Our Microplastic Food Chain
Plastics are ubiquitous. Armed with the physical and chemical properties that modern, industrial societies need, plastics are basically taking over our planet. Since the 1960s, plastics have gradually become the materials of choice for industrial applications that once demanded the use of glass, metal, or wood. Salad dressing bottles, car bumpers, and even toothpicks are now made of plastic. Left to their own demise, these chemically, synthesized materials never totally go away but breakdown into smaller and smaller polluting bits called microplastics. In the USA, plastic bits ranging from 0.1 - 5,000 µm (micrometers) are considered microplastics. To put this in perspective, an unaided human eye can see an object about as small as 100 µm. Microplastics can get so tiny even a plankton can ingest one! Yes, that little creature at the bottom of our food chain eats plastic. According to one scientific study, microplastics affe...