With more dig into the environmental pollution caused by the hazardous products. Let's talk about microplastics. If the term is bit new, it is nothing new, but when the year-old plastics dumped in oceans and landfills get leached into tiny particles, they are microplastics. Any plastic materials smaller than 5mm in length are microplastics. Are they any good?
Here I present few case studies by researchers:
A case study by (Muhammad et al., 2018) studied the accumulation and destruction of microplastics in the Corals of Sekotong and Lombok of Indonesia. The results showed the havock caused by anthropogenic activity (human activity), with huge accumulation of microplastic in the coral reefs proved the habitat at risk. The waste discharged through the inland river system, also the ship causing leakages were the primary cause for the microplastic discharge into the ocean. An other case study by (Wang et al., 2017) in well known Wuhan China on Inland water system showed the leakage of microplastics due to anthropogenic activity. 80% of microplastics were less than 2 mm in size.
The blog shed few ideas on single use plastics and Styrofoam which were basically polystyrene the microplastics contributors. These microplastics gets into the foodchain of animals, birds and other organisms affecting their lives. Have you never come across any goats, cows or at least wet land birds unknowingly feeding on plastics?
In these case studies, researchers on dissecting the marine organisms have identified microplastics accumulation inside them. Dont humans have these possibilities?. We feed on fishes!
Let me get into some heart breaking results of some studies. Plastics pollution in drinking water. India stands third in plastic pollution in drinking water followed by USA and Lebanon, according to a study survey of 2017. 94% of drinking water is plastic polluted in USA. The report suggested that humans could be consuming about 3000-4000 microplastics per year. The size of these microplastics were less than 2.5 microns. If your are very new to these plastics and microplastics pollution, google images can show animals like turtles, birds, fishes chocking on plastics. Plastic Straws being stucked into the nostrils of turtles etc.
Are we acting responsibly? To what extend of our daily lives do we use plastics? Can we find an alternative for our everyday plastics need? If you have some good ideas, do share in comments below.
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Reference:
Cordova, M. R., Hadi, T. A., & Prayudha, B. (2018). Occurrence and abundance of microplastics in coral reef sediment: a case study in Sekotong, Lombok-Indonesia. AES Bioflux, 10(1), 23-29.
Wang, W., Ndungu, A. W., Li, Z., & Wang, J. (2017). Microplastics pollution in inland freshwaters of China: a case study in urban surface waters of Wuhan, China. Science of the Total Environment, 575, 1369-1374.
Singh, P., & Singh, O. P. Plastics addiction: humanity’s Existential Crisis.
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