Whether you’re a hot cup of tea and meditate kind of person or a toss the leftover pizza in the microwave kind of person, you probably ate plastic this morning.
Tiny plastic particles called microplastics easily find their way into the things we eat and drink — and there’s little you can do to avoid them.
“In essence, a microplastic can be any plastic item that’s been broken down into small pieces,” said Jennifer Walling, executive director of the statewide lobbying group Illinois Environmental Council.
Most plastic products, Walling said, can’t be recycled. They interrupt municipal recycling programs and release chemicals and particles that find their way into fish and birds that humans eat. It’s in bottled water. Increasingly, it’s in tap water. It’s in the air we breathe. And it’s accumulating in our bodies. A recent Nature Medicine article found the equivalent of a spoonful of microplastics, on average, in the brain.
“These are definitely causing impacts, and we don’t know what they are yet,” Walling said.
“We shouldn’t have to deal with this situation where the convenient, cheap choice is something that is killing us,” Walling said. “I have a lot of compassion for folks that are making those cheaper choices. But we should be providing those choices that are good for your health.”
Walling expects the statewide bills to take about five years to take effect. And Illinois’ large oil and gas industry is likely to put up a fight.
“Like me, if you’re someone who is trying to reduce plastic that is in your life, you realize how difficult it is,” said Walling.
“Dentists were finding small microplastics in people’s gums,” Walling said.
Microbeads were phased out by 2019, but progress, Walling said, is slow — and plastic production continues trending upward.
Still, there are steps Perry and Walling say individuals can take to limit, if not totally prevent, exposure to plastic. Storing food in glass or metal containers helps, especially when food is hot. Avoid black plastic. Opt for compostable to-go containers and teabags. And whenever possible, they say, skip the single-use bottle of water.
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