Breaking News! Slowly yet surely, humans have become the only animals who have shown the signs of digesting plastic without any side effects? Apparently, the new generation Beta, has begun adapting to the amount of plastic we consume, and slowly, maybe a few years later, our descendants will be able to digest it completely and make it biodegradable. Ironically, the ones who were contaminating the food chain, will now fix it. This ‘discovery’ has brought relief to countless plastic producers and recyclers.
Did you believe it? If you fell for it, welcome to the club. As plastic disposal remains an unsolved burning issue and masses are worried about the undisposable nature of this wretched material, despite the fact that none are actually concerned. People want a magical solution for its disposal. Moreover, microplastic is an even larger, yet oddly obscure, issue quietly bide their time to wreak havoc on our lives.
From food to fashion, from industry to medication. Microplastic has a wide reach. And wherever it reaches, it acts like a horcrux of plastic, making it immortal.
But what is microplastic? One widely accepted definition describes it as any plastic fragment between 1 nanometer and 5 millimeters in width. One nanometer is just a fraction of the width of a human hair, and 5 millimeters is about the width of a wedding ring.
Globally, an estimated 11 million tonnes of plastic waste leak into aquatic ecosystems each year, while microplastics accumulate in the soil from sewage and landfills due to the use of plastics in agricultural products. According to the UN Environment Programme, one estimate indicated that 2.7 million tonnes of microplastics seeped into the environment in 2020. This estimate is expected to double by 2040.
But what's the deal with microplastic today? On the occasion of World Environment Day, the spotlight turns to microplastic, on the theme of "Beat Plastic Pollution", a crisis whose reach has become dangerously widespread. Research says, from soil to air, from the rivers to the human blood, and from Mount Everest to the Mariana Trench. Microplastic has contaminated everything. And the worst part is it's affecting if it gets majorly accumulated. The leaching microplastic into oceans contaminates the aquatic life, which later contaminates food which humans and other organisms consume.
"As you sow, so shall you reap." A simple principle of Mother Nature. Easy to understand, easy to forget, but ruthlessly real.
But then what's the solution to this Microplastic dilemma? It would've been a magical solution if humans would've miraculously begun digesting plastic and rendering it biodegradable. But that’s just wishful thinking.
Nevertheless, the best possible solution can be rethinking a sustainable path with the help of a circular economy for plastic, meaning we need to rethink how we design, make, use and reuse plastics. Products must be designed to be used more than once, and to be recycled at the end of their life. This shift must involve everyone in the plastics value chain. A just transition is key to safeguarding waste pickers’ livelihoods and ensuring social fairness, leaving no one behind.
-Soham Sonar
