In modern society, plastics are in plain sight. Water bottles, shoes, cellphones, carpets and cars are just a few of the products that contain plastic.
However, you might be surprised to learn where some plastics are lurking in our lives. “Trillions of tiny particles generated by our plastic-reliant society are polluting environments worldwide,” according to Scientific American magazine.
The rise of plastics comes as the U.S. recycling rate for plastics is projected to sink from 9.1 percent in 2015 to 4.4 percent in 2018, according to the Plastic Pollution Coalition.
If the coalition’s forecast turns out to be accurate, even more plastics will invade our waterways, clog our landfills and generally tax our fragile ecosystem. Here, we want to shed light on six hidden plastics and what you can do to curb their use.
1. Clothing
Unless your shirts, pants and dresses are made of 100 percent natural materials, your clothes almost certainly have at least some synthetic plastic — aka plastic — in them.
According to New Zealand’s Our Oceans Our Future Charitable Trust, items made with polar fleece, polyester and acrylic fabrics shed tiny plastic particles, known as microplastics, as they’re worn and washed. Most of these microfibers are too tiny to be trapped by filters, the nonprofit group says, meaning that they can easily flow into our waterways.
The Green Peace environmental group says 35 percent of microplastic pollution comes from washing synthetic textiles.
These are five of the steps that the Earth Day Network recommends to cut down on the production of synthetic microfibers:
- Wash synthetic-fabric clothes less often.
- Use a front-loading washing machine, as it generates fewer fibers than top-loading washing machines.
- Switch to liquid laundry soap, as powdered soaps loosen more microfibers.
- Don’t send dryer lint down the drain. Instead, toss it in the trash.
- Buy clothing made only of natural fibers.
2. Chewing gum
If you’re chewing a piece of gum right now, you might want to stop. Chances are, that gum is made of synthetic rubber, a form of plastic.
So, why you weren’t aware of that before now?
“Manufacturers don’t tend to disclose their ingredients because chewing on plastic doesn’t sound particularly appealing,” according to the Moral Fibres green-lifestyle blog. “The reason they do not need to disclose exact ingredients in their gum bases is that these are considered trade secrets.”
Fortunately, several types of all-natural, plastic-free gum are available. They’re an eco-friendly alternative to traditional gum.
3. Soda cans
So, aluminum is the only material used to manufacture aluminum soda cans, right? Wrong.
Soda cans are lined with a plastic resin, typically epoxy, to prevent the soda from eating away at the aluminum, Moral Fibres says.
To avoid soda cans with plastic resin, look for soda in glass containers. Better yet, swap out the soda for good old H2O (not in plastic bottles, though).
4. Glitter
This is not cause for celebration: Glitter, it turns out, is a microplastic. (According to Green Peace, microplastics could be causing up to 31 percent of plastic pollution in our oceans.)
We’re talking about glitter that’s tossed at parties and other glitzy events, as well as glitter that you’ll spot on greeting cards, gift labels and gift wrap, according to Micro Fibres.
The environmentally conscious solution here is to simply stop buying glitter or glittery products. It’s no fun, to be sure, but it’ll help save the environment.
5. Tea bags
Those seemingly innocent tea bags aren’t so innocent after all.
According to Country Living magazine, several brands of tea bags use polypropylene, a sealing plastic, to prevent the tea bags from falling apart. Given that knowledge, your tea tastes a tad bitter now, doesn’t it?
Still want to drink tea brewed with tea bags? Not to worry. Several brands of plastic-free bags are available. You also can fashion your own tea bags out of loose tea collected in natural fabric pouches that are tied with natural drawstrings.
6. Water inside water bottles
So, it’s no shocker that water bottles are made of plastic. Last year, 13.7 billion gallons of bottled water (enough to nearly 21,000 Olympic-size swimming pools) were gulped down in the U.S., up 7 percent from 2016, according to Beverage Marketing Corp.
But now there’s evidence that the water inside those bottles is contaminated with microplastics.
Research published by Orb Media, a nonprofit journalism outfit in Washington, D.C., indicates one bottle of water can be teeming with perhaps thousands of microplastics.
For its study, Orb Media tested 259 bottles of water from 11 brands across nine countries. The upshot: Ninety-three percent of the bottled water showed signs of microplastic contamination.
The answer to this: Never buy or sip bottled water. Rather, turn to filtered tap water as the most responsible option.
