microplastic – let´s stop this hazard

we all know, there is a ridiculous amount of plastic swimming in the ocean. the total weight of the plastic in the north pacific garbage patch is estimated to be 100 million tons. often we got reminded to this problem when we see pictures like these

in the last few years researchers not only found visible plastic pieces like bottles, bags or nets floating around, but also many small almost invisible pieces of plastic. they are called micro plastic. these particles are not bigger than 5 millimetre.

where does micro plastic come from

many different cosmeticprodukts contain micro plastic. they consist of polyethylene or polyamid. it is in skin scrub and toothpastes, every product that needs to gently rub away something. a random conventional face wash contains about 360,000 microbeads per tube. also you can find them in shampoo and conditioner. washing agent contain little bits of plastic as substrate for scents. cleaner for surfaces in households do their job and scour away every piece of dirt with pieces of plastic.

also other plastic parts already in the ocean get fragmented into micro plastic by degrading after a time. this is called secondary micro plasic. sunlight and see water breaks up the material as it is thrifting around.

how does it effect the environment

every time using products containing these micro plastic, it goes into our wastewater system. not all of them can be filtered because they are too small. most of them find their way into the rivers an oceans. there they got eaten by mussels or fisch. but these animals can not digest the particles. their stomach gets full of this stuff but they don’t get any nutrition from that.

here you see this impact of plastic

how to avoid micro plastic

the solution of how to avoid the influence of micro plastic is not to produce it in the first place. we should stop buying cosmetic products that contain polyethylene or polypropylene or other synthetic material but find natural products to substitute. natural cosmetic uses plant based ingredients like almond shell or minerals as a scrub particle. chalk or clay are used in natural toothpaste to clean your teeth properly.

here you see a list of products to avoid because they contain a lot of plastic particles.

you want to know more

• article in mindbodygreen – why you should never buy products with microbeads
• video – it´s a plastic world
• campain – let´s ban the bead!