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Microplastic Pollution ... What Is It?

Plastic pollution has been a known problem for decades, but more recently researchers have been focusing on this idea of microplastics, that is plastic particles about 5mm in size or smaller. Where do microplastics come from? What are the threats? And what can we do? Find out in this episode. 

 

Episode Transcript:

SHANNON:
On today's episode, you will learn about microplastic pollution, what common sources of microplastics are and what you can do to reduce your impact.

LARA:
Welcome to “Naturally Florida,” a podcast about Florida's natural areas and the wild things that live here. I'm Lara Milligan.

SHANNON:
And I'm Shannon Carnevale.

LARA:
This podcast is brought to you by UF IFAS Extension in Polk and Pinellas Counties.

SHANNON:
Lara, as you know, I just got back from Virginia where I was at a “Leave No Trace” master educator course. And I got the opportunity to go backpacking for a couple of days for work. It was amazing!

LARA:
Such a rough life. 

(LAUGHTER)

SHANNON:
Yeah. But in preparation for this trip, which was in May, I had not considered how cold and wet it might be in the mountains in Virginia. I found myself at the sporting goods store trying to amp up all the gear I had for cold, wet weather because, I mean, in Florida wet weather is usually pretty warm. 

I figured out I had an option between wool or microfleece. We all love our microfleeces, but wool was a new material for me for camping.
I decided to go ahead and upgrade and get the wool because I remembered all the things you have told me about microplastics in my washing machine.

LARA:
Good job. I'm proud of you.

SHANNON:
Thank you. I mean, it was a good excuse to treat myself and get the fancy, you know, nice wool sweater. But I was wondering, and I think our audiences probably heard of microplastics before…Could you explain to us, you know, what are microplastics and why is, in that case, why was wool maybe the better choice?
LARA:
Yeah. So microplastics, in general, when scientists are talking about them, is any plastic particle that's five millimeters in size or smaller. So for those of us that are like “What the heck does that even mean?,” it's like the size of a pencil eraser or smaller. Now, some scientists argue that that five-millimeter size isn't really a microplastic because you can see it with your naked eye.

SHANNON:
Right. It's macro.

LARA:
Yeah, exactly. So some scientists go even smaller to 1or 500, what we call micrometers, which is a thousand times smaller than a millimeter. So where you would need a microscope to see them. Either way, we're talking about small pieces of plastic and all the problems that they cause. Your story, it's kind of—I don't know that funny is the right word—but fleece jackets are actually one of the number one textiles that were studied when this kind of concept of microplastics came about.

Because if you guys think about we all love our fleece jackets because they're soft and cozy and they're loosely woven. And that's one of the reasons they were studied, is that loosely woven kind of arrangement allows for those fibers to shed more easily when they're washed and things like that.

SHANNON:
Yeah, I mean, that makes a lot of sense from a gear perspective I know, but the reason that we gravitate to fleece and wool are because they both will keep you warm even if they get wet. And it seems like looking at the two materials in front of me, it seems like microfleece was literally designed just to mimic how a wool garment is woven together.

LARA:
Yeah, and actually, companies are looking at ways to basically weave the threads tighter so that they're less likely to shed. So as a result of this microplastic issue, if you want to call it that, companies are looking at ways that they can lessen their contribution to it. So, yeah, I was actually wearing my very favorite fleece jacket when I first was trained on this idea of microplastics, so I can relate.

SHANNON:
Yeah. And I mean, to some degree, especially if it's something that you already own, there's some level where you need to consider is it better to throw it away and buy something new, or is it better to hold on to something I already have and reduce my environmental impact that way?

LARA:
Yes.

SHANNON:
What are some of the other sources of microplastics?

LARA:
Yeah. So it's kind of a daunting topic, but one of the newer number one sources is actually from tires from our vehicles. I remember. I was at a conference and they were showcasing this study where they were finding all these tiny black pieces of plastic. And it takes very expensive equipment to actually say, like, this is where this came from or this is what type of plastic this is.Their hypothesis was that it was coming from tires. And that has been proven true. And we all know that we have to get new tires, and that's for a reason.

SHANNON:
Oh, this all makes a lot of sense. But like you said, I don't know that there's much we can do about that.

LARA:
Yeah. And so, I mean, there are—I won't get into too much with it—but, you know, tires are synthetic material, so it's contributing to the microplastic issue. So that's super big and overwhelming. And like you said, not really something we can do unless you have an area where it's bike friendly and there's other transportation options.

Another category is something that we call “nurdles,” which is a fun word, your word of the day for like the raw resin. They’re little balls or pellets of plastic. And that is what is shipped all around the world, sent to plastic manufacturers, melted down and molded into…I mean, look around wherever you are right now, I can guarantee you can find something that's plastic.

SHANNON:
Right.

LARA:
So nurdles in themselves, shipping around the world, they can spill. There's been issues with that when we have big spills of nurdles in certain parts of the world. So those are just some of like the big topics or big sources of where microplastics come from. And we could talk about this forever, but those are some of the main ones.

SHANNON:
But to make nurdles more…I don't know, I guess accessible to people, to make it sound like it makes more sense… If we have any 90’s babies listening to the podcast, aren't nurdles what were used to stuff Beanie Babies?

LARA:Yes. 

(LAUGHTER)

Yes. So we actually do that for a kids activity. We dissect… they have now mini Beanie Babies that at one point were being given away in like Happy Meals or Kids Meals.

SHANNON:
A throwback!

(LAUGHTER)

LARA:
Yeah. So yes, they can also be used as stuffing and filler in certain things, even like pillows. So if you're not familiar with Beanie Babies, they can be used as filler for other products as well.

SHANNON:
Right. And one that I don't see on… Lara made a little list for me to help with this podcast…

(LAUGHTER)

One I don't see on the list—and I'd be very curious about this being in a boating community—are marine ropes. So we have a lot of nylon roping because it doesn't stretch when it gets wet like a lot of our natural rope fibers tend to do. And if you leave those out in the sun, they straight up disintegrate.

LARA:
Yes. Yeah. And that is another big one. It does depend, you know, what setting you're in, but that's definitely a contributing factor. There's a lot that looks at marine and coastal because that's where we're finding a lot of these microplastics sources. It could be fishing nets. I mean, there's so much stuff—monofilament line, fishing line, you know, some of the things that we're more familiar with already—but we also know that inland upland sources are a huge contributing factor as well.

So yeah, that's certainly part of the puzzle.

SHANNON:
Okay. So let's go back to the microfleece real quick because, like you, I have a favorite jacket that I wear almost every day. It's hot pink. I love it. It's a microfleece jacket that I got probably dang near a decade ago. I wear it all the time. I'll admit I don't wash it that frequently. It mostly lives in my office.

(LAUGHTER)

LARA:
Well, that's a good thing in this case.

SHANNON:
Well, and that's my question. So every every now and then I'll notice, like, you know, you catch dust in the in the sunlight coming through the window. You can see little pink fibers occasionally, like emanating off my jacket. So could you just explain to me a little bit more about the process of, “Okay, I have this fleece jacket. Why is this potentially a troublesome thing?”

LARA:
Right. Yeah. So this is actually something I love to teach about, especially with younger students, is I talk about the whole process. We all have clothes. Hopefully we wash them from time to time. Some of our other synthetic materials—you know, I'm the same way with my fleece jacket—but other stuff we probably wash more regularly. And when we wash, whether you have the central, the top loading with the central agitator in your washing machine or the front loader, either way, it's spinning these around and fibers can shed during that process.

And then I always like to ask people like, “Where does that water go?” And I get all different answers. Usually “the ocean” is one of the number one, and I say, “Well, yes, but there is one pit stop before that usually." So all of that water, including your detergent and whatever you put in there, gets flushed out to a wastewater treatment facility. Those treatment facilities are designed to treat solids.

SHANNON:
Yeah.

LARA:
Yep. We won't go into those details, but…

SHANNON:
For anyone not following along, we're also saying that it's the same water that comes from your toilet.

LARA:
And your shower and your sink. All the water that leaves your house goes to a wastewater treatment facility. These facilities are not designed to be sorting through these tiny, tiny particles of plastic and pulling them out. 

But what the research is finding is that they're actually really, really good at pulling them out during the kind of solids removal stage into something what we would call “sludge” for those of you that are more familiar with wastewater treatment plants. So it's like, okay, that's great, they're being removed.

SHANNON:
Yeah, that's encouraging.

LARA:
But… 

SHANNON:
But…

(LAUGHTER)

LARA:
…depending on what your wastewater treatment facility does with that sludge, some will incinerate or burn it, which is essentially the only way to really get rid of the plastic particles. In our case in my county, we turn that into fertilizer, which is then reapplied out into the environment.

SHANNON:
So spreading all those plastics back out.

LARA:
Mm hmm.  Yeah.

SHANNON:
O.K.  Just want to make sure I was following.

(LAUGHTER)

LARA:
Yes. And then there is you know, it's not going to remove all the microplastics in the process. So some of it does also get just dumped with the treated wastewater, which we call “effluent,” which gets dumped typically into some other body of water.

SHANNON:
Which that water has been cleaned. Like, to be clear, that's not pollution. It just also happens that clean water happens to carry some microplastics with it.

LARA:
Correct. Wastewater treatment plants are not charged with removing microplastics. They're just very highly studied because it's a major often referred to as a source. I don't like saying that because it's all of us sending our waste essentially from our households to them. So I don't really feel like it's fair to call them a source. It's really us. That's the source of of these microplastics and other potential pollutants.

So yeah. So that's like the big picture process of how us as consumers wearing synthetic materials or you know, like you said, our sheets, we hopefully wash those as well can contribute to this microplastic pollution.

SHANNON:
So this microplastic pollution—now that we have a conceptual understanding of what it is—where is this contamination being found and is it causing any effects that we're aware of at this point?

LARA:
As the research continues, I feel like I could be safe to say that microplastics are literally found everywhere. Like they're in the air—you alluded to that before. They’ve been found in freshwater. They've been found in brackish water. They've been found in saltwater.

SHANNON:
They've been found in drinking water.

LARA:
And drinking water. Yes, pretty much you name it, because, again, they're also in the air. So once that settles out, whatever surface they're landing on, you're going to find microplastics there. So now that we have said, “Okay, yes, they're pretty much everywhere,” well what are the impacts of that, which is really still a huge body of research that's underway.

We're to the point now where we can say that a large number of animals have been found to ingest microplastics. So we know that that's happening, whether it's intentional or if they're like a filter feeder and they're sucking in what's in the water and happen to take those in. 

We also know from the research that these plastic particles are “adsorbing.”  Basically, different chemicals that are already in the water are sticking to these plastic particles from activities that we did back before we knew any better. Things like DDT.  Or, you know, prior to the Clean Water Act we literally just dumped our wastewater like untreated.

SHANNON:
Yes. The non-clean water.

LARA:
There's lots of stuff that we have done and and honestly still continue to do that puts various toxins and chemicals into our water bodies. And they're finding these on the plastic particles. In addition to the plastic particles themselves, you know, are made up of various additives and different chemicals. We're also finding these chemicals inside the bodies of certain animals or, in some cases—like there was a study on the bottlenose dolphin—in their urine. But what we've really yet to see is conclusive evidence that, okay, these chemicals are causing X.

SHANNON:
Right. So we don't have the connection to a harm necessarily. We just know that they're not supposed to be there.

LARA:
Correct. And there are certain studies, a lot of them…The issue is that a lot of these studies are lab studies. And so, you know, there's all sorts of variables, the types of plastic they use in the lab and just that it's not mimicking what we see out in the real world. But one thing I always stress is sometimes we can't always just wait for the research to say, “Hey, all these dolphins are dying because of X. Now let's do something about it.” We can say, “Okay, we're seeing these additives and these different toxins in these animals already. We can assume it could cause X, so let's just go ahead and take action.”

SHANNON:
Right. And I think that's a great spot to transition away from the doom and gloom of microplastics, which—I’ll be completely frank—is one of the reasons that I don't teach it very frequently.

LARA:
Yeah.

SHANNON:
It's just not an uplifting subject. And I don't want to say I shy away from topics that are, you know, that could be construed as doom and gloom, but up until fairly recently, I feel like we didn't have a lot of things to recommend to people for what they could do.

LARA:
Yeah.

SHANNON:
So now that we're at that point, Lara, what what do you think that our listeners could do to lessen their impact of microplastics on our environment?

LARA:
Honestly, there's a lot of little things. I think, like Shannon said, it is a big and overwhelming topic. And so I just encourage people to start small. Like at least  you know you're making a difference or an impact in that way. Whatever that is…If it's not using straws, that's amazing. That's a great start. And typically what we see is once you start one thing, then you’re like,”Okay, I've mastered that” and you go on to something else. 

You can reuse a product instead of using something what we call a “one-use” or a “one-time” plastic, like plastic utensils or straws or a styrofoam cup. If you can bring your own of all of those things, that's a huge benefit. And I know a lot of companies now offer— it's a small incentive—incentives when you do bring your own, whether it's reusable bags or cups and things like that. 

Now, we were talking about synthetic clothing again at the beginning. So if that's something you're like “I can make a difference here,” then that is great. It's going to take a little effort on your part, which is flipping over the tag inside every article of clothing when you're shopping to see what it is made of. This is something I personally do. It takes a lot of time. And a lot of products now are blends of cotton and some other material, some natural material blended with some synthetic material.

So it takes a little time and effort, but to me it's worth it and that's one way that I feel like I'm contributing. So those are just some pretty relatively easy things people can do. And if you're like, “Nope, that's not like, I don't want to change the way I'm doing things,” that's also your choice.

You can also use your voice. I won't say the name of the company, but there is a certain spaghetti sauce that I love. And, you know, most of them are in glass containers. Well, I went to go purchase my favorite spaghetti sauce, and it was no longer in a glass container. And I said, “Oh. Ah ah!”

(LAUGHTER)

LARA:
And I was very upset. I bought a different brand and I wrote to the company and they gave me a response I wasn't happy with. But, you know, I voiced my opinion. But now they are back to glass jars. I'm not saying that it was me, but apparently there are enough…

(LAUGHTER)

SHANNON:
It might have been a lot of people.

LARA:
Exactly. So I just tell myself I contributed to that change. So it never hurts to just reach out. Especially with all the social media today, like you can just go on Facebook or whatever it is and just message the company like, “Hey, I don't agree with whatever.”

SHANNON:
Be polite about it, but let them know what they're doing is something that you wish they would change because of reason X, Y or Z.

LARA:
Yeah.

SHANNON:
Cool. Well, thank you so much for the explanation on microplastics, Lara. I think that's a great spot for us to leave this. So I'll just leave everyone with the reminder next time you're purchasing something, just, you know, take a second consider is it made out of a plastic product? Are you okay with that product? Is it something you're going to keep using time after time, or is it a single-use item? And try to choose something that is less toss away.

Does that make sense?

LARA:
Yeah. And if this topic piques your interest, our friends over at “Science by the Slice”— it's a podcast called “Science by the Slice”— they will be doing a whole series on microplastics and pharmaceuticals coming up this summer. So be sure to check them out. You may or may not hear a familiar voice on there, (LAUGHTER) but definitely, definitely I encourage you guys to check that out.

SHANNON:
And it's not me because I don't know much about microplastics. (LAUGHTER) But anyway, thank you so much, Lara. And thanks everyone for tuning in today.

LARA:
Oh, and I forgot to mention we did link a microplastics pledge in the show notes. If you guys are looking for some more easy tips and tricks and ideas for ways you can lessen your contribution to microplastics pollution, please be sure to check that out in the show notes and fill out that pledge.

SHANNON:
Thanks for listening to “Naturally Florida,” a podcast about Florida's natural areas and the wild things that live here. Stay updated on new episodes by subscribing on your favorite podcast platform. If you enjoyed today's episode, consider sharing it with a friend. “Naturally Florida” is produced by your hosts Shannon Carnevale

LARA:
and Lara Milligan.

SHANNON:
If you have questions or suggestions, submit them online at naturallyfloridapodcast.com. This podcast is brought to you by the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Extension, an equal opportunity institution. Thank you for listening.

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