Microplastics: What are they?

By: Josephine Runcie '33

Plastic has grown to be one of the utmost widespread materials since its onset as a phenol-formaldehyde resin. Most people know about the overall concept of plastic, but what about the deeper aspect of plastics? What types of plastic are there? What is plastic? What is plastic’s effect on the world? Today we will be discussing the topic of microplastics, what they are, and how they affect the world we live in.

Microplastics are microscopic particles that are formed from the disintegration of plastics, frequent in nature and therefore alter both wildlife and human everyday life. When initially reported in 2004, the term “microplastic” was used to portray fragments of plastic roughly 20 μm (micrometers) in diameter.  They have been found to be in many marine species, but also in drinking water and several foods such as salt, marine organisms, and honey. 

 Exposure to microplastics can happen through inhaled air. Subsequent to consuming, the subsidiaries and monomers in their configuration can intervene with imperative biological processes in the human body, and can also cause disturbance of the endocrine, immune system; can have an unfavorable effect on mobility.

Unnatural polymer originated in the late 19th century around the 1860s, but it wasn't until World War 2 had completed that the “plastic boom” really commenced. At its core, plastic was designed to elevate human living provisions, but today it has grown to be a consequential danger to the environment and frankly, the safety of the planet. The accelerating presence of microplastic in the environment is causing severe pollution world-wide.

There is adequate evidence of the negative effects created by microplastics on living organisms, particularly on aquatic species that are otherwise believed to be important sources of nutrients for the human body.

Overall, microplastics are an important thing to know about in this day and age, because of how they are now shaping the world we live in.