane fiber and it’s housing is made from plastic. It undoubtably leaches plastic chemicals in extremely small amounts into the water. Weighed in the balance, I’d rather ingest some small plastic chemical residue rather than 5g of plastic fiber each week. These same membranes are uses in dialysis machines and appear to be well tolerated generally.

The bottle also serves another purpose which is that it can be used to drink water from any sketchy sources, like rain water or rivers. It can remove bacteria and parasites completely. I bought this primarily just in case of an emergency, but have found that it does remove any particles observed in my water. The second stage of charcoal filtration may also remove or reduce any leachables from the reverse osmosis membrane or the hollow fiber membrane that filtered the water. I chose a Lifestraw Go in stainless steel but there are other similar options.

Is it perfect? No, even distilled water may contain some impurities such as dissolved gasses. Water is a universal solvent and we can measure impurities down to parts per trillion. That means we can find infinitesimally small bits of contaminants. Whatever water touches, it will strip some of that substance away. Every type of water filter presumably adds some other type of contamination.

To reduce exposure to leachables, drink the water quickly, keep the water cool, and replace the charcoal filter every 90 days. If drinking RO water through it the contamination burden should already be extremely low so the charcoal filter may last up to a year.

To keep the membrane filter working optimally back-flush it per the manufacturer’s instructions often and clean the drinking straw’s nib each day with warm water and a dab of mild dish soap.

They claim the membrane should last up to 1000 gallons of water, but that is if drinking dirty water from puddles. The membrane could conceivably last a lifetime if used to drink RO water and is used to remove minimal amounts of microplastic residue. I’d probably replace it every 2-3 years at a minimum.