How Microplastics Enter Our Bodies

by Keaton & Willie Mo
Published April 4, 2025

Did you know that all humans, including you, have a small amount of plastic in their body? Humans all around the world, no matter what they digest, eat on average a credit card's worth of microplastic each week. Microplastic can enter our bodies through food, such as seafood, meat, and even plants. When our trash enters the ocean, fish and other life eat it’ we eat those animals, and the plastic ends up in our digestive systems.

We have already gone over how micro plastic can end up in sea life, but what about land life? When we pollute, our trash does not just end up in the ocean it also ends up on land. When our trash ends up on land, it decomposes, but not all the way. When it decomposes, it seeps into the ground. Animals like cows eat the grass that contains the plastic, and when we eat beef and steak we digest those micro plastics into our digestive system.

Now you know how plastic gets in animals, and all animals have to poop. Plants grow on the places where animals poop. When plants grow they ingest the dirt and fertilizer, like poop. When plants are harvested the fertilizer and dirt is not always removed, people eat plants and plant products, thereby consuming the microplastics.

One more possibility to digest micro plastic is through animal products like eggs. It's surprisingly simple: when animals like a chicken digest plastic into their bodies, that is also where their eggs are before they lay them. The plastic contaminates the eggs, and when they lay them they contain microplastics in them. When we eat the eggs, we have the micro plastic in our digestive system. 

Now you know how you have plastic in your bodies. It is nearly impossible to find food without plastic in it. That's how bad pollution is on our planet and it's so bad that it's affecting us. If we don't stop this, it could cause serious damage to our digestive systems.