With the wrapping up of plastic free July where we have all been focusing on the many ways to cut single use plastics out, there is one very often forgotten category of plastics; the hidden microplastics in our everyday lives.
I first considered this many years ago, when my favourite nail polish brand stopped making the colour I liked using. When I asked them about it, they explained that the reason they stopped was because it had tiny particles of glitter mixed throughout it, and they wanted to be more eco conscious. I had never before considered that when I washed my hands, I was washing microplastics down the sink, when I went swimming with my nail polish on, microplastics were washing into our waterways.
A very simple, yet effective way to reduce your impact on the environment is to be conscious of any cosmetics or beauty products you use. For example, eye shadow, nail polish and bars of soap can all contain glitter, and all end up going down the drain at some point. Another product that contains hidden microplastics are exfoliating scrubs, of which many contain microbeads (plastic particles less than I millimetre in dimension). So go and look in your bathroom cupboard, and find out if any of your products contain microplastics. A simple action you can take is slowly phasing these items out and replacing them with more eco friendly alternatives.
Next, let’s move on to your kitchen. There are many obvious plastic swaps in your kitchen that I’m sure you’ve heard hundreds of times, but here are some more forgotten kitchen items riddled with microplastics. Plastic chopping boards are a big one. Do a lot of your plastic chopping boards have scratches and tiny white flakes on them? That’s all microplastics, that are getting in with your food and washing down your kitchen sink. If you ever feel like a healthy fruit or vegetable snack, to keep it healthy, chop it on a wooden chopping board, plate or stainless steel chopping board. Remember, just because an item isn’t single use, doesn’t mean it won’t impact our environment with each use!
Tea is another thing viewed as healthy and wholesome, but did you know that many teabags actually contain plastic! While you might think most teabags are paper (correctly), many paper teabags are sealed with plastic. Furthermore, pyramid shaped teabags are often entirely made from plastic! A study at McGill University found that one of these pyramid teabags in hot water will release about 11.6 BILLION microplastic particles into your cup of tea, and 3.1 billion nanoplastic particles. For context, a recent study shows that a liter of bottled water contains up to 240,000 tiny plastic fragments – which is still about 240,000 more than you want to be drinking, but surprisingly, a whole lot less than a cup of tea! So next time you go to buy tea, research brands that don’t contain plastics in their teabags and purchase those instead!
A final item that comes to mind is sponges. You use them to clean your dishes, and then drain your dishwater away, carrying all those plastics into our waterways. With everyday use, sponges wear down and shed. Many modern sponges are made from polyurethane foam, which is a plastic, and we all know how flaky sponges can get as they are used. Instead, try using cloths (avoid synthetic ones) or natural sponges such as loofah (not the plastic shower pom pom, but the one you can grow in your garden).
For many of you, Plastic Free July has been a month of big actions and swaps, but lets not forget about these small items too! Hopefully, this article has got you thinking about ways you can reduce the microplastics in your body, and in our oceans!
