the microplastic in our bodies

The average person consumes approximately five grams of plastic every week.

In the past few years, scientists have found significant quantities of microplastics in the air we breathe; in our blood, colons, lungs, veins, breast milk, placentas, and human fetuses.

Microplastics have been found in tap water, air, snow, rainfall, food and our organs. They have largely unstudied potential health risks.

The 430 million tons of plastic being produced annually is significantly more than the weight of all human beings combined.

1/3 of this total is single-use plastics, discarded after use for seconds/minutes.

We have created around 11 billion metric tons of plastic to date, mostly within the past 100 years. We currently produce over 4,300,200,000 plastic bottles a day.

Only 9% of the plastic ever produced has been recycled, and 19% has been incinerated, while estimates suggest that between 8 million and 11 million tons of plastic waste enter the ocean each year.

And as typical, there is a disproportionate impact on marginalized communities:

Plastic manufacturing plants are often concentrated in communities of color, emitting air pollution that poses serious health threats. And, developing countries that produce little or no plastic face the highest impacts of plastic pollution while contributing the least to it.

Where does it come from?

An overwhelming 98% of plastics come from fossil fuels. “Upstream” producers that create virgin plastics such as Exxon, Dow, Sinopec, and Saudi Aramco.

Why?

Because we buy it.

Because it's in service to company profits, not in service to LIFE.

Thanks to my brilliant and thoughtful friend Matthew O'Dell for referring this article and breaking down these insights.

See this well formulated article from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for more info.